"There goes the ice shelf" - comments on fragmentation

My parents rented 'The Day After Tomorrow', and I figured, why not watch it. It has a nice message about the environment and all, but the acting got pretty sappy at points. Nice graphical effects though. I'd say it was an 'okay' movie. Watch it if someone else pays for it, haha.

But anyways, watching it made me think on all sorts of random tangents. I came upon the theme 'fragmentation'. My last blog entry still fresh in mind (about Protestant/Catholic relations), I couldn't help but notice how prevalent fragmentation is in society. All we ever seem to do is fragment. This occurs between individuals, communities, nations, ethnic groups, whatever; I'm sure everyone can think of a dozen examples. But the central thing that came to my mind is that whenever you stand in the middle and try to prevent fragmentation, oh boy - you're gonna get it. If you've ever been the middle man between friends arguing, you know the feeling. See, if you root for fragmentation, you're bound to have one party on your side, so you won't be standing alone. But as soon as you try to stand in the middle and prevent the fragmentation, you're all alone: both parties look at you with suspicious eyes. There are some historical examples that come to my mind. The Apostle Paul was an anti-fragmentarian many times. Read Galatians, the Corinthian correspondences, or most poignantly, Philemon. Paul always stood in the middle, trying to keep the tiny little churches he planted from breaking up into mist. And try to keep an eye out for how people responded to him: he got it harsh. Fast forward to Desmond Tutu, standing very alone, trying to bring peace amidst the brutality of Apartheid in South Africa. He tried to prevent the fragmentation of society (in this case within blacks, and between blacks and whites), and many times he stood alone and in pain. And, more personally, I have to hear about it all the time. When you tell people you're double majoring in Biology and Religion, many times the response is: "don't they contradict each other". Now I won't lay out here why I think that statement is pure rubbish, but I don't think the two fields are at all contradictory. But there I find myself, caught in the middle, where both sides often want nothing but to fragment from the other.

Fragmenting is always easy, its being an 'anti-fragmentite' that gets you in rough waters. But how can a Christian who reads about God the reconciler remain blind of that vocation?

On a completely separate track, Canada won Gold in the Juniors. Happy? sure...but seriously, that was the worst game of hockey I've had to sit through. After months of no hockey I don't want to sit and watch the equivalent of an NHL vs. peewee hockey match. I want to see some good, tough hockey - hockey where you gotta fight HARD to win. I'm disappointed. Who cares if we won, if it was through such a lame game. I don't think many of my fellow countrymen (and women) will be with me on this one, but eh - I don't mind.

Welcome back to school those who are back.
Greetings to all.