Food for THOUGHT

Some years ago, a group of British poets began posting poetry in the London subway, amid the ads and graffiti. Renting advertising spaces (through a literary grant), they printed large posters of various poems - many by contemporary poets. People waiting for the train enjoyed reading the poetry so much that additional free space was provided for more poems. Now, years later, the project is still going strong.

These publicly-posted poems reminded me of plaques that gave praise to God installed at scenic mountains lookouts by a group of nuns... They wanted to remind people that God the Creator was behind all that beauty.

People's surprise at finding poetry - or Bible verses - where they least expect to may add power to the message!














A few weeks ago, I was surprised (yet puzzled) to read a saying that spanned an old Toronto bridge: "THIS RIVER I STEP IN IS NOT THE RIVER I STAND IN. (If you click on the picture, you will be able to see it more clearly.)

What does that mean? I wondered as I crossed the bridge on foot...

Then a few days later, I came across information about a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus (560 BC), who was fascinated with the concept of change. He viewed the constant state of flux around him in terms of a river. His famous illustration of the constantly changing state of the world was stepping into a river. The river you step into one minute is not the same river you step into the next. It is always moving, changing. The question he posed was: Why does this constant change (in the world) not result in chaos?

Being presented with IDEAS - that make us think - when we least expect it (on a bridge or subway wall) - is refreshing!

So much of our life is routine. We rush to work (in an early-morning mental fog) and return home at the end of a busy day to relax (and numb?) our minds with computer or TV programs... Often we don't move out of our daily routine "boxes."

So I THINK that anything that makes us THINK is ( as Martha Stewart might say) " A GOOD THING"!

(I should add that I have William Barclay's Daily Study Bible to thank for the information on Heraclitus. Volume 1 of John (1975), pg. 34-5)