Skip to main content

Disappointed by US Tax Laws (Because I Have a Dream)

I have a dream.

A few weeks ago, I sat on a park bench as storm clouds rolled in. I was reading a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of short stories. And it was making me angry. They were well written, don't get me wrong. But they were depressing. Hopeless, even. And that got me to thinking...again.

With all the reflecting and thinking and praying and major life transitions over the last several months, I've become more convinced of my love for the arts and the potential they have to be so much more than they often are.

I want to be a part of that.
Not just on the sidelines, cheering people on (although that is important), but right in there, creating art that speaks of life in all its glory: pain, mistakes, hurt, redemption, hope, beauty...

I have ideas about how to get there, but there are no guarantees. And although I am in a "risk-taking" stage of life, I have a feeling it would take an army of cheerleaders to get me moving much faster. Which is why I was so excited when I heard about Don Miller's "Living a Better Story" conference.

But US Tax Laws have let me down. As a Canadian, I'm not eligible to win a trip for two to Portland this September. No boost of courage or clarity for me. If I lived in Vancouver still & had work over the past four months, I'd pay to go. But that's not an option these days.

(cue tragic violin music)

If Don were a Canadian and this contest open to all of us north of the border, I think I'd stand a chance. I'd at least be eligible, because I live in Ontario, and I'm pretty sure that Quebec is the Rhode Island of Canada. (Why is it that a random province/state decides its people can't win contests? It seems unjust to me.)

In case you're an American and you haven't heard, you should enter the contest. It's not guaranteed to make your life better, but I bet it could.
www.donmilleris.com/conference

Living a Better Story Blog Contest from Donald Miller on Vimeo.



And Portland girls, I was thinking it would have been fun to meet you! One more reason I'm a little sad.

Comments

  1. Aw, too bad about US tax laws. :(

    Also...what about the Portland boys? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. A) Portland girls are way cooler than Portland boys, just so you know, the pickings are seeming awfully slim down here lately... (at least in the boaz-like category).

    B) Bummer. If something happens and you miraculously discover a loophole or a cache of treasure or are endowed by a wealthy do-gooder, feel free to surf our couch (also we live about 2 miles from Don Miller).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vanessa - I don't know any Portland boys...but I'd take a good one from any city. :)

    Teagen! - Eventually, I WILL make it to visit you all. And if any of you feel like an eastern Canada adventure...our pull-out couch (or chesterfield, as the Canadian in me should say) is always anxious for visitors.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thin

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro

Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st