British Columbia Wild Salmon

I've caught these often on the hook trolling in the ocean. Barkley Sound and off Campbell River were favourite fishing trips. However, if you don't want to use a hook, you can, as I did, go to the Lonsdale Quay Market. http://www.lonsdalequay.com/. The Salmon Shop is located there.

These delightful people gave me a marvellous fillet of fresh red salmon.

Around the corner at Cobs bread I picked up utterly marvellous fresh baked dinner buns. At Kim's Farm Market I found superb vegetables, lemons and limes and those little red potatoes. I had butter and sour cream and salt and pepper at home.

In the sink I found a frying pan I'd washed. I held it up to the light to make sure it was clean. I find that what I think is clean when I'm doing dishes should be inspected again before actually using them to eat from. Similiarly I inspected the knives and fork and plate.

The Salmon came with a "skin" on one side. I put a gollop of butter in the pan, heated that up till it was melting and then swished this around the bottom of the pan. I put the salmon skin down in the pan. On the top side I sprinkled salt and pepper. Then I put a lid on that and left it for a while checking to see when the red meat began to change colour and the fish began to open up at the seams indicating it was ready.

I had the potatoes boiling along side and these could take a fork through the centre easily , falling apart when I scooped them with a holy spoon onto the plate. Then I put the sour cream and a gollop of butter on top of the potatoes and put the wild salmon on the plate with a spatula. I spilled the butter from the pan onto the salmon. I forgot to squeeze lemon on the fish.

The cat who won't eat salmon from the can insisted on having some of this salmon and at at least as thumb end of salmon. Meanwhile I was feeling like a proverbial grizzly bear eating the salmon with great glee. The fresh potatoes were good too. Normally I'd cook rice but I had the little potatoes and the rice pot with it's intrinsic timer is stowed. The pot for boiling potatoes lives on the stove with the frying pan.

I had a great meal. The cat had a great meal. I love Lonsdale Market. I love BC Wild Salmon. It's only better if you catch it yourself. Now there's a thousand recipes , I especially like using dill, but really when it's fresh as this was and it's the end of 10 hour day at the office, well, nothing is quicker and better and healthy as a meal that takes 20 minutes to prepare and lingers in ones memory for a day after.

CutThroat Island

Geena Davis starring as Pirate Captain Morgan of the Morning Star is utterly spectacular in this all round great Cutthroat Island treasurehunt romp. Tallships, cutlass, daggers and black powder guns, cannon fights at sea, horse and carriage chases. Erroll Flynn would give thumbs up to Geena. Mathew Modine plays the supporting lead as one rescues the other in betrayal and tryst, betrayal and tryst. The cover describes it aptly as an "action packed adventure….swashbuckling saga of ruthless pirates, buried treasure and bloodthirsty betrayal." The photography is amazing. I loved every minute of it. A sailor's movie totally but I suspect everyone would enjoy it just for the delight of Geena's Modine melting smile and her high flying stunts. Great movie! Great entertainment!

Venison Stew

Venison Stew

I had about a pound of venison from the deer I shot and butchered myself this fall. It was chunks of meat so I cubed it cutting away as much of the white tendon and grisel as was easy. I think it mostly came from a foreleg with some shoulder.

Ingredients

Venison – about a pound thawed and cubed

Onions – 2 large white

Garlic – one head, about 8 peeled cloves, crushed and cut up fine

Ginger – about a thumb size chopped really small

Peppers - 1 red , take out the inside with seeds and chop up the red outside

1 green jalapeena – take out inside with seeds and chop up outside

Mushrooms – a cup and a half of fresh white ones

Green onions – the long ones with little white head and green part, about 6 chopped

Tomatoes – 2 fresh ones diced

Potato and carrot water – 1/8 cup

Soy Sauce – 3 tbsp (glug it on a bit)

Can of green peas - 1

Can of plain corn - 1

Can of tomato puree -1

I ate the carrot I'd planned to include in this late last night.

Spices -1/4 to ½ tsp salt

Lots of pepper, a couple of tsp's at least

Best from the pepper corn grinder

2 tbsp of oregano crushed

2 tbsp of basil crushed

2 tbsp of rosemary – the seed type, not crushed

3 bay leaf

1 tbsp of honey

2 tbsp of butter

Lime – one lime cut in half and both sides squeezed into the pot.

I'm really guessing here about the amounts because I just glug, shake and dump mostly with the spices.

I poured some almond oil to cover the base of the pan. I chopped up a couple of large peeled white onions and a whole head of garlic. I cut up the ginger and added this to the pot. Then I chopped up the venison and threw away any grisel while the onion and garlic and ginger sizzled. I added the meat then to the pot stirring it all with a stainless steel ladle. I added the salt and pepper and bay leaf here.

I cleaned my chopping board after the meat.

Then I chopped up the peppers and added those to the pot.

I chopped up the mushrooms and added those. Then I diced the tomatoes and added them.

I added the soya sauce here and then poured in the oregano, basil, rosemary here.

I then added the cans of drained peas, the undrained corn and the tomato puree. I had left over potato and carrot water from last night so I used that to swish out the tomato purre can.

I then added the chunk of butter and the honey.

I slow cooked low it, just bubbling, on my propane gas Force 10 stove in my sailboat. I just tasted it. I added another half teaspoon of salt and then ground on more pepper. I usually grind more pepper and the other Italian grinder I have just before I serve it. I'm going to serve it now. It's been cooking about the time it took me to write this. It tasted too good. The broth was scrumptious but a piece of venison was 'to die for'. Mmmmm. I'll have it with some fresh 12 grain bread I just picked up yesterday at Choices. After I'll probably have a chocolate bar or yoghurt but if I'm really enthusiastic I'll make some jasmine tea.

I'll put the remainder in plastic containers and store in the fridge freezer.I'll probably get at least three meals out of this one pot. It's so unbelievably nutritious and nearly medicinal in a native Canadian way that I'll probably get to throw into my diet this week a guilt free Church or Kentucky Fried Chicken or Macdonald's or A&W Burger and fries.

In Europe only the Lords hunted so only the Lords and Ladies ate venison. The great hind. I've shot some 30 or 40 deer and a half dozen moose or more, some bear and countless birds. I used to have cook for dozens at a time. Most of the thousand pounds of meat was shared with friends, native, locals and even those who'd never had anything except 'prepared' food. Given the effort that goes into hunting, weeks off work, days of hiking back mountains, riding back woods, sitting in rain and cold, hauling hundreds of pounds of game out often at night, sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend or two, we always say that wild game costs a thousand dollars an ounce. People often say , "can i have some of your moose' or whatever and hunters and fishermen always want to reply ,'sure if you give me your latest computer or cell phone for free."

It was easier when I lived in the country. My friend who shoots a moose each year and has shot some thirty or so, says "you're doing pretty good for a city boy". My country friends say they shoot the deer in their backyards whereas I have to drive a few hours just to get out to where I hunt, usually past Princeton or up by 100 mile House way. People get deer closer to Vancouver but I enjoy the solitude and country further out. Pulling a trigger is the hard and sad part. That's when the work of getting the game home begins.

Here we're blessed and priviledged to still have wilderness. The British Columbia wildlife authorities 'manage' the stock and hunters and fishermen are the principal contributors to the ecology of the Canadian Wildlife. A lot of the 'advocacy' groups get the media attention and make a show for the drama of it but hunters and fishermen with the prices of their licenses and their conservation policies have maintained and managed the vast wilderness of BC. I remember my dad getting us kids to help manage a marsh one year with Duck's Unlimitted. It's amazing stewardship. The pay off is in the incredible feasts. Thank God. Time for Grace and eating venison stew. Mmmmmm good!

Shipshape

"Shipshape' is a term we use for orderly, tidy, clean, stowed. It's a process to make a boat that. I' ve had another day of cleaning and stowing and getting rid of excess. Another load of stuff 'trundled' ashore. It's now things like the VCR. I'm just not going to use it and it takes up too much room. The DVD player is more compact. I loved the wock but the one large stainless steal frying pan is sufficient. The V Berth is really a whole lot better organized. Those plastic clothes almost freezer bag things that you can suck the air out of really work. Some clothes I want for special occasions, a couple of good sweaters, really reduce bulk in those contraptions I bought for next to nothing at London Drugs.

I actually cleaned the head. Down on my hands and knees spraying with Mr Clean and wiping. I did the same in the Galley. I took the dustbuster to the floor but actually got down on my knees with the oil soap and cleaned most of it. Normally I'd do this weekly but with the move and getting the stowage and heat and fixing bilge pumps the day to day tasks got back burnered. What I really need is a week at sea. Nothing like cruising to get the boat 'shipshape'.

The hoses for water froze so I had to haul water for the tank. Maybe tomorrow at noon it will be warm enough to get more water on board. My 50 gal tank seemed to do me well for a week with quick showers.

I made a great venison ratatouille last night and had the left over this afternoon. Actually fried up eggs on toast for breakfast with coffee. It's getting downright civilized as the boat gets ready to do some time in the islands. I look around and it's mostly superficial clutter that could be easily stowed getting away. It's a good rule to have a sailboat an hour away from taking off at any time. I'm almost there. Coastal cruising for sure. An offshore expedition might take a few days at least to be ready. Not that I've any plans for anything more than Nanaimo, Saltspring, Texada or Victoria. It's just a 'feeling' that goes with having an offshore sailing vessel. It's living the dream. Knowing you have the means to go any where in the world under your own power. And being ready for it. Having a shipshape boat is a good feeling.

That said, there's a whole other layer of having the bins organized. I'm looking at a mess of books. They're in the cupboard but still a mess. That's the sort of thing that gets tidied up cruising. I did find the ocean fishing tackle and got the rods and reels sorted too. Fishing will be fun too.

Even had the radio playing but couldn't find CBC and the rock and roll channels were just too 'noisy' with all the chatter. I'll be glad when I get a marine electrician here to sort out the little electrical wiring issues of what'sdirect and what goes through the inverter. I'll be glad then to have the stereo hooked up. I love listening to classical music on the boat at rest. When it's running nothing like bagpipe music of the Simon Frazer Band to match the momentum.

Enjoying the quiet of the boat now.. Angel doesn't 'sleep in'. She wants to be fed at 7 am every day and lets me know that regardless. It's a struggle to sleep in with her 'cat terrorism'. Still, sleeping in wouldn't be such a joy were it not for the pleasure of work and the priviledge of work, it's routine and regularity. Weekend enjoyment is greatest for the contrast.

I think the adage holds, if you want to get something done , give it to a busy man. Getting this boat shipshape has really progressed possibly because I have so little time. Jobs tend to fill the time available. The progress on the 'great Canadian novel' faltered however. And I've not got up skiing yet.

That's the trouble with this glorious city of Vancouver and British Columbia in general. There's just too much possible to do and too little time. Walking on the beaches, Stanly Park, the Aquarium, getting out to the swimming pool, hiking, going up to Bloedel Conservatory, getting to the gardens all lit up for Christmas.

Focussing on boating I have to forego all the other great things this city and province has to offer. I'm thankful for getting my boat shipshape. It's a good feeling. I don't want to think about climbing the mast and fixing the weater vane and wind indicator though.

The Prayer of Jabez

"Oh, that you would wonderfully bless me and help me in my work;

Please be with me in all that I do and keep me from all evil and disaster."

And God granted him his request.

I Chronicles 4 :10

NIV

"Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain."

And God granted his request.

1 Chronicles 4:10

The first thing to note in reading the Prayer of Jabez is that it has a context. Earlier the Bible says "Jabez was more honourable than his brothers."

Likely Hitler said a similar prayer and yet his wasn't answered. The Bible further says that the sins of fathers will pass to the sins of their children. Therefore even when it appears briefly that the dishonorable are succeeding it comes at a price. We blandly accept the 'genetics' of the physical world but balk at accepting 'genetics' in the spiritual world. Further if we don't believe in an afterlife, it doesn't mean necessarily that we won't encounter one.

That said, the Bible is a Holy book and reading it one is always encouraged to ask for God's guidance. Praying to God before reading it, asking to see what it is you need to see today is what people do with Holy books. The sacred isn't something that is 'taken' but rather something that is 'given'. Grace is the gift of God.

That said, note the two interpretations. I expect that both interpreters asked for guidance and were given it when they translated this scripture. Further the words and meanings of history are rarely what we see in them today. Words and meanings change though messages stay the same.

The Prayer of Jabez says that honorable men can ask for help for themselves and it will be granted. Elsewhere we are encouraged to pray for others and be 'other centered'. In asking for God's hand in our lives, His guidance and his protection and success in honorable endeavours is what Jabez does.

Most importantly the Bible says it works. And the majority of those uneducated and educated believe in the power of prayer.

I'm praying for you and me today. But let's face it, if I don't know you I'll probably just generally 'hallmark' card prayer you. If you're closer to me I'll put you at the top of my prayer list. And given that I'm not much but I sure think of myself a lot I'll be praying mostly for myself. That's the nature of being a 'sinner'. Saint's are only advanced sinners. The opposite of sinner is God. I'm not there yet. Sainthood is not even on the horizon because like Jabez I want help with work, expanded territory, and less pain and protection from evil. Sainthood seems to come with more work, more pain and tends to attract evil. Maybe the darkness is more apparent nearest the light.

Wes Hazlitt says that, 'it's always darkest near the dawn so hang on."

Anne Smith's Journal

Anne Smith's Journal 1933-1939 A.A.'s Principles of Success by Dick B. Paradise Research Publications Inc. Kihei, HI, 1992, 1994, 1998 - Anne Ripley Smith, Wife of AA co-founder, Dr. Bob, a 'founder" of A.A. and the "Mother of A.A." said "An understanding of the Cross and its meaning for life is absolutely essential. The best popular interpretation I know is, "If I be Lifted Up", Shoemaker. It is a group of lenten sermons. Christ ought to be as real to us as our nearest and best friend."

"One should by all means read at least one book on the life of Christ a year for a while. More would be better."

"A maximum experience of Jesus Christ leads to a radical change in personal life, bringing about a selfless relationship to people about one, which is a challenge to those we come in contact with."

"A general experience of God is the first essential, the beginning. We can't give away what we haven't got. We must have a genuine contact with God in our present experience. No an experience of the past, but an experience in the present - actual, genuine. When we have that witnessing to it is natural, just as we want to share a beautiful sunset. We must be in such close touch with God that the whole sharing is guided. The person with a genuine experience of God and with no technique will make fewer mistakes than one with lots of technique and no sense of God."

Anne Smith's Journal is a great spiritual text and Dick B. has written a profoundly inspiring book that speaks to the essence of AA and explains the 75% success rate for recovery which AA had from the early years.

ADVENT

Advent is the time in the church calendar before Christmas. It's the beginning of the great advent-ure. URE in this instance might mean "You are Energy" rather than URM – "you are mass". Einstein's equation E=MC2 explains the relationship of energy and mass as mass being "frozen energy" in essence. Jesus, God personified, came to demonstrate this all long before the word "spirit' became "energy".

Of course, given our nature, we killed God. We're fear based creatures who kill and preferably eat anything that moves and is strange to others. No wonder Jesus's principle message was "Do not be afraid". It was in his best interest to calm the human heart. Kids always put 'foreign objects' to their mouths. "We're biters".

The Sodom and Gomorrah story is that Angels came to earth and earthlings didn't treat them very well either. In fact they wanted to anal rape them. "Hey guys, look, there's some new guys in town. Let's go rape them." We are humans. Original sin speaks to our 'tendency' to screw things, and screw things over, as our "first idea'. We're not as adults responsible for our 'first idea' but for our 'second thoughts and our actions".

The book "Lord of the Flies" does a good job of speaking to our basic urges. Despite all the fuzzy cards and the occasional child being nice to something, we don't trust infants with the family crystal and certainly don't leave the new baby in the care of the two year old. Ask any cuddly kitten, sweet as they are, what children do to them.

I've heard the stories and rescued the animals and children from other children. We all havea mean streak. We also have a good streak. The war is within each of us. As Leonard Cohen even so aptly said, "There's a war between the ones who say there is a war and the one's who say there isn't." This is called 'original sin', this is the 'expulsion from the Garden of Eden'. In the Garden of Eden, or Innoscence, we didn't have to 'choose'.

And as adults we're in what Scott Peck (Road Less Travelled) called a kindergarden experience. We're still learning to be nice to the other kids in the playground.

However if God came today we'd put him in an electric chair and have to walk around wearing little gold electric chair pennants. The French would be kissing little gold guillotines.

Now I would love to say "they" would put him in the electric chair but the message of spirituality is that every day in our heart the Christ story is played out over and over again. Every day we have a events in our life where we can choose Light or Darkness. One of Bob Dylan's greatest songs was "You've got to choose somebody. Maybe the Devil or it may be the Lord, but you've got to choose somebody." Every time we make a choice, at the heart of that choice is a 'moral choice.'

Everyday, one day at a time, I'm given a choice to choose Jesus, and not be a fraid. Have faith, believe, or be scared and take revenge, vote for more 'security forces' or 'get even' or 'snap back' or I can do what Jesus said and did which is "return right for wrong." If someone gives me lemons, give back lemonades. If the authorities condemn me act as Jesus did, trusting in God. Accept that the world's condemnation is not all there is.

The church condemned Galileo, for Christ's sake. On the other hand if some one catches me poking the cat with a stick maybe I should learn a little compassion for my furry friend.

This is the time before Christmas. This is the birth of a new idea time. This is the beginning of PEACE on EARTH. This is the call to "LOVE YOUR ENEMY".

This is hard truth time. This is the Jews who think the Nazis should have "loved a Jew" yet whenever anyone says that kind of Jew "Love a Palestinian" they say "that's different". I say America should Love Iraq but they say "they're terrorists".

I say "I'm a Canadian". Learn from us. We've not killed the ugly little shit Quebecers yet. Despite their deserving more than any other shits on the earth. We want them to separate. We would build a wall to keep them on that side of the country if only they'd give us the Maritimes and the Newfoundlanders but typical of French every where they want to keep the Newfoundlanders to themselves. Not even the Newfoundlanders want to be with the French.

Ask the English, they gave up killing French long ago because it just encourages them. Now the Americans have the French under their skin. Serves them right. Everyone should have a French person in their life to test their Faith. The first cannibals were English people living beside a group of French.

Because Christmas is all about Faith. Do I have faith that this world is just an illusion.? Do I believe in the message of the movie Matrix. This is the Maya of the Hindo and Buddhist religions. This is the illusion. This is all perception. What is real is what Dr. Carl Jung called the "Collective Unconscious". God is real and all else is temporary. The spiritual is real while matter decays.

To quote the great American Vietnam soldier message, "This don't matter".

When people are living in the "real" with war and disease at their doorstep they wake up to the nonsense of shopping and media messages and consumerism and all the other fun but silly ideas. They get real and understand that we're "Spiritual beings living in a material world".

Our nature is spiritual. We're all God's children. Peel away the onion skin and we don't get shit but we we get light and love. We get little children who poke the eyes of cats and pinch little brothers but we're God's children. We are growing up. We can choose LOVE.

And we can learn to choose Love over Fear. We can listen to the message of Gandhi, Martin Luther and Mother Theresa. We can remember that Jesus said, "Do not be afraid." We can have faith that if we do good we will be rewarded in that moment and in heaven. The reward in Good is Now. It's in a feeling and realization that no money can buy. We were born to give.

I can get a $100, 000 or more today for killing someone. I can make a whole lot more money as a doctor being an abortionist or doing euthanasia. These are really high paid medical occupations. Highest paid really. Or I can go to work and try to save a life or comfort a person in pain and get low paid. I make that choice. I can be a drug pusher on the streets or I can be a drug pusher in the office or I can get to know what the person before me needs, not what I need, but what he or she needs and I can serve him. Yes I can give him a drug but I don't want to give a person a heroin so he forgets and stays imprisoned when he needs all his wits to find a job.

I can be afraid today or I can have faith and take courage. Courage is doing the right thing in spite of fear. Swaggering fearlessness is a video game world. I've faced too many guns and knives and hung off enough cliffs to know that I was afraid but did the 'next right thing.'

Christmas is the birth of Jesus. Christmas is the choice between "idealism" and "materialism". I can have a deep meaningful life of family, community and service to my fellow man or a shallow superficial life serving my own senses. I have to make the choice.

This is a time to ask "Who was Jesus". As Christians do we think its acceptable for Obama to leave the troops in Iraq till tomorrow. Should Canadians be in Kandahar? Should I talk to my neice who doesn't talk to me? The microcosm and macrocosm are one. That which we think of in a political arena affects what we think of in our personal lives. People who put up swastikas and celebrate Hitler would probably gas their neighbours if we didn't restrain them.

We know about children. Let's look at the world and ask if our leaders and our fellows and ourselves are being "good children". Is the guy I voted for being a stateman or a bully. Did I write to him and tell him what I think of what he's doing for me. If I voted for him then he's my employee. I'm responsible for his behaviour.

Jesus said we had to be "like children" to get into heaven. Did he mean we'd get their by being 'infant terribles' or was he referring to their 'trust' and 'faith' and 'love' for their parents. What do I feel towards my "CREATOR" or do I reject and ignore and neglect him by denying he exists and claiming I just "materialized" on the planet.

Nothing is more ironic than that those who deny Jesus a "virgin birth" insist that they are creatures without 'creators". "I evolved". "I spontaneously arrived" "I am a virgin birth" but "being intellectual" I mock "myths of virgin" birth or "if you want me to believe in a "virgin birth" then I am too. Evolution is fine but it's 'technical" and doesn't get to the "meaning" of the thing.

So you're a nihilist. You don't believe anything has meaning. So why are you so insisting on getting your way and holding onto your things. What we will fight for and kill for is our religion. So face it, your religion and my religion might well be Walmart and MacDonalds.

That's fine but is that 'all'. Is there more in a child's life than poking the cat's eye. What about learning. What about love. What about the big picture. Do we want Walmart's policy towards their employees. Do we look at the civil rights in China and not look at the civil rights in Walmart. Do we claim to care about children in Africa but not care for what's going on in Vancouver Eastside. Why are the courts letting out pedophiles and murderers and not protecting the citizens from repeat offenders. Have I written a letter to my politiciam employee asking him about those things I'm afraid of. If I'm a fraid that criminals ,especially marijuania growers and other government backers are getting favouritism, have I written to the state department and asked what they are doing about my concerns or am I just belly aching and polluting the world I live in with verbal farts.

And most importantly 'WHAT ABOUT DEATH". Our society is a society of "DENIAL of DEATH". And likewise it treats the old abysmally. It's a youth and adolescent culture. It's a culture that says plastic surgery is the answer. It's afraid of aging and death. It's afraid of wisdom. It's a tv culture. It's a video game culture.

But what do we believe? What is real?

That's what Christmas is. Even before Christ, in pagan days, it was the time the sun went away and people either killed themselves in fear of the darkness or had faith in the light and return of the light. Christ means messiah. It means "God will come again".

The Eucharist is a time when we eat the body of Christ and drink the blood of Christ. It's a great joke of a cannibalistic festival. But we're remembering we are GOD KILLERS. We're a race of cannibals. The vegetarians are either trying to be more than their roots or are just silly sentamentalists who would deny they were born between shit and piss.

We're animals who can reach for the skies. We're animals who can walk upright. We're intelligent animals and we can eat our neighbor or not eat our neighbor. We have to choose. We have choice. We can on a daily basis listen to the 'wee small voice' within us that says 'do good'. It's not right to steal money from tax payers. It's not right to make profit for profit sake if it means that thousands in South America will die. It's not sufficient to love your family or your corporation. You have to love yourself and your fellow man. Not just your tribe. That's where it begins. Sure you learn love in the home and then you learn to love more till one day you can be like God and love creation.

But don't get me wrong. Love a Muslim for sure. Love a taxman. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let the child poke my cat in the eye. There's a whole lot of space between loving and killing. I might think of killing the taxman or the policeman or the terrorist as #1 thought. In fact I might want them to send the fat taxmen round my way and think about stewing them too. I'm only human.

However I have to remember that the law "an eye for an eye" was the first law of "mercy". It said 'restrain" myself. Even if I can eat the taxman or eat the terrorist or devour the politician or the media critic I should learn and practice 'restraint." Despite my desire to "whack" silly girls and boys in position of power beyond their brains or emotional age, I should restrain myself.

If I really get it right I'll do as Jesus said, "Love your enemy." I'll put down my sword and not cut off the ears of the police or military today. I'll talk with them. I'll throw the money lenders charging extortionist rates, all those 'credit card' purveyors out of the temples. I won't 'respect' them. I respect "Jesus". I will 'give unto Caesar Caesar's due." He can have my money but he can't have my love or my soul. Jesus has my love.

It's not easy being 'moral'. Amorality is so much more fun. I want to be like all the tv heros. I'm addicted to Clint Eastwood and all those other 'humans'. But I have to realize that's not 'reality'. St. Francis is real. Dirty Harry wasn't a saint. God probably laughs at Dirty Harry movies and says "make my day" to Bill Hay and then loves me instead.

Be God like. Be good. Love your enemy. Love a politician today. Love a Muslim. Love a Catholic. Love a Sik or Buddhist. Even love a Communist. Hell, love a Capitalist. Love a policeman. Love the RCMP. Love the CBC. Love the ex wife or love the Judge. But Love rather than fear. And hate is just fear that is nursed and distilled. Let go of fear. Move on. Today is the beginning of the great idea of Christmas which is that God loves you and you can love God and your fellow man.

See you in heaven I hope. If I don't' eat my neighbor today, there's hope.