Back from the cottage. No fun exploits- I read and just played with my nephew. I also had an amazing steak dinner and watched Life as a House again (how do I manage to cry more every time?). A few random thoughts that I've been mulling over of late:

i) I tend to borrow phrases when they cross my path and they then become part of my regular conversation language. I don't know why I find them intriguing but it's in part a testament to my obsession with language. Somewhere recently I enjoyed "righteous indignation". I've had lots of thoughts about other righteous things including faith and love but indignation intrigued me. Indignation: righteous anger at unjust or mean anger. That got me thinking about whether or not I have ever had cause to use this expression. Sure, I may have, but was it real? What do I believe in wholeheartedly enough that I believe moral goodness rests on my side? What cause do I stand for or fight for that strikes me generating God-given anger about?

Is it pacificsm?: in a north-american society where I have free choice not to fight and am protected by a neighbor to the south with the largest annual military expenditure in the world?
Is it simple living?: when I continue to be obsessed by consumption and the best the world has to offer in clothes, food and wine?
Is it gay rights?: when I continue to be appeasing to my parents but not living as openly as I would like?

Anyway, I think I need to do a whole lot more soul-searching about what it is that I am really DOING in my life and how I respond to a world that continually reminds me of its inherent injustice...

ii) Timothy Findlay is dead. I intereviewed him for my thesis this year and feel great sadness- mostly because I think he was a great member of the CanLit community and because he still had great writing in him. He was also passionately committed to being open about his sexuality and about the need to include real-life episodes of gay life in his writing.

iii) On politics: Why is that smart politicians like Stephane Dion can make it seem as if Paul Martin is a bad guy for being "disloyal" to the PM and is doing disservice to the Liberal Party? Why is no one in the Liberal cabinet questioning that Jean Chretien, in the face of the majority of Canadians wanting him to go, is using the Party leadership as some sort of divine blessing for eternal rule? It continues to shock me...