Happy Anniversary, Clobin

Where many friends engage in public conversations with one another over Facebook and Twitter to make sure everyone knows who they are talking to and about what, my BFF Chloë and I are way too mature for all that.  We tend to communicate through our blogs with elaborate posts featuring comics, videos, rules for other friendships, friendship business cards and pie charts analyzing each other’s Twitter feeds.

I don't have a business card, but our friendship does.

Now for the one year (and 11 day) anniversary of Chloë’s marriage to her husband Robin, I am sharing an illustrated version of the critically acclaimed speech I gave at their wedding.  Most of the photos are by Andrew Bassett.  I’m not sure if this will work, but actions will be noted in bracketed italics [like so].

~

Hello everyone.  In case you haven’t met me yet, my name is Samuel.  As Chloë’s BFF, it came as no surprise that she should ask me to share a few remarks with all of you.  Since the whole night everyone has been talking about the wedding, I thought that a few people might be bored of it and interested in talking about something else for a change.  As some of you know, I have presented at conferences and public meetings on the subjects of ecology and ethics, but I was thinking that for the occasion I would branch out and try something new.  Let’s start.

All images I found when I searched 'Saskatoon' on Google Images.

As we are in Saskatoon, I thought that we could explore this city as a subject.  How did it come to be?  Why does it persist in being?  Why do I only ever come here in January?  I’ll try to make this a more relaxed presentation, so please feel free to interrupt me at any time if you have scripted questions.

How is this possible?

Let’s first take a look at this unlikely increase of population over time….

[Geoffrey Cameron interrupts presentation with obviously scripted dialogue:] Excuse me, Sam – if it’s alright I would just like to stop you right there with a two-part question.

[Samuel Benoit:] Oh Geoff, it’s so great to see you here – I didn’t know that Chloë had invited you.  Please go ahead.

[GC:]  Well, the first part has to do with Jean Murray’s 1959 analysis of the contest to host the university of Saskatchewan and how this played into the future development of the city…

[SB:]  Actually, I’m planning on getting to that.

[GC:]  Oh.  Great.  The second part of my question is to ask if you plan on covering what is going on right now, namely Chloë and Robin’s wedding.

[SB:]  Robin who?

[GC:]  Wilson.

[SB:]  …I’m going to need more than that.

[GC:]  The dude Chloë just married.

[SB:]  Oh yes!  THAT dude Chloë just married!  I considered doing a presentation on that, but again, figured everyone was more curious about Saskatoon.  But if that’s what people are interested in, I do have some notes on the subject.

[GC:]  I’d be interested in that.

[SB:]  Sounds like fun.  As Chloë can tell you, my memory is pretty bad – normally I count on her for how to spell common words, to tell me about things I have done and rude things I have said to people a long time ago – so putting down old stories without Chloë’s help is very challenging without making things up.

People have often been perplexed about our friendship.  Chloë and I have always expected that even our respective children would someday be confused by it.  “Why is Auntie Chloë so much smarter and funnier than mommy?” my future children will ask me.  “Why do we always have the most fun when Uncle Sam is around?  Also, why is he always around?”  They will ask Chloë.  To both sets of children, we will simply say “SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR NAILS.”

I have always been very protective of Chloë, usually opting to give her friends and roommates a hard time to test their worthiness.  All of her university roommates had no choice but expect phone calls for Chloë between two and five AM for me to call and sing her Elton John and Coldplay songs after late night assignment writing sessions.  [Pause to acknowledge one of Chloë’s former roommates in the audience:]  Hello Fiona, good to see you here.  You look rested.

Fiona looking rested.

I could barely tolerate her friend Goeff, who managed to weasel his way into her life while they both attended Trent University in Peterbourough and my back was turned.  To this day we can barely get along and only very recently I forced him to contribute to a wedding speech I was giving with some obviously scripted and poorly written text.

Geoff and I temporarily putting our differences aside for the sake of the kids.

Even Chloë’s father Bruce has been subjected to my tests of worthiness despite the fact that – so he claims – he knew Chloë first.

Where's the proof?

Somehow these tests of worthiness also explain why I had to shamelessly flirt with Chloë’s old roommate Celeste every time I visited Chloë in Peterborough.  [Pause to shamelessly flirt with Celeste:]  Hello Celeste.  You are looking wonderful tonight.  As always.

Celeste looking wonderful. As always.

One of the first things I noticed about Robin was his height.  As my mother would have said if she could have made it here tonight, anything over six feet is just showing off – it’s unnecessary.  So, by virtue of his genetics - [Pause to acknowledge his towering parents:] Hello Tony and Bernadette – Robin is a show off.

The towering Wilsons next to another family for scale.

Another so called attribute of Robin’s we all know about is that he’s too smart.  Some other things he is too good at include: drawing, beard growing and spouse choosing.

One of Robin's totally insane drawings.

It's all real.

Robin passed my subtle tests of worthiness, showing great strength of character, devotion to Chloë and probably most importantly, wit.  Likely through some sort of cheating.

Chloë, I know that over the past few days you have often wished you were just married and not this bride everyone is making you out to be – that it’s been frustrating at the same time as you have had to acknowledge that you can’t control how people express themselves and the extent to which they follow your precise instructions.  So just to remind you that you really aren’t in control – after I am finished speaking something is going to happen up here that you didn’t plan.  [After my speech Chloë’s sisters sang Timon and Pumba’s part of ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’ from the Lion King.]

"...our trio's down to two..."

But before that, a message to Robin:  Even though I couldn’t protect Chloë from you – I am now bound to protect you as well.  For that, I congratulate you.

Hugs all around.

Three beautiful songs from the Hidden Words

The Hidden Words is a new Montreal Baha’i indie supergroup fronted by Alden Penner (of the Unicorns and the Clues) with Jamie Thompson (of the Unicorns and Islands), Eric and James Farr (brothers of Honeyman and the Brothers Farr), Marie-Claire Saindon and Neah Bahji Kelly.  Their name is from the unique spiritual text revealed by Baha’u'llah and described by Himself in this way:

This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue.

The band came out of a group of young people in Montreal informally getting together regularly to experiment with the challenge of putting some of the sacred verses of the Baha’i Faith to music.  They went on to perform a few shows in Montreal and Ottawa until Alden up and went on an epic trip across the world.  Now that he’s back the possibility of more shows and a proper recording is looking much better.  This is good news for those of us who think that spiritual music should more than a text delivery mechanism.

Here are three of my three favorite tracks of theirs by way of YouTube videos from one show they gave a few months ago at a coffee shop in Ottawa.

UPDATE:  Their album has been recorded and I love it.  It’s called ‘Free Thyself From The Fetters Of This World’ and it is available to listen to and download.

Paradise of the Placeless

Yeah, that’s Jamie Thompson rocking the suitcase.  No big deal.  I love the joy that oozes from Eric and James in this video as they clap their gangly little hearts out to Alden’s composition.  This one is based on the following Hidden Word:

O OFFSPRING OF DUST! Be not content with the ease of a passing day, and deprive not thyself of everlasting rest. Barter not the garden of eternal delight for the dust-heap of a mortal world. Up from thy prison ascend unto the glorious meads above, and from thy mortal cage wing thy flight unto the paradise of the Placeless. (n. 30)

No man shall attain

Despite their name, they have not confined themselves exclusively to one text.  This track is based on the opening words of the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the book described by Shoghi Effendi as “Bahá’u’lláh’s masterly exposition of the one unifying truth underlying all the Revelations of the past” (The World Order of Baha’u'llah p. 61):

No man shall attain the shores of the ocean of true understanding except he be detached from all that is in heaven and on earth. Sanctify your souls, O ye peoples of the world, that haply ye may attain that station which God hath destined for you and enter thus the tabernacle which, according to the dispensations of Providence, hath been raised in the firmament of the Bayán. (p. 1)

Temple

The sacred writings of the Baha’i Faith were originally revealed in Arabic and Farsi but have been translated into hundreds of languages so that everyone can read and study them for themselves.  And really, the Hidden Words wouldn’t be a hip Montreal band worth it’s salt if it didn’t have at least one song in French.  This one is based on a tablet revealed by the Báb, the Prophet who launched a movement across Persia to to prepare people for the coming of Baha’u'llah.

Je suis le Temple mystique édifié par la main de la toute-puissance. Je suis la Lampe que le doigt de Dieu a allumée dans sa niche et a fait briller d’une splendeur éternelle. Je suis la Flamme de cette céleste lumière qui scintilla sur le Sinaï à l’endroit bienheureux, et qui demeura cachée au milieu du Buisson ardent. (Sélections des Écrits du Báb, p. 67)

In English:

I am the Mystic Fane which the Hand of Omnipotence hath reared. I am the Lamp which the Finger of God hath lit within its niche and caused to shine with deathless splendour. I am the Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon Sinai in the gladsome Spot, and lay concealed in the midst of the Burning Bush.  (Selections from the Writings of the Bab p. 74)

No, they don’t yet have an album or even a proper website yet, so now is a good time to click over to their Facebook page and become a fan to find out future shows, videos and recordings.  Alden has also just released an EP entitled Odes to the House that is similarly inspired by teachings of the Baha’i Faith.  Here is a super-hip video of him playing the song ‘Last shelter’:

A short film about sports

If I don’t understand football, curling, or even marathon running – there is no way I am going to understand the sport that the majority of the planet has long written off as too perplexing to even try.  As little as I understand about cricket, I did have the feeling that if India was going to win their ICC World Cup final match against Sri Lanka last night – the quiet hill station of Panchgani was going to get loud.

Check out the above video if you would like a taste of what broke out all over this giant country last night.  Share it if you like it.

This year’s World Religion Day celebration in Ottawa is going to dig deeper

Over the past few weeks I have been working with a committee of the Baha’i Community of Ottawa to organize Ottawa’s World Religion Day celebration.  World Religion Day is in Ottawa is normally themed around one of today’s major global challenges such as peace, the rights of the child and education.  In the past the event has rarely dug very deep into these issues as it adheres to a strictly family-friendly format.  This year we want dig a bit deeper while still being friendly to the families.

Our special guest speaker will be David Chernoshenko, the new City Councillor for Ottawa’s Capital Ward.  He is well known for his involvement in the environmental field as a filmmaker and the former deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada.  In case you haven’t seen it, here’s his inspired ad for his successful bid for a seat in council:

The title of the event is “Faith and the Environment: Celebrating Common Ground” and it can be seen as part of an important discourse about the interaction between science, religion and the environment.

I’m tempted to call it a new discourse, but in reality religion has been talking about science and the environment for as long as there has been science and religion.  It’s just that it can feel like a new discourse because it’s moving really fast right now as more and more religious people, scientists and environmentalists are taking each other more and more seriously at the same time as everyone is getting a little freaked out about the future.  What do our religions say about how we should be interacting with with the planet and all the other people who live on it?

There’s a statement of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s (one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith) from a lecture he gave in 1912 that I don’t think can possibly be quoted enough where he claims that

…Religion and science are the two wings upon which man’s intelligence can soar into the heights, with which the human soul can progress. It is not possible to fly with one wing alone! Should a man try to fly with the wing of religion alone he would quickly fall into the quagmire of superstition, whilst on the other hand, with the wing of science alone he would also make no progress, but fall into the despairing slough of materialism. (Paris Talks, p. 143)

Ottawa’s World Religion Day celebration will be happening from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, January 16th at City Hall (110 Laurier Avenue West).  If you can’t come (or even if you can) check out Worldwatch Institute Senior Researcher Gary Gardner’s 2006 book Inspiring Progress: Religion’s Contributions to Sustainable Development.  It’s the resource that came to mind as I tried to think of the first best place to dive into the subject.  I’ll write more about this discourse into the future as I plan telling the internet more about the things I am up to in this area.

Environment geeks unite!

I have just returned to Ottawa from Madison, Wisconsin by way of Toronto, Buffalo , Chicago and Milwaukee to present another version of my research on hope and faith in environmentalism at the first meeting of the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences (AESS) as well as to a group of keeners at the Madison Baha’i Centre.  The title of the conference was something like “Bonsai Trees: How to Grow Them in Your Hand” (see thier image above) or “Environment: The Interdisciplinary Challenge” – I can’t remember.

The whole thing was really the result of one of the most reckless sequences of events in my short life to date.  When I received the invitation to present my paper back in June or July I could scarcely remember the late night paper-submitting session that must have occurred months earlier.  Did I do that?  Is that my name?  Is that my paper?

More recklessness ensued when I went on to book myself about four days rent on various Amtrak trains.  One highlight of that experience was the following telephone exchange with an Amtrak booking agent:

Me: “So what does that come out to?”
Agent: “About nine hours and forty-five minutes, Sir.”
Me: “Wow… Buffalo and Chicago look so much closer on the map!”
Agent: “Yep…  maps’ll do that… Sir.”

And do that they did – oh, how they did that.  Something about this thing people are calling scale.

Memorial Union building, 1959 - from the University of Wisconsin digital collections on flickr

Some other highlights of the experience include:

• Literally running from the L train station to the Baha’i House of Worship outside Chicago out of excitement to see it again after more than ten years.

• Grabbing my first ever hard copy of the legendary satirical newspaper, the Onion.
• 

  The Yaganagis

  Realizing that my host in Madison is none other than the son and brother of my hosts in Bangalore way back in 2007.

• Getting to the conference to discuss strategies to influence the public to adopt more environmentally sustainable behavior while munching on the provided individually wrapped bags of chips, granola bars, yogurts, cream cheeses spread on bagels over disposable plates and sipping on tiny boxes of soy milk.

• Witnessing several develop major academic crushes as they meet in person with others doing research into the same obscure fields and questions.

• Listening to a Plymouth State University prof describe a recent citizen-science research initiative while the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” thumps outside from a university event.

• The organizer’s fanatical dedication to interdisciplinarity placed me in session with two profs presenting their research on hurricane Katrina.  Putting me, the last presenter, in the position of trying tieing my presentation on the environmental movement on with something I know nothing about.

• Looking forward to my seven hour stopover in Buffalo because at least it was four hours less than the first one.

Baha'i House of Worship by Giant Ginkgo on flickr

To read a very brief summarry of an earlier version of the same presentation, check out this entry from the International Environment Forum 2009 conference blog.  Serious readers are welcome to contact me to have the latest version e-mailed to them.

Baha’i Geeks and Environmentalists Unite!

In the past 48 hours, I have traveled by bike, hybrid car, regular car, greyhound, subway, train, taxi and foot to get from Tatamagouche, through Amherst, Sackville, Fredericton, Montreal, Ottawa, Montreal (again) and New York City to arrive in Washington, D.C. and attend, speak, blog and mingle at the joint 33rd Annual Association for Baha’i Studies – North America/13th Annual International Environment Forum Conference.

Baha’i geeks from all disciplines generally flock Association for Baha’i Studies (ABS) conferences to bask in each other’s academic geekiness – sharing their research in all aspects of the Baha’i Faith and all aspects of everything else in light of the Baha’i teachings.  While an ABS conference can be heaven on earth for the Baha’i geek, it can also be horribly difficult because they are expected to choose one of many fascinating sessions that will be happening AT THE EXACT SAME TIME.

I delivered one such simultaneous session at the 2007 ABS conference in Mississauga, Ontario and managed to dupe several people into choosing my session thanks entirely to the provocative title of my presentation and to the bribes I gave my friends that were at the conference.  It was called “‘Abdu’l-Baha the Environmentalist” and will probably find its way to this very website at some point in the future for those online who also like to be duped by the titles of things.

This year the theme is Environments, and the International Environment Forum (IEF) decided to invite itself over to have its annual conference in tandem with the ABS.  The IEF is a Baha’i-inspired network of environmental geeks who also tend to be geeky about the Baha’i teachings.

With everyone becoming increasingly concerned with our relationship with the earth and tired of easy answers – it is finally time for the Baha’i environment geeks to shine and present the research they have been doing into these questions and what the Baha’i teachings have to offer.

On Saturday afternoon, I will be presenting my honors thesis “Faith and Hope in Environmentalism in the Face of Climate Change” in the IEF session with my boringly accurate title to be offset by some snazzy slides and not one, but two Star Wars references. That’s right – two.  That’s right, this is the very same honors thesis that kept me up all night on campus all those months ago.

You (yes, you) will be able to follow the IEF section from the comfort of your basement by visiting the IEF’s conference blog – where I will likely do a little guest blogging myself.

Holding back the alien vampire-zombies on Blue Team One: The Toronto Regional Baha’i Conference

My main-man Ilya Zrudlo on his work in Montreal neighborhoods

Two weeks before Toronto’s Regional Baha’i Conference (one of 41 across the world) , I received an e-mail from Albert Wong asking if I would be a member of the security team, I agreed, and two weeks later I found myself in a meeting room in at a Toronto hotel on the eve of the conference with the rest of the security team.  We were divided into four sub-teams with really cool names like Blue Team One and Green Team Two. I was strategically placed in Blue Team One, which was clearly the most highly specialized team because it also had my friend Marjan Bachelor in it.  We took the role super seriously and expected to be briefed on what to do in case you suspect that one of conference attendees is a shape-shifting alien, a vampire, a zombie or heaven forbid, an alien vampire-zombie.

This is me being ready for alien vampire-zombies, not being one. Subtle difference.

Rather then to run through the protocol of what to do in case of volcanic eruption, giant moth attack or alien vampire-zombie breakout, Albert spent most of the orientation meeting recounting stories from the 1992 Baha’i World Congress when 35,000 Baha’is from around the world descended on New York City to mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of Baha’u'llah.  My sister and I were “too young” at the time so our parents put us on grandparent’s front stoop in Cornwall, Ontario, rang the doorbell and sped off hooting and hollering.  If you were to go to that street now, you will find that the tire marks are still there to this very day.  We spent the four days watching cable TV and eating so many clementines that we both vomited.  Delicious, juicy clementines.

Probably an alien vampire-zombie

Albert’s stories illustrated how the spirit of service and flexibility among the security team and the love and excitement of the Baha’is saw them through several unexpected situations and made it a conference that people were still talking about 17 years later in a meeting room in a Toronto hotel and on the internet on blogs that nobody reads.  Some of these unexpected situations included everyone being booted out of the building they were meeting in, where the Baha’is lined several blocks and naturally broke out into song.  When a pickpocket came, the security team kept an eye on her as the Baha’is taught her the Faith.  The other story was of the old Baha’i from a remote Pacific Island who was separated from his group.  He could not speak any of the many languages that the assembled members of security team could, so they spent the night laughing and simply saying ‘Allah-u-abha!’ (‘God the All-Glorious’) to each other.

Congress Centre staff have a huddle

We donned our tags that read ‘Host/Hostess’ with little red ribbons hanging off of them, and we were as ready as were ever going to be.  While our conference was was not engulfed in lava, attacked by Mothra and no conference participants showed signs of being alien vampire-zombies, we did still have our fair share of unexpected situations.  You could say we had about a thousand of them, because the original expectation was for about 3,000 people to attend and there ended up being way over 4,000.  While the security team had a plan of who was going to be where at what time, I found myself a part of many conversations that went something like this:

“What are you doing right now?  Are you free?”

“Umm, well Elly told me to stay here and-”

“-Follow me!  We need more people managing the lines!  Come on!”

My off-duty times were perhaps more frantic than on.  There were so many people there that I would be lucky to run into an old friend I hadn’t seen in years more than once.  But, that wasn’t really the point of the whole conference, now was it?

The only moments of clarity came to me during the talks delivered by the representatives from the Baha’i World Centre Ms. Uransaikhan Baatar and Mr. Stephen Birkland, who placed into spacial and temporal context the work of each individual, community and institution that has been carrying out the Baha’i and Baha’i inspired activities that they have been witnessing binding their communities and families together.

Click here for my tiny set of photos from the conference.  Seeing jet-setting professional photographer Ryan Lash climbing pillars and light fixtures to get the perfect shot, it was clear that it was covered by far more capable hands and cameras.  For the Baha’i World News Service’s article on the conference with photos and a video, click here.

There was a great musical showcase on the Saturday night that featured songs from across the region that have inspired communities in their work, and below is one of my favorites. It features Kieth Bartlett with his daughters Natania Hatala and Tahirih North singing a traditional Southern American song, and a version of the Baha’i prayer ‘Is there any remover of difficulties’.  It was my first time meeting him after I recently heard about him and how be preformed at my parent’s wedding in Gatineau, Quebec back in 1981.

The Life and Works of Honeyman and the Brothers Farr

Last year in a presentation about the critical academic approach of political ecology, a classmate observed that its main advocates do not do enough to forward their approach – which is criminal for the contribution it might make.  He made a good point, and I have begun to feel that way about many other things such as the Baha’i teachings, the movie The Fountain  and the three musicians Simon Honeyman, Eric Farr and James Farr.  To be clear, I am promoting them here from beyond the ocean not because they are my dear friends and I love them to bits - it is selfishly as a fan of their music who wants to hasten the proper recording of it so that I can have it in my own hands as soon as possible.