From the person previously known as Greg Greenlaw

I would like to open this post with a general explanation about this blog.  I conceived the idea a couple of months ago when I realized that if I didn't find somewhere to put the many ideas that swarm and broil inside my head that it would likely soon explode.  I was also starting to drive everybody crazy with my apparent inability to shut up, and being fluent in two languages, this means I was driving them bats in English as well as in Spanish.  The idea of writing a blog was in a long embryonic phase that began with my participating in many online comment threads, particularly on CBC Online.  It became difficult to adequately explain my positions on many topical matters, especially towards posters who appeared to be very stubborn, close minded and downright abusive in their style of dialogue.  Just this morning I was following the thread on the article about a homeless man in Montreal who was panhandling and police had received four complaints about him because he was said to be doing it aggressively.  A police officer was videoed while verbally abusing and threatening this man, dressed only in jeans and T shirt in sub-zero weather and threatening to tie him out in the cold to a pole.  This article created quite a stir and many poor-bashers were online making the most ridiculous and hateful comments against this poor man.  Even though I have tons of professional and anecdotal credentials to back up things I have to say about how to talk to the homeless and mentally ill (never aggressively no matter how agitated) given my more than ten years experience I received some very absurd replies, such as I'm a bleeding heart social worker, I don't have a clue, or the most hilarious so far, that I'm a social worker pulling in one hundred dollars an hour with a plush office and never see what mentally ill people are really like.  The space and the intelligence of the audience are just too limited to give justice to these matters. 

     My travel experiences have further moved me to keep a blog.  For years I have been emailing a select group of people with updates about my travels.  From now on I will be travel-journaling on my blog spot so simply look it up.  I will likely also be sending reminder emails for those who get too busy.

     I am not writing these posts simply to vent.  That is what journals, punching bags and politicians are for.  What I try to do is organize my thoughts in such a way that they could have as broad an appeal as possible without diluting their essence.  What I hope to accomplish through this blog is to encourage people to think of the issues of the day and of their personal lives and bring out dialogue and conversation, perhaps even to help build a real sense of global community.  Those who have been reading my posts consistently will have noticed that I cover quite a broad selection of topics.  This is partly intentional and also part of the way I express.  My range of interests is fairly broad, with some but not many exceptions.  I always try to explore and examine things from as many different angles as possible.  My hope is that all my readers take as much advantage as possible of the comment section.  Tell me what you think of what you have just read.  If you agree, that's great, but tell us why you agree.  If you disagree, that is also great, but please express your disagreement respectfully and tell us why you disagree.  If you are expressing an opinion as fact, please back it up with sources, or have the courtesy to tell us it is only your opinion and that sources are not available or simply invite us to Google.  If I have omitted anything, or if I'm mistaken and you have verifiable information to offer you are more than welcome to comment.  If my posts have got you thinking in a certain thread and you'd like to share it, then please let us know.  If you have ideas of topics I can write about, again, please comment.

     As you have read in my blog address my name is Aaron Benjamin Zacharias.  I am not Jewish as my name might imply.  I legally changed my name in 1995 and if you're all good and manage to stay off Santa's naughty list for a while I might even write a blog about what led me to change my name.  I used to be called Gregory Charles Greenlaw, or simply, Greg, so if anyone from the remote past wants to Google my old name here it is and this blog is the link.  Here is a little more information about myself, which should also give an idea of what influences and informs my writing.  I am a single man age fifty-seven, born February 29, 1956.  In astrological terms I would be a Pisces-Fire Monkey.  I am a Christian and this is one of or the most powerful driving force in my life and this is going to be seen in many of my posts so, reader beware, may contain Christian content.  I began as a teenage Jesus Freak at the tender age of fourteen.  I now attend an Anglican church in the West End of Vancouver.  Even though I was confirmed into the Anglican Church when I was twenty-six I consider myself more a Christian than an Anglican.  It is just that God has put me in an Anglican Church and I have absolutely no problem with this.  I have always been poor, partly due to some difficult life circumstances that will emerge in some of my posts, and partly out of a sense of a sacred call from God to live simply, valuing spiritual truth and reality over material gain and comfort.  I have tried to remain consistent and faithful to this calling for most of my life, though difficult life circumstances regarding my family and inability to complete my post secondary education will also suggest that I may be making a virtue out of necessity.  Let's say that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.  I have no children and have never married, nor intend to.  There isn't room for two on my throne.  I work as a mental health peer support worker, full time more or less for a low wage and live rather comfortably in government subsidized housing.  I am a visual artist, I paint especially colourful tropical birds and evidently I also enjoy writing.  Every day I seem to have something to write about.

     Today for example I bought two more pillow slips for two of my four beat up looking big cushions.  This brings now to four my beautiful big pillows.  They look great on top of my cyan blue bedspread.  I have no photos to offer but I will Google and copy and paste the colours so you will have an idea of how cool it looks now.  Here is the colour of my bedspread, more or less: It's actually a bit closer to teal but also very blue, like the upper area of a peacock's neck.  I got this bedspread from my mother, actually two of them in 1985.  When I was seventeen and eighteen years old I slept under one of these bedspreads so let's say that it is now a heirloom.  In 1997 when I was painting a Madonna and Child with a rainbow over them my friend Denise modelled as the Blessed Virgin Mary robed in one of these bedspreads.  I later gave it to her.

Now here are the colours of the four big pillows:

  So, visualize my big dark blue bedspread with those four colours juxtaposed on top and yes, this is a visual treat to come home to now.  As I mentioned in a previous post about buying the cushions I find it very difficult to spend money on myself, especially to buy beautiful things, but I had to decide that upgrading my place a bit (altogether it is costing not much over $100) was also a kind of self-respect and that sometimes I take asceticism just a little too far. 

     I did this shopping trip this afternoon, following a long walk through Shaughnessy and an hour spent in a café in Kerrisdale where I worked on a drawing.  Then I walked and then rode the bus into Kits to pick up the cushion covers.  I was thinking what an art it must be, actually a spiritual exercise to negotiate territory with other pedestrians and shoppers.  It seems that everyone is somewhat unconscious, or comatose while dodging everyone or running over others to do their daily business.  I have to force myself not to get caught in the maelstrom and to make room for others, staying calm and quietly praying for the strangers who trip over me.  I very rarely do this now, unless the situation really calls for it, but a young woman (at least she was wearing a helmet) went sailing on her bike down the extremely crowded sidewalk endangering others and herself, I called out, "Miss, this is a very bad place for riding your bike."  I think she heard me but did a lovely job ignoring me. 

     I am also thinking here of the right way to pass others on the street.  I know that traditionally you always pass people on the right though I honestly do not remember being taught this, not by my parents and not in school.  If it is a rule nearly everyone breaks it.  Back in 2005 I ran across a particularly aggressive and obnoxious couple.  I was walking on the seawall in November after work in the False Creek North area between the Granville and Burrard Bridges.  I was hugging the rail totally caught up in the beautiful golden-amber sun just about to sink into the water.  A couple were coming by and tried to get between me and the rail and my view just because they wanted to force the point that I must pass on their right.  I tried to ignore them.  The woman, a German woman of about sixty or so, tried to block my way.  I tried to have a conversation with her, to reason with her, to somehow convince her that she might cut a little bit of slack given that this was not exactly a sidewalk and maybe some of us deserve to be left in peace so we can enjoy the sunset.  Then she insisted that I must be mentally ill.  I told her, no I work in the field though.  I refused to respond to her abuse with more abuse.  I also refused to budge.  When it became clear to her companion, a middle age South Asian man that this was going nowhere and that they would also be going nowhere, he persuaded her to walk around me.  As they left I smiled and said, "You see, nobody wins here."

     This encounter had so impacted me that I actually was turning into a sidewalk Nazi myself, really trying to make sure that strangers and I passed each other correctly.  I am glad to say that I have long recovered from this little obsession and am content to join in the mad pedestrian dance of weaving in and out of the human traffic and refusing to get too frustrated about it.

     I rather hope that through this blog we can all be encouraged to rethink how we are with one another, how we interact, to actually try to see one another and appreciate the presence of the person walking in front, or behind, or next to you on the bus or blocking your way in the grocery store, or on the seawall during sunset!  We really need to become less preoccupied with our own stuff, no matter how important and urgent it might be at the time and try to live in the moment and remember that we are not here alone on this earth that we all share together.

     So, I hope you all continue to enjoy reading my blog.  Please comment often and generously and I always try to be open to new ideas.  And please forward my blog to others.  Let's all get talking and let's also get doing.

all the best

Aaron, the person formally known as Greg.

no pedestrians were harmed during the writing of this blog