Maggie Helwig

The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
Our only hope, or else despair,
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre --
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

And that woman taken in adultery. And that woman at the well. Dead bodies everywhere.

Yeah, all those stories of Jesus killing people on the Sabbath for the betterment of society.

I'd still rather have +Rowan meet me off the bus though.

She said, "Then why are you there?" He walked back to his car without answering.

Today someone asked one of the security guards, as he happened to walk past the church, what he was guarding. He replied, "Nothing."

Encampment by @maggiehelwig.bsky.social and Messy Cities (ed. Zahra Ebrahim, Leslie Woo, @dylanreid.bsky.social, and @johnlorinc.bsky.social) are top sellers by Canadian-owned publishers! (#16 and #23, respectively.)

I mean, not to dunk on buying sex, but 1) just do it up front rather than in disguise, and 2) don't force the model on women who haven't consented to it or even know that's what you intend to do.

And he clearly believes that buying sex is the only way any man ever obtains it ("you have to pick up the tab or women won't have sex with you, no one will have sex with you if you split the bill" -- HONESTLY?)

Me, in my clearest voice: The. Fire. Safety. Of. The. Concrete. Blocks?
EO: Yes. That's correct.
Me: Okay. I've got nothing else.

(It may also be of interest that this GardaWorld fire watch car is parking in the parking lot of AN ACTUAL FIRE STATION.)

Today's conversation with the Encampment Office:
Me: I would like to know how long you're going to go on paying for private security to watch the church 24/7.
EO: That's not my call at this time, but they're there for fire safety.
Me: The fire safety of the concrete blocks?
EO: Correct. (1/2)

1) Has he actually skated long distances? He might find it more physical work than he imagines.
2) In what way is cycling on a good trail on a winter day not "sheer delight"? One of my very best memories is a ride up the Humber Trail on the first really wintery day one year. Beautiful.

War Measures Act.

("safety", not "safely", but that's probably obvious)

I mean, that's part of it, that they seem to be afraid that remembering it, memorializing it, or even admitting it happened, is itself a risk. Safely can be obtained only through absolute silence and denial. It is the worst way to deal with trauma and also very consistent with a society of denial.

"The woman, who did not want her name used for her safety." My God, what kind of sad terrified lives do these people live?

We can't have encampments because parks are so important. But we can't have parks because ... a young man might walk around with a candle?

So if she'd not been artificially induced a week early, she could have ended up born on the kitchen floor and dead. My mother's painless precipitous labours were enviable in a way, but also dangerous.

That was basically how I was born -- my mother got as far as the hospital, but no one believed her when she said the baby was coming RIGHT AWAY, so I was born with no attendants in the room. Given that, my sister was induced in hospital, and a good thing too, because the cord was around her neck.

It's not like this is an original thought, but I miss the days when Google worked. I'm thinking this because some years ago I managed to locate some information about a very obscure children's musical play, but failed to save it, and now Google just gives me dumb approximation answers.

I had hoped for a home birth, but experienced midwives transferred me to hospital in early labour. Without hospital care, my child would certainly have died, and I might have. It was traumatic but I'm not sure the hospital could have done anything to make it less traumatic. But point 3 still valid.

It was around in the mid-90s when my child was born, but in those days it was magazines and newsletters and word of mouth for the most part. But I remember encountering similar content for decades before that. Social media is an accessibility driver, but this is long pre-social media.

And I think about things like how a broken meth pipe in a park is somehow orders of magnitude worse than a broken beer bottle in a park even though they are THE SAME THING, broken glass in a park. Non-ideal! But one is a nuisance and the other an existential threat.

No one in the encampment is forcing toddlers to stay inside. The staff at the daycare are making decisions about what they consider unsuitable or undesirable for children to see. Let's just keep our language clear on that, shall we?

Yes, his defenders keep leaning on the fact that he didn't actually break any laws. But especially if you're in a regulated and fiduciary profession, you do not need to actually commit crime in order to be rightly fired. That's a complete red herring.

It is a matter of undisputed record that he hit a student in the face in public "as a joke." Why is there even a debate about whether he is fit to be a teacher?

The warming centres which opened yesterday at 5 pm are now closed. It is currently snowing.

I think there is room for laptops or other devices as assistive technology (even my mild motor and spatial disabilities would have been helped by access to technologies which didn't then exist), but again, that should come with clear standards and controls.

Stop praying!

Two people stand at night behind a tall metal fence, with a fire burning in a bowl balanced on a large concrete block.

Two people stand at night behind a tall metal fence, adding kindling to a fire in a bowl balanced on a large concrete block.

Several people stand at night behind a tall metal fence, surrounding a smoking fire within a metal bowl on a large concrete block A security guard watches in the background.

Several people stand at night behind a tall metal fence, surrounding a fire bowl balanced on a large concrete block. A security guard watches in the background.

Church inside the fence.

On All Souls, we held a memorial service inside the fence the City erected to block people from seeking sanctuary in the yard, for some of those we have lost in the last few years. People on the street die preventable deaths, too young.

We will not forget.