Pastor John Van Sloten

There’s this lady I know, she’s no more than five feet tall, and in her seventies, and she delivers flyers in our neighbourhood.  Two or three times a week she pulls a heavy, homemade, wooden, wobbly wheeled, wagon, filled with flyers  through our streets; up and down all the the hills, up and over curbs, through rain, snow and heat.  Every time I see her do it I’m amazed, and a bit saddened (I think of my mom having to do something like that). 

Often, I’ll say hi, or talk to her for a few seconds as we pass each another.  Today I decided to stop and have a conversation.  “How’s it going today?”  I asked. “Fine,” she said, ”Today is my last day!  For 20 years I’ve been delivering flyers in this neighbourhood and today is my last day.”   “Wow, 20 years, that’s amazing.  I’ve watched you over the past 5 and I can’t believe that you’ve been strong enough to pull this heavy thing…”  (I grabbed the handle of her wagon and pulled it a few inches – it must have weighed 40 pounds!)  “It’s not so bad… you get used to it.”   “So why now, why retire this year?   “Over this past year I’ve just realized that I can’t do this any more… you just know these things.  I’m thinking of working at Walmart.”   “That would be great for you, better weather!”   She didn’t catch my joke and said, “Walmart will at least keep me warm in the winter.” 

And then I started to feel a bit bad.  This is her last day, I thought, her retirement.  Is there going to be a big party later tonight? A gold watch? Speeches?  “Well then I better thank her,” I thought.  

“You know, you must have helped thousands of people in this community save money over the years – with all those coupons and sales flyers.  Thank you for that!”   She just paused and took it in for a second and then said, “Yeah I guess so.”  Then she smiled.  I said thanks again and then I asked her what her name was.  “Colleen…”   “Hi Colleen, I’m John…” and then shaking her hand I said, “All the best in your retirement.”  And then I continued on my walk, and she picked up her wagon handle, looked over her address list one more time, and pulled her stack of flyers to the next house.  I had to take a picture as she walked away.   I’ll miss her.

Too many times over the years I’ve felt a disdain for the flyer industry and everyone attached to it.  All that wasted paper, and recycling hassle.  All that endless consumer pressure.  But for Colleen it was her job, her life in some large part.  

I can only hope to do what I do with as much dignity, perseverance and strength.

Here’s a link to a CNN belief blog piece on the book. First big national story… and a good piece.    http://on.cnn.com/ddbTzZ

Just did a second interview (in three days) with CJAY92. I can’t believe how accomodating and excited they are about the book. It blows me away actually… I walk in there and for a second it felt like a church meeting, Forbes, Redd Dawg and Steve ‘the Grunt’ all happy to see me, along with the Rum guys pitching their product for  international rum day, and Tony Spoletini handing out Spolumbo’s breakfast sandwiches to us all.   Everyone got a free book and we gave a few away to listeners as well.   Here’s the link to the interview; http://bit.ly/9b3syp

Here’s a link to a live interview I had with Gerry Forbes on CJAY92 this morning (early!). This is the station that brought the Metallica sermon to Metallica’s attention years ago… a DJ spoke with Lars Ulrich, and then Lars sent a Warner Music camera crew to film the service. CJAY wants me back on Monday to talk more about the book and hand out some free copies.   http://bit.ly/ahcMdT

And here’s a link to a Calgary Sun story on the book (also from this morning)… a bit skeptical, but hey, don’t they say that all advertising in good advertizing?  Some of the “quotes” are a bit of a stretch too… the risk in someone else writing your story.    http://bit.ly/cb09xs

Exciting day.  New Hope’s mass order of 364 books arrived at the office this morning.  Amazon.com is now selling (and they are now allowing a sneak peak into the book).  And I’m doing an interview with CBC radio in half an hour and then the CJAY 92 interview tomorrow at 8:10 am.  Lots of buzz happening right now.

I was thinking about mirror neurons as I was cycling this afternoon (really). They’re recently “discovered” neurons that are a subset of the motor neurons in our frontal cortex.  While motor neurons fire whenever we move, mirror neurons fire when someone else moves -  as though virtually mimicking the action of another.   They fire even if we’re not moving, and neurologists figure that this mirroring activity is the way the brain begins to learn how to imitate behaviours.   (I got all this stuff from a lecturer on TED named VS Ramachandran – http://bit.ly/bAPg5x ).   Anyway, I was thinking that it’s neat how God built a capacity to follow into the basic fabric of our brains.  Our brains imitate the activity of another whether we want them to or not.   We can choose to follow up with that imitation by mimicking the action (we still have free will) but regardless, as some subconscious level we still follow.   We’re built to follow God; the ultimate Other, making the ultimate movements.   I wonder if Jesus (the one through whom all things were made)  knew about this when he said, “Follow me.”

Eventful holiday…  mostly rest, a family health scare, tons of travel, and a few good book reviews.  Publisher’s Weekly (the grand daddy of  US publishing magazines, who rarely cover first time authors) wrote this; 43981-religion-in-review.html  and the Calgary Herald this; story.html