Category: Environment

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Slap In The Face

I only have a few words to say about the Freedom Convoy trial.

If these shit disturbers who did a hostile takeover of our capital city do not face any criminal charges for the violence and disruption they caused us law abiding citizens, it is a SLAP in the face to all of us who endured the non-action of police and government at the hand of a few thugs.

No so called protest should be a siege of an entire city and bring everyone to their knees over an issue that was really, in my opinion, a non issue.

There has to be some justice for all those who endured those terrifying weeks. Some justice for the victims of this crime. Some accounting for a police force that aided and abetted a terrorist group. Some question about those businesses that supported the takeover.

Otherwise, it is a disgrace.

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The Good, the Bad, the Beautiful and the Ugly.

One of my favourite movies is The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So I borrow this title for my post, with a minor modification, because I am not going to write about the movie, but about life.

Life is the good, the bad, the BEAUTIFUL and the ugly.

We forget the beautiful part.

We also forget that life is ALL of the above. You cannot live without experiencing all it has to offer. If you focus only on one of the the four, your life will suffer.

Life is the whole package and it does not play any favourites.

But you can get through the bad and the ugly by remembering the good, and mostly, the beautiful.

You may come to realize, surprise, surprise, that the bad and the ugly are also beautiful.

In fact, all of life is beautiful.

The bad and the ugly will teach you that.

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How Could You Not Want This?

Every day there is always something interesting.

Maybe nothing grand, usually it is nothing grand, and often it is something common or ordinary, or just weird.

Like the sun on my face. A storm rolling in. Wet leaves plastered to the sidewalk. A tree burdened with crabapples. Starlings chattering as I walk by. The wind tugging at my jacket, tossing my hat, giving me a merry chase!

I marvel at cracks in the sidewalk and the persistent, amazing weeds that insist on growing there.

I scoop the litterbox and wonder at the way the litter clumps, like miniature hoodoos. I am amazed at how much shit my cat has in him!

I find a spot I haven’t vacuumed in a while and behold! Enough cat hair to make mittens!

I savour a forbidden chocolate bar while no one is looking. Or chip wagon french fries (with lots of no you can’t have this salt).

I hopscotch on faded chalk squares, delight in children’s laughter.

I laugh when I can’t fold my laundry. I spill toothpaste on my new shirt. When I do something stupid (so I laugh a lot).

The list is endless.

Every morning as I go through my usual mundane routines, I ask myself, how could you not want this? How you could you no longer desire to experience the weirdness of life?

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Money is Everything

When you are poor, money is everything.

Without money, you can do and have, nothing.

Long gone are the days of the best things in life are free, if that was ever true.

Enough money buys you freedom, well-being and health and can give you a future to look forward to.

People who have enough income will tell you money is not everything because they have enough money to take care of themselves and enjoy life. They don’t understand that without enough money, life is just survival. A great deal of what makes life enjoyable are the things you must pay for; vacations, experience, education, dining out, etc. Even the simplest things, like a walk, requires comfortable shoes; going out for a coffee with friends requires transportation and money to purchase a beverage. You can’t even go to a museum or a gallery without a fee. Or enjoy an ice cream cone.

Anybody who does not have enough money knows that thriving is a whole lot better than surviving. People who have money do not know what it is like to just survive.

Misery is nickel and diming your whole life because you have to and have zero money for anything beyond the bare necessities.

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Ask an Immigrant

We live in a free country, despite all the screaming that we don’t.

I say to any of you who think our country is a dictatorship, that you need a hefty reality check. You need to ask an immigrant what dictatorship is.

Ask a person who has escaped North Korea. Ask an immigrant who made great sacrifices to live here. Ask those that lived in dictatorships under tyrannical rule what freedom really is. Ask them why so many want to live here.

Freedom is what we already have. In spades! We are so incredibly fortunate. You need to take a look around. You need to educate yourself. We are free in so many many ways. We elect our leaders. We have abundance of everything. We can choose from a huge selection of cars to drive, clothes to wear, food to eat, furniture, electronics, appliances and gadgets. We can get jobs, an education. We can live where we want. Buy a house. We decide who we will marry. We have health care, hospitals, ambulances. We have pensions for the disabled and seniors. We can travel by planes, trains and buses, anywhere at anytime. We can speak our minds. Write books, make art, music. Sure nothing is perfect, but compare our country to the rest of the world. Do you realize these things we take for granted are not available to a huge amount of people in our world? They have no options and they live in constant fear.

Years ago I met a man from South America who was so grateful to live here. The story he told me of his life was shocking, and it is amazing he is alive. He had been beaten and tortured and lost his family. He had to watch everything he said, did and thought. He couldn’t go anywhere without permission. He didn’t have choices. He didn’t have options.

You cry because our government wants to protect us? By making us wear masks and get vaccines while we are in the middle of a global pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of people? I ask you, how do we stop the spread of disease? We are all in this together. The virus is our enemy, not our government. You think wearing a mask and getting a vaccine is persecution?! You know nothing about persecution.

You don’t understand how democracy works. It means we do what is best for everyone, and that sometimes means it may not be the best for you personally. We make some sacrifices. But we have so many benefits. So many freedoms. We live so well!

There are 50 dictatorships in the world, and the number is growing. You want to add this country to that list?

You have absolutely no idea what freedom is.

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Mad Max Era

In the post apocalyptic Mad Max world, men fight not for food, not for women, but for gasoline.

Gasoline is power.

The ones in charge are the motorcyclists and the truckers. Our lone hero drives a souped up car, has a pet dog and just wants to be left alone.

In our pre apocalyptic world, enter the truckers and the motorcyclists, wielding their power to overthrow our governments and rain holy hell upon us with dictatorships and fascism. The motorcycle is quick and agile, the truck is brute strength. The car just wants to take a nice trip to the countryside and forget all this stuff.

I thought mechanical hostility reigned only in the movies and that the good guy always wins.

But alas we enter the Mad Max era, and every protest is a violent engine, noise and gas fumes protest, and the good guys are losing.

Every night, drag races rule the streets. Every weekend trucks block our downtown core. Motorcycles blast through our towns. Every day I read about how many tickets (that will never be paid) are issued and how many licenses have been suspended and how many vehicles have been towed. The numbers go up and up and up and lawlessness is wearing us out to the point the Mad Max universe will rule.

Only the world won’t be in the hands of the truckers and motorcyclists. It’ll be in the hands of the ones who own the gasoline, and they won’t let anyone use it, except themselves. Protests and all that go with it, trucks, motorcycles, guns and weapons will be banned. The war on democracy will be over, and the 1% take over.

Our hero, his car and his dog don’t win. Nobody who was in the fight wins. Just the fat cats on the sidelines who incited all the turmoil.

At least it’ll be quiet.

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Barking

Someone in the neighbourhood just got a new dog.

It barks nearly all night.

How can people do that? Get a dog, leave him outside barking himself hoarse, while they are either out somewhere or at home with the ear buds in, playing video games, oblivious to reality.

It happens also in the apartment building I live in.

A new puppy is purchased and then we get to listen to the poor little darling howl for hours while the owners are away. Or worse, some tenants put their dogs out on the balcony and forget about them. So the stressed and lonely dog barks for hours.

How can people be so cruel and thoughtless? Not only to the dog, but to all their neighbours?

We had this problem when I was a kid at home. The neighbours behind us had a dog that barked all night. Even when we spoke to them, they were like, so what. Problem? What problem?

I realize that puppies have to learn to be on their own, and that if you want your dog to stay outside there is a period where they may bark. All of which I find heartbreaking. Animals need a lot of attention and love, and to me, that is what the real problem is. Dogs need companionship. A little love and care can go a long way.

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Solve the Worlds Problems

Once a month or so I reflect on the current state of the world and have some thoughts.

Soon the world will be under the total control of the one percent, unless a miracle happens.

Watching women’s rights being flushed down the toilet on this sad day as the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade. Next plan is ban contraceptives and same sex marriages. Step back into the dark ages. Once again, we must rise up and fight.

If there are no guns, or, as a comedian on Bowling for Columbine suggested, bullets were $5,000 a piece, there would be no more mass shootings.

Health care should be free and available for everyone.

Ditto for bus transportation and education.

Everyone should get basic income, especially senior citizens and the disabled, in addition to their meager pensions. That might bring them to the poverty line. Maybe. Better than always being below it. No one in this world should be impoverished. There is no valid moral reason for it.

Housing for everyone. Everyone. Not tents and cardboard shacks. Brick and mortar. Appliances. Heat. Running water. Bathrooms, kitchens. You know, decent living.

Gone, gone, long gone are the days you could earn enough to buy the things you need and want. Further gone is the notion that if you just work hard and long enough you can better your life. Or that higher education will get you a higher job. Ha! Now the process relies on supreme brown nosing, and even then, no guarantees the boss will like you and promote you. And lord, what you must do to keep what you’ve got! Rewards? How about some pens and lifesavers for 27 years of service?

Education should be about relationships with other people, history, how to handle money, how to care for and treat animals and the environment and not about how to hide under desks when an active shooter arrives at your school.

Education should also be about learning, thinking, solving problems, innovation, and most of all, having fun.

We need to stop worshiping celebrities and billionaires, and get them to pay taxes. We don’t need more electric cars, telephones and space junk.

And last of all, enough with the lame ‘thoughts and prayers’ from our leaders. DO SOMETHING.

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Blank Slate

At least once every day I have a moment of sheer terror.

My brain screams: What the F are you doing? You’re going to die! You’re going to go broke! Your world is going to end! There’s not time left! It’s all falling apart! It’s all for nothing! It’s hopeless! ETC. ETC. YAWN.

Needless to say this is where I despair even being alive.

And then I either collapse and go to bed, or have a nice pity party first.

Surprisingly, this scenario plays out no matter what my current situation is. I had these moments even when I was working and well off and healthy.

But I learned a simple technique.

Today is a whiteboard, or if you’re old fashioned, a chalkboard. Whatever is written there can be wiped clean off.

Tomorrow is a blank slate. That is, every day that I am permitted to live on this earth is another chance to change my life and make what is wrong, right. What doesn’t work, work. To put new marks on my whiteboard. The rule is however, that board is always wiped clean at the end of the day.

Whatever I screw up today, tomorrow I have a chance to do better. And if I screw it up more, at least have a good laugh.

So when I fail – I overeat – I don’t exercise – I can’t write one damn word on my book – I can’t even draw a squiggly line on my latest art project – I said the wrong thing – I ate junk all day – I spent too much money – I bought crap – I forgot to do something – I failed an exam – whatever – I know that tomorrow I can write all day, I can eat properly, not spend money, pass exams, make an apology. Or not. There is always the next blank slate day.

It is ditto for successes. They are only good for a day too. Well, sometimes, maybe, okay, I can let them linger for a few days longer. But all those mistakes, errors and failures Swoosh! Gone.

I don’t need to carry my failures into the future. They are wiped out at 12:00 a.m. when the next day starts.

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Let’s Talk About NOTHING

There is so much going on in the world that my head is spinning. Talk, talk, talk.

I propose that we, at least for a while, talk about nothing.

How can we talk about nothing? Everything is a subject. Everyone has an opinion. Even when we are quiet our brains are still chattering away.

I had an aunt that never stopped talking. Even if you fell asleep listening to her. She was oblivious to the entire outside world. She was locked in her own head. She would phone me and I could set the receiver down and go have a cup of tea, read a book, do housework and come back and she’d still be yammering.

The world has become my aunt. Yakkety yak yak yak.

I want to talk about nothing.

It would be so good to just discuss a fine summer day, like the beauty of flowers, bees buzzing, clouds floating by without digressing into why’s and wherefores and why nots.

At the bus stop a young man noticed I was taking pictures of clouds and had to point out that those clouds were caused by pollution. When I said they were still beautiful, he got quite annoyed and started lecturing me.

Oh, please. Just talk about nothing.

When I see some creature or plant or scenery that I can’t name the genus, species or rock formation, please don’t tell me. There is beauty in the unknown. If I find out this bug is nasty, that plant is invasive or that scenery was caused by man made blasting, it ruins the whole thing. Sometimes, I just prefer mystery. It is not necessary to know everything. It is not important.

I remember reading about a man who saw the most magnificent birds soaring over the coastline and sea. Their outstretched wings angelic white in the sunlight. And when he found out they were seagulls and people were generally unimpressed with them, it ruined the entire experience for that fellow. I happen to like watching seagulls. They are so free.

So let’s talk about nothing and just appreciate what there is. At least, for a while.