Never the Twain July 20th 2024

  I have been doing this a long time.  You usually don't see or hear a thing from me in therapy sessions in the summer.  Mostly because I enjoy things that don't come with a key board.  I like my back yard.  I like my golf course and I like to walk around our beautiful lake.  I enjoy our Mountains a mere ninety minutes to the west of us.  We have put a great deal of movement into our lives the last four years.  So without a rainy day,  I can't bring myself to sit down with those of you who take the time to act as my online therapists.  

Well it isn't raining today......It hasn't for a pretty long time by our standards.  In fact it is hot.  Hot.  Damn it's hot!  But worse yet, I have somehow damaged my back.  I am moving like the old man I have been trying so hard to avoid.  Hunched over, tiny steps to get to a seat where it takes several minutes to get in,  and slightly longer to get out.  You can dress it up any way you want,  but while it beats the alternative, aging can really suck.  Aches, pains, fatigue,  it is all part of a day.  Any day really.   Not to mention hearing, seeing, remembering.  I was never an athlete.   But I could lift and tote just about as good as anyone I ever knew.  That's pretty much done for the time being anyway.  

So on this Saturday morning, I though I may just discuss some things that have been on my mind lately: The Olympics are just around the corner.  We love the Olympics in our house.  Summer, Winter,  it is a couple of weeks we kinda shut down and watch the youth of the world compete.   Swimming is my favourite.   Up here in my home and native land we possess the most exciting sportscaster in the whole world come to swimming.  Steve Armitage of the CBC is retired now, but up until the last Olympics he covered swimming in the summer and speed skating in the winter.  He knew exactly how to rev up the excitement emphasizing the turns and building up the competition  over the last fifty metres.  Swimming or skating, I am pretty sure no one will ever do it better.  Gonna miss Steve this time round.

Of course there is a chance the CBC won't be round next Olympics anyway.  It seems to be a real thorn in the side of our right wing politicians here in my home an native land.  Blaming the media seems to be a contagious condition that spread from the south into our society here.  It's a shame really.   And in truth I don't know how easy a dismantlement it will be when the Conservatives form our next federal government in a year or so.  And while I am on that, we may just as well get this whole right wing opinion I bare out of the way.  

I suppose I am not a conservative because the best man I ever knew wasn't a conservative.  My father, who served his country in world war two,   first wave on D DAY.  Lost almost all the men in his section, was wounded quite severely.  A man who worked in the private sector as a farmer and then in the Oil Patch.  A man who supported his church,  and never once took a penny of charity or welfare, but paid his taxes and contributed to so many different causes with healthy donations,   was a centralist.  A liberal.  A decent intelligent, well read, leader and participating citizen.  All the things that are advocated by both the left and right.  

My dad is gone now.  And make no mistake, I will never measure up to the standard he lived simply as a matter of fact.  And although I miss him in so many ways, I am often thankful that he hasn't seen some of the things that transpired in our world this decade past.   The polarization.  The politicalizing of a global pandemic.  The resurgence of racism, and the move to force religious opinion into law.    

I don't know how we all got so angry.  But here we are:  Urban against rural.  Educated against uneducated.  Region against region.  Christian against non christian.  Employed against unemployed.  Old against young.  White against non white.  Rich against poor.   And I truly believe that these separations have been created because they serve as a definite advantage to a very few.  

Whereas I believe the government should be there to help the have nots, those who don't have the tools to function within a societies structure, those who don't have supports family provides others,  it seems right wing governments feel the need to provide protection to the corporate world from those who need help.  Trickle down economics tells us exactly who will benefit and those who will not in its title.  

 I will never understand the fear of the poor, the young, the public sector.  I don't think everyone who is poor is poor because they are lazy.  That the youth of today are useless.  That those who take a job in the public sector are without ambition.   And I will always be a little suspicious of a career politician who doesn't believe in government.  

Having said all that,  I do as much as I can to support local business.  I believe in and admire the small businessman.  I enjoy my life in a healthy economic environment.  And I do appreciate my friends and family who do not see things exactly the same way.   I just don't want us to think of each other as stupid, or gullible.   And we're gonna have to do it without the assistance of our leaders,  cause it isn't to their advantage for us to cooperate with each other.