Briefly

Briefly:

• Why is it that meat-eaters have such a problem with vegetarians? I rarely talk about my vegetarianism, or try to 'convert' folks unless they ask me about it, but sometimes when meat-eaters notice I'm a vegetarian, they act like I'm insulting them somehow. I don't get it. I really don't. (My brother has written on the topic as well, back around Thanksgiving time.)
• This week I had the experience of being too late, twice, to provide the pastoral care I was hoping/needing to do in a certain context. Ugh. But in the same week, I found myself perfectly placed as the perfect person to provide pastoral care in an unexpected situation. Funny how that works. Now if I could only get the good feelings about the later to match the bad feelings about the former.
• from cnn.com, other world news: "Food emergencies in Africa are occurring three times more often now than in the mid-1980s, but the global response to famine continues to be "too little, too late," the international aid agency Oxfam said on Monday. Conflict, AIDS and climate change are all exacerbating food shortages for sub-Saharan Africa's 750 million people, with innovative solutions and massive long-term support needed to break the cycle, the British-based group added in a new report." The pervasive and continued existence of hunger, when I can throw out food just because I simply never got around to eating it before it went bad, is appalling.