HELLO!

Today I saw a man I used to see at the Alderney Ferry Terminal. I was driving, he was standing on the corner, I could see he had no hat or gloves. I parked my car on Dundas and walked quickly to the corner. He was still there. In our conversation he mentioned the need for coat and a hoodie. I asked him to walk and talk with me to my car, popped the hatch, and found the items he wanted. As he turned to walk away, he noticed my bumper sticker and asked why I chose it. The sticker reads, “Don’t Get Even, Get Odd”. I told him it reminded me of a Bible verse, Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God” (NRSV) or “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out” (The Message). I explained that our culture/the world, pressures us to conformity, we become little lemmings, following each other off a cliff. We are so focused being whom we are supposed to be, we fail to discern whom we are born to be, called to be, the purpose of our Creation. Instead, as the Book of Romans declares, we are called to be different, focus on WE when our culture says ME, ask what is the best thing to do, when our world says, “this is the way it’s always been done.”

Back story. When Kim bought me the car I now use to get around Dartmouth (“I need a used car for my husband, it needs to last till October 2028, and require no maintenance, he doesn’t care about anything, and he won’t adjust anything in the car, just turn the key and drive”) she told me I was free to use any bumper sticker I want (“I know you love those things, you will take the consequences of this, as I will not be the one driving your car”). I wanted to add an obscure message to the back of the car, something someone stuck in traffic would see and wonder “What is that about?” I had an old 1972 Edmund Muskie for President bumper sticker I purchased in Maine at a Preaching Workshop in a used bookstore. The minute Kim saw it she knew there was a problem (“If people see it, they will assume you are an Elon Musk fan”). I immediately put the Even/Odd sticker over the Muskie one. Whew! Kim is wise.

Americans love bumper stickers, Canadians less so (whenever I see a bumper sticker I look for the American license plate). Peace, Kevin