pond hockey

There is no sport close to the freedom of pond hockey. There is nothing like gliding on ice and firing off a puck into the top corner of a net. Granted, I do understand the popularity of soccer where the only equipment necessary are a couple of shin pads and cleats. Soccer (or football as the rest of the world calls it) is a beautiful game! I also love NFL football simply for the complexity and passion of the game (even the CFL occasionally has moments of glory). But I come from Canada - the land of ice & snow and so hockey is a part of my heritage, my blood.

I have not played organized hockey since my school days but I still love to put on a pair of skates, grab a stick and shoot the puck around with friends and family. I played some good pond hockey with some relatives over Christmas in North Dakota - a good ol' Yankee versus Canadian cousins' & uncles' game! We had to clear ice without a zamboni!

Hockey in my humble opinion is best played on natural ice on a river or a pond and not in the high tech NHL venues of the 90's and now the new millenium. Hockey as a national sport finally died in the mid-nineties when the Winnipeg Jets were sold and the league continued its southerly expansion to such exotic locales as Arizona & Florida. Hockey was already dying shortly after the Oiler dynasty (we all loved/hated Gretzky didn't we?) in the 80's when the wonderlust of American entrepreneurs (who thought hockey would be the next big thing in the US) took the reins of the sport. Unfortunately for them, the only real fans live in the places where snow and nice naturally occur, where hockey can be played outdoors on a simple pond with some sticks, skates and a puck!

We see glimpses of the game of "Canada-past" when NHL players trade in their disney character uniforms and wear their country's heritage on their jersey during the World Cup or winter Olympics. But if you want to really see and understand hockey, meet me at the Friesen pond on long lane farm! We might lose a puck or two in the snow bank but at least we won't lose the game to some corporate sponsor!

Rant on...

G

Updated Homepage

After a relaxing getaway Fri-Sat not to much to report. But I did manage to update our family homepage this past week with some new pictures!

Musings on Blogs

Do you ever wonder why people read your blog? I sometimes wonder why people bother reading any of my musings, particularly the more wandering ones. I definitely understand why people blog as it clearly is a way of processing thoughts & emotions similiar to that of a journal. It is also a tool of education in which we can explore ideas or philosophy in an open forum. I have enjoyed much of the dialogue over the past year with a variety of online friends, some I knew from before, some who I've gotten to know through blogging and then there are those "strangers in the night" who have posted a response.

I realize that blogging can have many positive effects but what are some of the negatives? I've heard some people claim to be addicted to it - that they need to blog about everything. I personally have not had that problem and at times struggle with posting more than a once a week. I suppose some people are simply curious and interested in what other people are thinking or believe? We learn much about life through our interactions with others. In fact, I sometimes wonder if we could learn anything on our own.

Just some musings...

G

valentines & a night of jazz

My wife and I escaped for Valentine's Day to a supper & live jazz at my alma mater. It was a great evening of hanging out with college & camp friends from the nineties. My friend Mike Janzen led an amazing trio of jazz musicians with songs such as Over The Rainbow, Get Rhythm, Secret Love, etc. All in all, it was well worth the admission. I found myself lost in some good jazz and wanting to play along as well - although I wouldn't have been able to keep up with the quality of those musicians.

G

Musings on Education Pt. Two

John Gatto proposes another way of education in his book A Different Kind of Teacher. He sees the need for the learner is more involved in determining what he or she actually learns. Gatto proposes that each day of the week have different focii through independent study, community service, field curriculum, & classroom discussion/research of different themes such as ethics, environmental concerns, poverty, etc. He also sees the need for more parental involvement in the education of their children.

Gatto states in his book A Different Kind of Teacher that an educated person:

1. Writes his own script through life. He is not a character in anyone else’s play, nor does he mouth the words of any intellectual’s utopian fantasy. He is self-determined.
2. Can be alone. He is never at a loss for what to do with time.
3. Knows his rights and knows how to defend them.
4. Knows the ways of the human heart; he is hard to cheat or fool.
5. Possesses useful knowledge: how to build a house, a boat, how to grow food, etc.
6. Possesses a blueprint of personal value, a philosophy.
7. Can form healthy attachments wherever he is because he understands the dynamics of relationships.
8. Accepts and understands his own mortality and its season. He understands that without death and aging nothing would have meaning. Any educated person learns from all his ages, even from the last minutes of his life.
9. Can discover the truth for himself. He has intense awareness of the profound significance of being, the profound significance of being here.
10. Can figure out how to be useful to others, and in trading time, insight, and service to meet the needs of others, he can earn the material things he needs to sustain a wholesome life.
11. Has the capacity to create new things, new experiences, new ideas.

Musings on Education Pt. One

Apparently my field of expertise is education and one of the areas in which I am most critical of. I will be teaching a course called Principles of Teaching in a month or so and I'm looking forward to deconstructing some of the pedagogical models that schools utilize in both the States & Canada. I encourage my students to read a number of radical approaches (Gatto, Waldorf, Montessori, etc) to education proposed by such people such as John Gatto who suggests that students are taught six things in our public school system:

1. Stay in the class where you belong.
2. Students should turn on and off like a light switch.
3. Students should surrender to a predestined chain of command.
   
4. Only the teacher or school can determine the curriculum you study.
5. A student's self-respect is depends on observer's measure of the student's worth.
6. Students should be taught they are watched.

skiing & marking?

Well - my family and I are off for another weekend at the family cottage. I hope to get some good ski circuits in as I'm feeling a little sluggish as of late. Unfortunately, I'm bringing along the burden of marking papers and exams but we'll see if play beats out work in the end. Beautiful ski weather has been forecasted!

Patriots Win Again!

The New England Patriots have defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 to win Super Bowl XXXIX. A rough first half but the second proved quite entertaining - maybe they were inspired by 1/4 or the Beatles - Sir Paul McCartney! Paul definitely put on a show complete with the masterpiece To Live & Let Die! I was impressed by Terrell Owen's effort unfortunately the rest of the Eagles couldn't keep up in the last quarter.

Until the 2005-2006 season! Cheers!

Patriots Clinch It Again!

The New England Patriots have defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 to win Super Bowl XXXIX. A rough first half but the second proved quite entertaining - maybe they were inspired by 1/4 or the Beatles - Sir Paul McCartney! Paul definitely put on a show complete with the masterpiece To Live & Let Die! I was impressed by Terrell Owen's effort unfortunately the rest of the Eagles couldn't keep up in the last quarter.

Until the 2005-2006 season! Cheers!

G

Superbowl Sunday!

Check out my blog on today's football celebration - the Superbowl!!! Bring on the hotwings, chip & dip, & ice-cold drinks! The Patriots may be favored but I have a suspicion that the Eagles may put in quite a fight. No favorites here, I'm still eating my bitter berries...

G

Let's Play Some Football

Superbowl Sunday! Even though my Packers aren't playing and I don't really care for either the Patriots or Eagles it still is Superbowl Sunday! I admittedly am a NFL addict and a dedicated Sunday & Monday Football viewer fanatic. Superbowl Sunday is bittersweet - there's nothing like celebrating a sport you love to play and watch but it does mean after tonight I'll have to wait till next fall to follow the sport again.

Here's a little something that I borrowed from somewhere that captures the complexity of the game of football while celebrating the incredible teamwork on the field:

“Everyone is in place and set. Looking over the defence, the quarterback barks out his verbal code. The wide receiver goes in motion from right to left, shadowed by a defender in the defensive backfield. Suddenly bodies explode across the neutral zone, each man thrusting hundreds of pounds of muscle forward, trying to move and control his opponent. The left tackle blocks to the right, double-teaming the defensive lineman with the left guard. Pulling left, down the offensive line, the right guard hits the defensive tackle, pushing him out. At that precise moment, the quarterback, having faked a pitchout, hands the ball to the tailback who follows the fullback through the hole. The linebacker moves to fill the hole but is hit by the charging fullback. Cutting to the right off that block, the ball carrier is finally tackled by a defensive back after a nine-yard gain.”

Wake Up!

I heard this quote recently and I thought it was worth exploring, "People don't wake up until they learn they're going to die." So many people on this planet (at least in North America) seem to be in some form of comatose and are blind to the beauty of the world around them. I often feel that part of my job as a professor is to wake people up, to reveal the amazing-ness & intricacies of God's creation. Ironic, perhaps that I feel that way - seeing as I've had a few profs that have come close to putting me to sleep.

There's a song by P.O.D. called Alive that I think would make my Explore soundtrack playlist (hmm another potential blogpost methinks) as it reflects on the joy of living & learning. For myself, this joy comes from interacting with the environment. Whether it is schussing down a powder run on telemark skis or running a waterfall chute in a kayak or sending bubbles upwards from a depth of 60 feet while exploring a coral reef - I love my life and I love living it while exploring!

I've relearned discovery by having children. My daughter Chelsea loves to explore and although her world is much bigger than mine, I find it all very inspiring! For her, a rock boulder is a mountain and climbing to the top results in Everest-type euphoria - how cool is that! Have you climbed your mountain today?

G

BTW - the weather has been amazing and I got away for a short 4.5km cross-country ski loop near West Hawk.