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THE WEEKEND OUTLOOK Friday April 12 Religion- Remembering a lost friend By JIM RYAN Sunday of Easter Lake 24 April 1991 FREDERICK BEUCMNER S DREAM Exactly a year ago tomorrow a very good friend of mine died He was an Englishman a witty elegant many faceted man One morning in his sixty eighth year he simply dtdn wake up Which was about as easy a way as he could have done it But it t easy for the people he left behind because it gave us no chance to say good bye either in words if we turned out to be up to that or in some unspoken way if we weren A couple of months later my wife and I were staying with his widow overnight in Charleston S when I had a short dream about him which I want to tell you about I dreamed that he was standing there in the dark guest room where my wife and I were asleep looking very much the way he always did in the navy blue jersey and white slacks that he often wore and I told him how much we missed him and how glad I was to see him again and so on He acknowledged that somehow Then I said Are you really there Dudley I meant was he there in fact and truth or was I merely dreaming that he was His answer was that he was really there And then I said Can you prove if Of course he said Then he plucked a strand of blue wool out of his jersey and tossed it to me and I caught it between my index f inger and my thumb and the feel of it was so Religion and Reality by Jim Ryan palapable and so real that it woke me up That all there was to the dream But it was as if he had come on purpose to do what he had done and then left When I told that dream at breakfast the next mor ning I had hardly finished when my wife spoke She said she had noticed the strand of wool on the carpet when she was getting dressed She was sure it been there the night before I thought I was losing my mind and I rushed upstairs to see and there it was a little tangle of navy blue wool that I have in my wallet as I stand here today FOUR QUESTIONS How many dreams have you heard like this 1 ve heard two One from my aunt and one from a friend My aunts dream was about her brother who died of kidney failure when he was twenty four years old My friend s dream was about a friend and teacher of his who died in middle age 2 What s your reaction to dreams like this my aunt first told me the story of her brother appearing to her in a dream I laughed I was an adolescent at the time but I think I d still laugh When I read dream last week I shrugged and wondered if the strand blue wool wsn t just a cheap artifice to end a dream with an overly neat twist 3 But why then use dream in this column Because to me of little faith it sounds a lot like today s Gospel reading In the Gospel Jesus ap pears to the disciples probably back in Galilee after the high drama of his tnal and crucifixion in Jerusalem The detail that caught my eye however was the grilled fish Jesus Is offered and eats a piece of grilled fish Aside from placing the appearance in Galilee grilled fish Is apparently still rare in Jerusalem this detail has the same feel about it as the strand of blue wool in Beuchner dream The early disciples probably held on to that memory of the grilled fish the way Beuchner holds on to that strand of blue wool But aside from this tion so what Let me paraphrase Luther Without faith neither strands of blue wool nor grilled fish mean anything That may be a bit obscure For and for the Gospel writers faith isn obtained by dreams or post resurrection ap- pearances Endnote Beuchner s dream is quoted from Spiritual Quests edited by William Zinsser Boston 1988 Politics and religion are controversial topics By PAUL STADT Pastor of the Georgetown Christian Reformed Church A discussion is taking place in our nation regarding its future We are not the only ones talking about it The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia are other examples of nations in discussion about their future Every human being in the world lives under the of some kind of governing authority Nobody can escape liv ing under some kind of political structure Politics and religion are often considered to be such controversial topics that they are off limits in the barbershop or the beauty salon The future of our nation should be a topic of con versatlon among us all One of the questions that needs to be considered in Discussing the future of Canada is what is the job of government what should we expect it to do for us Part of our struggle in political discussions is that we indeed ask ourselves too often what can we expect the government to do for us Asking what the government can do for us is not a bad ques tion but even before we ask what can the government do for me we have to ask what is the government sGod given task When I live in Canada I am thankful that I have the freedom to state my convictions about what I believe the task of the government is Not everybody on Page 26GuBlphSt Georgetown Ont 8779896 73 MAIN ST S DOWNTOWN GEORGETOWN John 877 FOR ASSISTANCE WITH ALL TYPES OF MORTGAGE FINANCING RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL CALL DAVE KRAUSE 8734991 Come Out To An Evening With The Premier Bob Rae Dinner Dance Cocktails at 6 30 Friday April 19th 1991 John Tonelli Sports Centre Milton For Information Call 8774348 8774015 8777619 u CHURCH DENOMINATIONAL PENTECOSTAL ALL PEOPLES CHURCH DELIVERANCE CENTRE Bramaloa SW Corner FfnchgateHwy Bible Study Worship Deliverance Sunday 10 30 a m 7 m Wednesday 8 00 m We Provide Children Church Nursery Service English toItalian Translation Pastor George A 2176 CHURCH OF ST ALBAN THE MARTYR Chut 1030 NEW APOSTOLIC CHURCH WW APOSTLES AM ACTIVE TODAY Sunday School 900am SERVICES 30 5 00 pm Wednesdays 00 p HILLS CONGREGATION ISOManSL South Ac Ion Ret or Stephen WIN WORTH OF GROCERIES from ONE MORE CHANCE TO WIN Draw to be held Moil April 29 1991 How To Wilt Find the mystery word or symbol in the ads in today Homestyle section This week mystery word is LISTING Fill out the ballot below and drop it off at any of these participating 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