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Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 Nipigon - Red Rock Gazette Page 5 Basic Black Gladsome Gleanings I don’t make a habit of rhapsodizing over the juxtaposition of two of the 26 letters in our alphabet, but lately I’ve been gleefully gloating over the glut of glorious words that would fit in the ‘gl’ glossary. If there was a ‘gl’ glossary. It’s quite striking, the number - and power - of English words that begin (or contain) the ‘gl’ combination. Like, for instance, ‘English’. It’s a construction that gives us beautiful words like ‘globular’ and ‘glissando’ and ‘gladiola’. It spawns plenty of powerful, evocative words as well. Words like ‘glower’ ‘glaze’ and ‘glitter’. It also serves up its share of ugly (there it is again) words like ‘glutton’ and ‘gloat’ and ‘glitch’. We’ve even, in our lifetimes, imported a Russian ‘gl’ word - Glasnost. In his book, Welcome to the Monkey House, the writer Kurt Vonnegut went so far as to coin a brand new ‘gl’ word. Are you familiar with that horrible, lifeless brown-green slop that coats the bottom of harbours and bays polluted by too many boats and un-housebroken humans? Vonnegut was too. He dubbed the toxic slime ‘glurp’. Mister Vonnegut is no longer with us, more’s the pity, but I have a feeling he would approve of two brand new ‘gl’ words, lately, ahem, ‘gleaned’ from our ubiquitous friend, the Internet. The first is Glamping. Glamping is what happens when Paris Hilton meets Lord Baden-Po well. The word is a contraction of two words that you’d think would form a natural oxymoron - glamour and camping. Glampers are people who enjoy the beauty and peace of the great outdoors but not the hardships associated with actually, you know, experiencing it. They don’t care for lumpy sleeping bags, smoky campfires, leaky tents or pungent pit toilets. When one goes ‘glamping’, one avoids all that awkward, messy back-to-nature stuff. Glampers luxuriate in capacious tents with real beds, duvets and even Persian-carpeted floors. These tents, which would do a Saudi oil sheik proud, come with power outlets, the better to provide electric light and juice to run those oh-so-necessary Playstations, Blackberrys and hair dryers. Don’t look for these pastoral palaces to be springing up in campgrounds at Banff or Algonquin Park or even the local KOA trailer park - at least, not yet. So far, the fad of glamping is pretty much confined to Europe, where upscale glampers like Kate Moss and Sienna Miller glamorized the practice by showing up at music festivals and demanding five star treatment. They definitely started something. Marks and Spencer, the British retail store has just announced a whole new line of fancy-pants tents and glamping accessories including...floral tent pegs. Floral tent pegs. Can you imagine what Grey Owl would say? It may be largely a European phenomenon so far, but there are signs that it’s already made a North American landfall. A report in the Los Angeles times notes that although the overall number of visitors to U.S. national parks is dropping, sporadic flocks of ‘Glampers’ have begun to raise their well-coiffed heads. But I promised you two new ‘gl’ words, didn’t I? Okay, here’s the second one: Glurge.Don’t know what it means? Check your e-mail. Chances are you’ve got two or three examples of glurge in your Inbox. The Urban Dictionary has the best definition I’ve read: Glurge: Word used to describe the syrupy sweet e-mails that are mass-mailed to unwilling participants. Usually involve, puppies, kitties, children with disabilities, puppies and kitties with disabilities, and Jesus. Generally end with, "Pass this along 2 as many ppl as u can!!!11!!1!" Yep, we’ve all seen too many of those. But here’s a thought. What if a couple of Glaswegian glampers -say Glenn Close and Gary Glitter - gleefully gathered in a glen near Glastonbury to glue together a conglomeration of glittering glurges, then wangled a single-access website where they could dangle their new-fangled jingles for all the world to see? That would be glorious. And something we could all glom onto. Keeping a Holy Lent It is that time of year again! Winter is cold and lingering, one day we have the dreaded “more” snow and the temperature is not quite as bone chilling, but the next day it is bright sunshine and back to bitter coldness. It is also the time of year when we are invited to look at the cold bitter reality of who we are as people; Jesus invites us to come face to face with the icy bitter reality of our human weakness. We don’t always do as we ought, we forget that others have concerns and worries too, we put our own agenda ahead of the needs and the hurt and the pain of others; but then along comes Lent, inviting us to be intentional about questioning and examining our true motives, our actions, our behaviours and our priorities. To keep a Holy Lent we begin by self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting and giving to those who are in need. Keeping a Holy Lent means we need to be honest with ourselves, while at the same time knowing that we live with an abundance of hope because we have such an amazing and gracious Saviour. Jesus loves us despite our mistakes, despite our weakness and despite our selfishness. On Sunday afternoon as I stood burning the palms for Ash Wednesday I realized that God does to us what the fire was doing to the palms...transforming and refining. Lent is the time we can put away all the falsehoods we carry about ourselves, we are given the opportunity to say, “Here we are Lord imperfect, incomplete, weak, broken, sorrowful and mourning, here we are Lord, sinner and saint all rolled into one. Here we are Lord confessing and repentant and yes Lord we are hopeful because we know you to be a God of love, mercy and forgiveness.” In the midst of this cold and even bleak winter we come to you, our Lord, seeking the fire of your love, the fire of your forgiveness and tlie fire of your salvation. Our Lenten journey has begun but it is not a journey we need to take alone, when we take Jesus into our hearts, Jesus welcomes, restores, redeems and loves us. Thank you loving God. +Diane Hilpert-Mcllroy This February there is a double Celebration of Love.. Valentines Day and Family Day. ADVERTISING DEADLINE Please be sure you have all of your advertising needs submitted for the Tuesday, February 19th edition of the paper by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, February 15th Due to the February long weekend. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters to: Nipigon-Red Rock, or fax us at 887-3720. We’d like to hear from YOU! This is YOUR community newspaper. There is no cost.