Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on Monday March 16, 2020.
It happened two days ago in a local store: the person in front of me bought $300 worth of hand sanitizer.
Here we are, increasingly engulfed by the reality that is the COVID-19 pandemic. It is happening and it’s getting closer. Some store shelves are empty – the mysterious case of toilet paper stockpiling is still ongoing, and the shortage of sanitizing products is troubling.
Life as we know it is changing every day. New routines and measures are popping up every day and it takes some solid pep talk to not succumb to panic. We will see better days, just not yet. Not for a while. There will be bad ones, possibly many, before things get better. There are graphs and simulations and news coming from all directions. Some will provide good information and others will also make your hair stand on end, factual as they may be (try this link for a reliable bird’s eye view.) Still, the worst is not knowing. And yet, putting all your energy into hunting down more information than available in the media (which is by everyone’s standards, A LOT,) might not take you to the place where you are settled enough to do your work, or connect with your loved ones, or just be with yourself without panic.
So, about that.
Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on Monday March 9, 2020.
On a fateful day in 2012, somewhere on Salt Spring Island, a set of bad decisions ended up changing many people’s lives for the worst and ending one. Calder McCormick and Ryan Plambeck, then 17 and 18 years old respectively, left a house party in an advanced state of intoxication due to alcohol and marijuana, got in a car that was not theirs and crashed shortly after.
McCormick survived but suffered brain trauma which left him unable to pursue further education or even ride a bicycle, while Ryan Plambeck died at the scene of the crash. He was behind the wheel but did not have a valid driver’s license. Heartbreaking and yet preventable.
Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on Monday, February 17, 2020.
A while back I read a book that was as poignant as it was scary. It is called A deadly wandering: A tale of tragedy and redemption in the age of attention, by Matt Richtel (William Morrow, 2014). I mentioned it at the time because of the high volume of drivers busted driving and texting at the time. I am picking up the topic again because somehow the issue of distracted driving does not seem to go away. How could it? The people at the other end are doing their best to keep our attention hooked to the devices through whatever pings and screen traps necessary.
Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on Monday, February 3, 2020.
I have a hard time peeling myself away from the book I am reading to focus on this column. The book is called From the Ashes, and it is written by Jesse Thistle, presently an assistant professor of Metis Studies at York University in Toronto. The path that led him to where he is today though… OK, I will not spoil it for you. I am three quarters done and have shaken my head and winced more times than I could count since I started reading it. I had heard him sharing his story on the radio a couple of years ago while driving with my eldest to Harper Mountain. I wished then he’d write about it. He did.
Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on December 23, 2019.
Most days the boys come home from school saying the day was OK. Every now and then something more than ordinary happens and the usual non-descriptive OK is replaced by stories, good and bad. A couple of weeks ago our youngest came home with such a story – a good one.
That day, their Career Planning teacher told them, among others, that gratitude makes life better. He told them stories about people who went through hard times and became that much more grateful for what they had even when almost everything had been taken away from them.
Another time, the woodwork teacher told them that they are fortunate to be able to go to school and have access to so many learning resources. We often talked about this in our home. It is hard to put in in words how good many people have it here. And having it good comes with moral obligations, I believe.
Originally published as a column on CFJC Today Kamloops and Armchair Mayor News on Monday, December 2, 2019.
I have this simple blade coffee grinder that I use for grinding flax seeds. It lost a knob during one of our many moves, but it still works. No points for looking pretty though. We also have another basic blade coffee grinder, which has all parts and has been fully functional for the last 20 years (OK, we had to sharpen the blade a couple of times). Donating either in favour of new ones might just mean the end of the road for both, since they look past their prime. And then again, why would we? They work just fine.
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