Merging stories Last night’s meeting of my fraternal group of guys was one of the most intellectually challenging ever. The presenter traced, through human history, the concept called mimesis (the mediation of resentment), a concept that some philosophers (notably...

One project that is near to my heart and sometimes extracts a donation from my wallet is clean-up of plastic products from the oceans. Plastic is one of the most serious environmental hazards of our time, and much of it finds its way into the oceans. There it follows...

Among the election goodies offered by our Prime Minister in this election campaign was a promise to address the housing crisis with a rent-to-own program.   It was likely the first time that the rent-to-own concept was endorsed at such a high level.   It affirms the...

A hiatus from my usual routine (readers will note that I missed the last two weeks’ blog posts) due to a medical issue, became the occasion for a little extra reading. I tackled a classic, challenging work, that provoked much thought—though it largely affirmed my own,...

For possibly the first time in history, housing has become a key federal election issue.   All parties decry the shortage of housing supply, the runaway prices, and the improbability that many will ever get into home ownership.   Each of the three main parties’...

September’s here! Which means summer’s done! So I thought I’d ask a simple question: How are you feeling about what we’ve come through, and where we currently are? I decided to do it with a stimulating quiz. Of course, this being a (sometimes) rent-2-own blog, there...

A short break I took last week (and a half) had me thinking—about breaks. With the still-lingering pandemic restrictions on travel, and with more free time this summer, and with my absolute love of summers (especially this hot one), and with my passion to keep...

It’s been a weird summer, with heat waves, wildfires, another surge in the pandemic, and borders still partially closed. But I hope everyone is finding a way to make the most of it. How we experience something depends mostly on our choices—how we choose to react—not...

Apparently, we’ve now reached 45 days without a drop of rain (at YVR). That’s not too unusual. We typically do get about six straight weeks of gorgeous weather in these parts, with very minimal rain. What is different this year, though, is: i) how early it started...

There’s been a lot of chatter recently about the wealth being accumulated by the likes of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet and others.   “Tax the billionaires!” “Share their wealth!” The cries are crescendo-ing.   The...