Hamilton Spectator Archives – Page 28 of 45

One day, my story could be yours

4 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 21, 2015 / 2015, assisted suicde debate in Canada, assisted suicide, Froese biography, Goethe, suffering, suicide, The Sorrows of Young Werther / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 21, 2015)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ He was Swiss and we were talking over coffee and he said he’d just read my story about Canada’s new look at assisted suicide. He spoke as if I’d written on this, which I had not, or maybe he called it my story simply because I’m Canadian.

He said he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Europe, after all, liberated itself from any shameful baggage on assisted suicide long ago. If you want to die, he explained, you can easily go to places and doctors for help.

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Cradle-to-grave without free choice

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / January 24, 2015 / 2015, Christianity, danger, free choice, free speech, freedom of religion, Froese biography, Iraq War, Islam, religiosity, suffering, terrorism / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, January 24, 2015)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ He goes by a false name so he’s not found and killed. I just met him. I’ll call him Ahmed in this, his story. He recently shared it around our dinner table.

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The paradox of Christmas

1 Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / December 20, 2014 / 2014, Advent, Christianity, Christmas, Islamic culture, Istanbul, Jesus Christ, Middle East, Middle East culture, Middle East peace / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, December 20, 2014)

ISTANBUL, TURKEY ✦It was a Sunday, the first day of Advent, en route from Hamilton to my African home, when I toured the Old City here, a place where religions and cultures and empires have collided for centuries. This is when my guide for the day said what he did.

I had asked him about some historic notes and holy relics in the Topkapi Palace Museum, items identified as thousands of years old from ancient Israel, but looking dubiously more modern and Ottoman-like, when he told me as plainly as if he was giving the weather report that, “It’s all mythology anyway. Whatever you believe is true, that’s the truth.”

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25 years after The Wall fell

1 Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / November 19, 2014 / 2014, 25th anniversary of end of Berlin Wall, Berlin, Berlin Wall, freedom, Froese biography, human nature, human rights, suffering / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, November 15, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA — It was still morning in Berlin on this Sunday when candles at the Church of Reconciliation were lit to honour yesteryear’s dead, the brave souls who ran from the uniforms and helmets and strong-armed authorities, who ran for freedom that was torn away, even as their flesh would be torn by barbed-wire and vicious dogs and bullets at that wall.

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The long and mysterious road to sainthood

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / October 18, 2014 / 2014, African plagues, Amurk Corp, Bethany Paquette, Christianity, death, ebola, Graham Greene, humanity, intolerance, Olaf Amundsen, sainthood, spirituality, The Power and the Glory / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 18, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It’s hard to know what it means to be human some days, let alone a saint, but there are clues here and there, like in this novel, The Plague, by Albert Camus, where two atheists – one a doctor, one a journalist – have a brief conversation.

They’re in Africa fighting a devastating plague when one says to the other, “It comes down to this. What interests me is learning to become a saint.”

There’s a mystery to the whole thing, a hunger, a longing …

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The dangers of too many cats

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / October 2, 2014 / 2014, African culture, animals, cats, humour, pets, training cats, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, September 27, 2014)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Back in Africa, I’m not overly worried about Ebola on the other side of the continent or even al-Shabab terror cells like the one just busted in a slum here in Uganda’s capital – 19 Somalian suspects were arrested.

I’m worried more about my underwear. They could soon all be taken by my daughter and her cats.

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We’re told to love our neighbours

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / August 23, 2014 / 2014, advocacy, assisted living, community support, disabiltiies, fear, fear and anxiety, neighbours, suicide / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, August 23, 2014)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ He needs a home with others. Assisted living. There are options in Hamilton. He needs one before he’s destroyed by his uncertainty and fear, his black as midnight darkness.

He’s not a star, not a celebrity, not, say, Robin Williams, whose suicide just shook us so deeply. He’s simply your neighbour. This is his story.

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Being open to life’s surprises

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / July 19, 2014 / 2014, Bilbo Baggins, brevity of life, Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese, Froese biography, life's adventure, Lord of the Rings, Madame Curie, Order of Canada, Pierre Curie, satire, The Hobbit, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, July 19, 2014)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It was in the whirlpool at the Les Chater Y when I was congratulated for My Bride’s recent naming into the Order of Canada. The woman, another early-morning swimmer, had read the news in this publication.

“Let’s face it,” she said. “You’ve had a role to play in this all. Any woman who wins something like this has to be married to a certain sort of man. If Madame Curie hadn’t been married to Pierre, she’d have been forced to be home barefoot, baking bread.”

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