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Many activities can cause physical damage to a human body. Not the least of these are so-called “contact” sports.  For sure, sports with contact, hard contact, have a way of leading to broken bones.

Having grown up in an ice hockey culture, I have taken the idea of physical injury for granted. Indeed, when I was a youth playing my first hockey, we had flimsy gear and no head protection. We seemed to survive, with a few stitches and bruises.  But now that I observe the dramatic impact of body checks and fast flying pucks on players, it gives me pause. Each of the injuries, especially with a fracture, hairline or more prominent, takes 6-8 weeks to fully heal.  And, it usually means a player cannot train during the rehabilitation period like he or she normally would.

The Vancouver Canucks began this season with a surprisingly good performance, based on good coaching, good young players and good execution by a few seasoned veterans. The team was exceeding expectations by quite a margin.  The team was fun to watch…..fast, productive and successful many nights.

But, with the jamming of Bo Horvat’s ankle, with fracture, the puck in the face shot on Sven Baertschi, with fractured jaw, with a good slam into the boards of Eric Gudbranson and probably broken ribs, and now Brock Boeser’s blocked shot attempt leading to severe ankle injury, the Canucks are in big trouble.  Not to mention Chris Tanev being out with strained groin and Derek Dorsett being permanently sidelined with a dangerous neck injury…….

The game of ice hockey is not unique in its physicality of course.  Sports like Aussie Rules Football, North American Football, Soccer, Rugby and other less highlighted sports like Lacrosse, put many players out of action for parts or all of seasons.

There does not seem to be a way to prevent these injuries when the inherent nature of the game is quite violent.  The players accept it.  We as spectators support it.  But is changes lives, changes seasons, and changes the comfort one feels while sitting in a chair watching the modern-day gladiators battle.  We are more civilized than in days gone by, but not without the conundrum of societal endorsement of violent sport as an outlet for human aggression.

Fire is our friend in many circumstances.  Perhaps the most obvious of these situations of excruciating need for fire can be understand by glancing at the sun.  Our star, the sun, keeps us alive as a planet of diverse species.  For a few more hundreds of millions of years I am told.

Fire is of course important in our ovens, on our stoves, in our fireplaces, in our campgrounds. But with a changing planet, that (as I have written in prior blogs) is unhappy with the way we have disregarded the impact of fossil fuel combustion, is biting back in a harsh and relentless way.  On many continents, wild fires, in the forests or the grasslands, are devastating communities, wildlife, people.  Lives are being lost, of humans and other animals.  Billions of dollars of property is being erased. Our sensibilities are being shaken.

As long as we lead the world, diverse countries and other smaller geopolitical units by whim, ideology and frank stupidity, we shall burn.  The question is – is it too late?  My thoughts and feelings are with the front-line fire fighters, with those being burned and with a planet that needs our genuine complicity in caring.

I am not speaking of fish scales here, even though they are interesting in their own right. I am not speaking of weigh scales like one might find in a bathroom, a hardware store, a grain elevator or an interstate checkpoint for big trucks.  They are all interesting.

I am speaking about the utterly incomprehensible levels of scaling that exists from the sub-atomic to atomic to molecular to multi-molecular to cellular to tissues to organs to bodies to social networks to communities to regions to archipelagos to islands to continents and oceans to planets to solar systems to galaxies to universes.  None of these thoughts are new for anyone really, but on certain days I look out the window at work thinking of the people scurrying around, the big cranes rotating, horns beeping, birds swooping, clouds evolving and the sun heating, and think just how complex the system of existence is, even as a physical system, even in a small corner of it.  And, then when one adds in the other more intangible dimensions of spiritual, astronomical, geological, natural and synthetic alterations ongoing, it simply blows the mind.

Why is this a worthwhile reflection….for me because it reminds us of our smallness, our tiny roles in big pictures, our finite times and spaces, or little wiggle of the “needle” of being.  It helps one to recall in capital letters the word HUMILITY, and it makes some of the behaviour we see in person or on electronic media seem like such a childish facet of a big world where we need to use our split-seconds of time for more good, more kindness.

When one looks at scales, we are neither the most fascinating of the small or the large.  We are just in between. We are fortunate but should stop thinking so often that we are exceptional.

All week we have been in a fog. An air inversion has accompanied the high pressure here on the coast. The eerie appearance of the city and the bay in this dense low-hanging cloud of moisture makes it feel like Halloween or some strange far away planet. In this shroud, one feels quiet and isolated from the cacophony of daily life.  Vehicles pass in and out of view like fish slipping through murky water. Planes are heard but never seen.  Fog horns call out across the water. Dampness pervades the air, the grass, the senescent leaves of deciduous trees, the sidewalks and the streets. The potential for a really warm day is muted by blocking out the rays of sunshine. The fog does make one feel physically isolated from those around you.  It separates us more than we really are. It is calming in that way. It serves to settle the mind and soul. It is peaceful.  I like it.

I have been away from my blog for several weeks.  It has felt strange not thinking in print like this, so I am glad to be back.

I have had time for a lot of reflections about my family, about remembrance of those who have served in the armed forces, about the season of thanksgivings, and for events around Baxter to connect with these reflections.

First, a few thoughts about my siblings, especially my departed brothers.  I have had the great fortune of having four super older brothers and a younger sister. My oldest three brothers have passed to a better place.  They were all amazing in their particular human ways.  A few comments about each of them arise from my appreciation for what they taught me about life and living.

Don, the oldest, exceeded all expectations as a role model and mentor for his siblings.  He was even, strong, quiet, reliable, resilient, and just. He was the first son, so he rather naturally gravitated to the farm my father and grandfather had built with their wives and families. He was the one to show the way on hard work, on assuring that the diverse activities around crops, animals, trees, gardens, and the like were completed and done well. Don had a knack for engineering and with additional education at university he became extraordinarily skilled in taking apart, repairing, restoring and salvaging machinery that ranged from trucks and cars to tractors, combines, swathers, plows, harrows, and cultivators. We saved so much money from the fastidious work he led in our big machine shop.  And we had so much fun seeing the inside of every moving part on all of those machines.  It was like a autopsy, except we got to put the machines back together so they could function anew……a little different than an autopsy in that way! Don also was the neighbourhood role model in driving the horse-powered closed sled in the winter time, in plowing snow for the municipality, singing at church, and seeing the bright side of tough times…..the latter exemplified by the fire that destroyed our farm shop one sunny summer afternoon.  In that inferno, Don’s lovely 2-tone yellow-black ’57 Chevrolet car was consumed.  A lot of tears, and a lot of hugs, and recovery! Perhaps the most memorable act of justice that I heard but unfortunately was too young to witness in Don’s role as peacemaker and citizen, was when he dealt with a school bully who liked to torment other smaller, younger children.  One day, Don realized that the only way to end this nonsense was to invite the said bully out behind the school to put up his dukes.  That little fight ended any bullying or physical intimidation in the school, I believe forever!  Another very different moment occurred on a Saturday afternoon when we were all cleaned up to go to town, as farm folks do on the weekend.  Then, one of the swine got out of the pen.  I remember Don’s raw athleticism in chasing the pig, and then like a great tackler in the CFL, bring down the pig, wrestle him to a standstill, and return him to his rightful stye. Another even more disparate moment I remember with Don was as a little boy, perhaps 8 years old, watching Don and his friends wash our cars down by our reservoir. I was watching the waves in the water, which eventually made me dizzy.  I fell into the water. Don looked around and initially thought he saw a muskrat swimming in the water……..it was my thatch of hair floating above me.  He quickly snatched me out of the water and saved my life.  I did not know just how lucky I was that day that Don realized i was “in the drink”.

Thankfully, because however far away I would travel after high school, it always was punctuated by trips to the farm, I always got to see Don, to hear of the challenges of the farm, to see his family grow, and to feel his goodness. He lived a great life with dignity and strength. We are so much better because of him.

My brother Jack was a great inspiration for me. He was largely away at university when I was finishing elementary school in the country. He came home with energy, a smile on his face, pretty ladies on his arm, and stories of his life at U of S. Beyond my parents diligent emphasis on education for all, my viewfinder of Jack’s life convinced me that life after high school would have to include learning at university. His involvement in ice hockey and his mastery of bridge were also a little magical for a far younger brother. As I progressed in my education, through multiple universities and into Boston, Jack and his dear wife Fran kept in close touch. Their visit to New England and our trip to Cape Cod one afternoon will always stick in my heart. We sat in the sunshine on a little courtyard having a few drinks and learning about brother’s lives a decade and a half removed. I will always cherish that day. The following winter my brother Jack, driving fellow engineers in a snow storm would perish when a truck on the wrong side of the road smashed into them. Jack would by fluke be driving because he knew the roads.  No one else would die. We lost a great person, suddenly, only 48 years old, with a family of four amazing children. It has always been hard to find peace about this. Jack was an icon of good spirit, good conversation, good will.  He was a great brother. We were truly common spirits. I always think about how things might have been if he had not been on that icy road in southeast Saskatchewan that fateful day.

James (Jim), my next brother was no less incredible than my other brothers. He was so talented and so unassuming. Fortunately for me, Jim was in the upstairs bedroom when I was in elementary school.  It was in that fascinating place that one saw the hobby that would become his life’s work, his passion – airplanes. The whole bedroom was filled with hanging balsa wood planes, model planes with their engines, parts of planes – engines, wings, tails, cockpits! And there were all of the tools of model building from blades to wires to glue to plastic. It was like being in your own private museum of aviation.  Jim would take that passion to post-high school education and become an aeronautical engineer.  He would fly models in competitions or just for fun on sunny afternoons in Calgary, and he would ultimately land a great job in plane modeling in Montreal.  There he would meet his wife to be, Shirley, and would chart a path that led him to Lulu Island for a career at Canadian Pacific Airlines. Because he was so far away during much of that time, I didn’t have a lot of contact. One great memory was when the 1966 Grey Cup was being held in Vancouver and myself and 3 other college friends drove to the Left Coast for the game.  I stayed with Jim and Shirley in Richmond and they lent me their Volkswagen bug to drive to a post-game party in Vancouver (The Saskatchewan Roughriders had won and my high school friend from Saskatoon, Gord Barwell, was a wide-receiver with them.) I met many superstars that evening, had a blast, but got totally lost in the rain at night trying to get back to Richmond.  I think it took hours to get to their home.  But the car was intact! The Cadillac that the 4 wanderers had driven out in, in stormy winter weather, broke down at Hope on the way back for Christmas exam week in Saskatoon.  I didn’t want to bother Jim, so I hitchhiked through the mountains, grabbed one night with Jack and Fran in Calgary (at -30 F) before taking a Greyhound bus to Saskatoon with a dime in my pocket. I never wanted my brothers to know that I didn’t have any money……I could figure it out! There is much more to this story, but I return now to Jim.

After those early university days, I moved around North America in my training and new positions. I didn’t see Jim or his family much until 1993 when we moved back to Canada.  The same year Jim retired from his engineering position at the YVR and moved to Vernon. We got in better touch and visited back and forth, and especially with their fine children Rob, Tam and Tracy. It is with them that we would share the loss of Shirley, and most recently, Jim. Jim’s battle with ischemic heart disease was a tough one.  It lasted in essence for about a year, with many hospitalizations, procedures, hopes and uncertainties. Jim had so much he still wanted to see, do, hear and laugh about.  He was in no manner ready to leave last summer. I could see and feel the fire in his eyes and soul.  I thought it might carry him through. There was so much more we could have learned about our lives, shared for fun. Thankfully we had some time together to connect. A tough and quiet person, a very cerebral guy, a smart guy with great analytics, a great, great dad.  Jim, my brother.

My brother David, a little older than I, has brought his own special form of inspiration and guidance. He was there when I needed to learn how to drive a tractor (by age 10 years), and really taught me many farming skills that I would not use as a life’s work but which helped really understand that nature of the farming process. We grew in different directions in junior high school and high school, myself more towards academics and sports, he more towards being as wild and free as possible. He was truly untrammeled.  He took paths that few would or have. He has passed through the keyhole of near-death experiences many more times than most people.  He has grown stronger for it. He has learned to navigate the worlds of farming and realty concurrently, with success.  His children have grown and matured.  His wife Carol has been a rock! David never forgets my birthday.  There will always be that telephone call. He has a heart that is oversized with love.  He always shares it. Thanks!

My sister is not my brothers, but I must touch on her life too.  She and David and I grew up together, just farm kids, getting on the school bus, trying to grow up the way our parents showed us was the right way. Elizabeth is a wonderful sister – full of talent, persistence, resilience, selflessness. She has beaten breast cancer, she has suffered deeply from the loss of a stellar oldest child in mid-stride, she really bore the load of my mother’s needs in her latest years, she has kept her wits, she still smiles. One of Elizabeth’s most wonderful habits is knowing and reading old and new books.  She is a prodigious reader, despite having a longtime eyesight challenge. She knows books! She is a scholar of good books.  Many scholars do not read like she does! Finally, she is a peaceful soul.  Perhaps that is a feature of all of my siblings……they are or were, in their individual ways, peaceful.

And what does this have to do with remembrance…….I think it is evident. We just had Remembrance Day in Canada and the equivalent Veterans Day in the USA. We think of all of the men and women who have served and who serve in the armed services and civilian services to protect and defend.  We remember. We wear poppies.  We thank. We are grateful. The “band of brothers” and sisters fortify and protect us. It is about the family of humanity.  It is about justice.  It is about maintaining peace in the face of chaos. Having been in the USA on this Veterans Day, I golfed in a charity tournament for the “Folds of Honor”, an organization that helps families of the fallen, the recovering veterans, and the communities of those affected by military sacrifice. I golfed in a foursome that included a Marine who had done four tours overseas in hostile areas of the world.  I learned more about their challenges.  It made me think and feel. I am thankful for that time with this fine person, a brother of sorts!

Thanksgiving Day in Canada occurs about a month and a half earlier than USA Thanksgiving.  It is a luxury to be reminded for that whole interval about the many things, including but beyond the harvest, we should give thanks for. Family is one big gift.  Grandparents, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, cousins, you name it! They all mean so much. They are all in the “band of brothers” and sisters that makes life joyful and fruitful. Thanks!

Which brings me to Baxter.  I have written about Baxter before.  I have written about his venerability, his surprising durability, his calm and generous spirit, his love of “human” food, his hops and skips through the park, the 15th fairway or the endowed forest. Baxter had a great personality.  Everyone was enchanted by his spirit, whether at home or at work or on the street.  Baxter brought joy. He brought the desire for the outdoors…….he just needed to be outside!  He loved to be tickled and scratched.  He loved everyone unconditionally.  He made it through unpleasant times when an early owner we do not know was mean, when he was in the Kootenay’s, and then when he came closely into our lives over the past 18 months.  Baxter was a brother of Biggles.  Biggles was always domineering with his brother.  When Biggles passed on, Baxter took on a more lively persona, more outgoing, more confident.  He was always kind.

Most regrettably and sadly, Baxter’s health has been deteriorating over the past several months. This came to a head over the past few days. His digestive tract just couldn’t function.  He was sick.  He was in pain.  He could not be fixed. I could not stand the pain I saw in his eyes.  His soul was tired.  He needed rest. So, we helped him into a better world with our veterinarian last evening. He was peaceful again.  His soft, soft beautiful ears calm.  He was fast moving to be with a “band of brothers” already there on the other side of the “bar”…….Biggles, Claude, Butch, Duz, Fab, Reeba, Simon, and Frankie.  They are all together again, even though they might not have been so physically before…..for sure spiritually.  Bless them all and thanks for all of the joy they have brought to peoples’ lives.  Baxter you rocked our world.  See you in the next.  Get ready……we will go for a long walk in the forest, with lots of puddles to linger in.

A few days ago, I had the extreme good fortune to be honoured by the Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award from the UBC Faculty of Medicine. The evening reception, which is annual, is a venue where the Faculty can recognize a wide range of achievements, so it is always a joyful and up-tempo event. I have reflected on the immense honour that the Faculty had chosen to bestow on me, on the amazing leaders who had received the Award in previous years and the Webber family.  I am so thankful to Marilyn and Bill Webber and family for creating this recognition.  Bill Webber was a person of great character, a gentleman scholar, a learner, teacher and mentor…..a selfless leader and problem-solver. He helped many people to be better in their lives. He helped Janet and me a great deal when we came to UBC in 1993, when, post-deanship, he was serving as Associate V-P Academic and as Coordinator of the Health Sciences at UBC. He was a role model to many people….a person we wish to emulate. Thank you to the Webbers for this honour, as it gives one pause, a time to reflect.

So, for my part, I know I have been…..

Lucky – very fortunate to have fine parents, without high school educations themselves, who believed in education for all 6 six children, and for so many colleagues and friends along a creative path, which includes nearly 25 years at UBC…..that I hope is not over soon.

We, my colleagues and I, have very simply been Learning – listening and looking for clues to how health and disease progress, how they change, how we might change them.

We were often Linking knowledge and tools from different venues, disciplines and perspectives to make a little progress in finding solutions.

We often needed to do a lot of Leaning on the agility and energy of youthful trainees, staff and family.  Without trainees, science and medicine would be deserts without spring.

Sometimes, one would do the heavy Lifting, while at other times colleagues would shoulder the load of pushing boundaries of knowledge, learning new techniques, or evolving our context.

The key thing was and still is that what we do is a great privilege in science and medicine, and our lives are largely filled with activities that we are Loving.  We simply love it! The idea of helping people through the power of science is pretty magnetic.

And, importantly, we have always found time every day, for Laughing out loud.  It is a joyful journey to be on, for sure.

Last but certainly not Least, none of what I do has meaning without the Love and extreme tolerance of my closest species in a Lineage, my family, and my dear wife Janet.  Two of my three children, Amity and Cate, were at the awards reception.  That made an old warrior very, very happy. Thanks so much. 

The human condition is fragile.  The reasons why are complex. There is such a collision of genes, developmental nurturing, social and spiritual environments, circumstances and triggers. The world is pushed forward now by various forms of “social” media that contribute to instability and tipping points of catastrophe.

Events in Edmonton, and more savagely in Las Vegas over the past several days are not unique, most sadly.  They have become part of a pattern of uncivilized attacks on innocent peoples.  They are a mirror to our global world of social insanity.  The Myanmar situation, continued conflicts on every continent, the current US government administration with its buffoonery and failure of societies to help those suffering from “natural” disasters, are all wrapped up in one big ugly mess.

Courage, conviction to survive and to defeat the idiocy that has been unleashed on the world of common people will take strength and not rhetoric, it will take a deep look inside who we are as a species, and a severe questioning of “what the hell” are we really doing with our privilege of being on this planet.  A moral crisis appears to be gripping the peoples of this world.  Leaders in most quarters are not really leaders.  They are bullies, insensitive, self-centered, callous and hurtful.  They do not stand for social justice in any regard.

Thanks to those who are trying to maintain civility in our global society.  We need more to join and look at what they can do to further the cause of just societies for diverse peoples of varied means.  We must stand up for good.

I am an early morning guy.  Born into it on the farm, where life, especially in summer started a the crack of dawn.  We rose to get to work, with my father always preceding the rest of us, without an alarm clock, to make breakfast. Out to work by 7 am without fail.  This time of day was more than getting to work though.  It was a time of calm, of occasional meadow lark songs, of interesting sunrises and fresh air. A time for reflection and gathering energy.  Food for the soul.

Today I drove my wife to her workout before sunrise, sipping a good coffee. When I returned home, the dog rose briefly before slipping back into slumber. I took this time to connect with a few people who know hearts and who were planning the itinerary of a distinguished guest in this domain in the coming weeks. It was a highly fitting teleconference because today is World Heart Day.  For the most part it is a day to remind ourselves of the gigantic burden of heart and vascular ailments, either in terms of risks and disease.  The global deaths exceed 18 million per year, but at least as important, cardio-cerebro-vascular conditions are right near the top in terms of disability rendered.  Thus, the “living with disease” problem is common for the realm of heart disease.  There is no peace in that! Many of the common risk factors are known, yet many are not. The manner in which genes and environments and behaviours operate from pre-natal throughout life to senescence to yield protection or high risk for heart and blood vessel disease still needs work.  Such is especially true for at-risk populations like First Nations, South Asians and others.  There is much work to do.  Meanwhile, individuals and their families can do a lot – eat a more frugal and balanced diet, never use tobacco, always exercise even if it is just regular walking, keep you weight down, laugh a lot, stay close to important personal friends and supporters. The “social contract” that individual citizens, healthcare workers, healthcare systems, industry, governments, the press and charities have must be honoured, strengthened and actioned. Let’s make World Heart Day a day of celebration, one where we think more about love and the soul, and less about pain, suffering and fatalities.

As a child growing up in western Canada, I had little meaningful exposure to soccer.  We were consumed with ice hockey, Canadian 6-man football, baseball and softball, among other pastimes. There was little television coverage of any sports and certainly almost none of international sports like soccer and cricket. In the past decade of my life, things have changed…..

My grandson, who is 11 years of age, has been playing soccer for several years, first in Omaha and lately in Tsawwassen.  His enthusiasm and engagement in the game have rubbed off on me.  And, the wavefront of North American interest in and support of the game of “football”, as it is termed in many parts of the world, has been like a burgeoning tsunami of progress. The evolution of Major League Soccer (MLS) across the USA and Canada has spurred young kids to get further involved as well.  Some of the global stars have come to play here, and the quality and relevance of soccer has further risen. While it is a slower game than ice hockey and typically less dynamic than either version of North American football or Aussie Rules Football, soccer has gained an important foothold on the continent. It will surely grow in the years upcoming.  The skills that reach from footwork to headwork and body positioning gradually become clear, and once one has watched Messi run with a ball and strike you are hooked. The crowd atmosphere at the “pitch” as it is termed is very stimulating and encouraging of one’s spirit to be a fan. This is so apart from the hooligans that occasionally have a prominent face in some international locales where such behaviour seems more tolerated.  Generally speaking, the affordability of a professional soccer match for an adult or a child is considerably more so than a professional ice hockey game.

With all of its virtues, soccer is to be supported and endorsed.  It is a spirited sport, mirroring global diversity of ethnicity and origin, and reachable for aspiring young kids in even the poorest countries and communities. Bravo!

Yet, like all sports, there is room for improvement.  Three key things need to happen in soccer that would improve the match.  Soccer is the only game wherein so much fake injury and misery are on exhibit.  Players are forever moaning, groaning, writhing and laying around on the pitch after various “tackles” that have not hurt them at all.  Of course their motives are to help to or possibly attract referee interest in giving the opposing team a yellow, or indeed red, card.  This silly behaviour ruins otherwise great contests.  It also makes it difficult for fans and referees alike to discriminate the “fakers” from the few that are truly injured. In ice hockey this kind of behaviour leads to a penalty for the faker or whiner.  In Aussie Rules Football, there is much more contact, tough play, and blind collisions at high speed, but these young players don’t fake injury.  Women’s rugby is a tough game too…….yet rarely does one get a sense that players fake injury.  The faking in soccer needs to stop.  It needs to be penalized.  Coaches and the leagues must clamp down on this nonsense.  Play the game with personal integrity and don’t violate the principles of this global pastime.

The second area where soccer could quickly improve its integrity is by having two primary referees on the field.  While there are secondary referees on the sidelines and there are occasional video reviews, the primary referee makes the vast majority of decisions in a relatively complex, medium-speed environment. Given the width of view on a big space like a soccer pitch, the single referee, even if of high integrity, simply cannot see all of the goings-on. When a referee is biased, and this is obvious in numerous matches, the second primary referee could balance off the decision and lead to the correct decision in some cases when it would otherwise be lacking.

Finally, the game of soccer is fraught with a lot of time violations.  Teams leading the second half abuse the player change times by walking slowly on and off the pitch.  Coaches use this strategy as well to run off the clock. All player changes should have a stopped clock. As well, when full time is approaching or has been reached, the primary referee has a lot of latitude as to when the final whistle is blown.  At times it is right on the moment of full time and at other times it can be up to a minute or two late even when the coaches, players and fans know the whistle should have already been blown. I am not writing here about the amount of “added time” for injury stoppages (some of which were for fake injuries), but rather for full time at the end of “add time”.  Cleaning up this timing thing will bring more legitimacy to the game as well.

I hope that these reflections will be read by someone who cares about the game of soccer, and importantly, has some level of influence to fix these obvious weaknesses.  Soccer as the most global game would benefit and the exhilaration of the game would increase.

 

Mother Earth is not happy. Allowing for the natural forces that shape our world’s aqueous and land-based surfaces, and the atmosphere above them, the human species has had accumulative injurious effects of ecosystems in the oceans, lakes, canyons, grasslands, wetlands, and the air we breathe. All of the evidence shows the ways in which we have carelessly influenced climates by putrid emissions, disturbed tectonic plates by fracking, and polluted nearly anything you wish to name by being wasteful, throw-away societies.

As we sit in wonder about the raging forest fires across BC and Alberta, in the USA and elsewhere, wherein the lack of rain of any usual proportion as left the earth parched and primed for deadly blazes, and as we listen to analysts in their amazement about the number of active and potentially destructive hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, or we hear reports of the next big piece of glacial ice falling off Antarctica, we must take serious pause. Not only are people dying, animals dying, flora dying, coral reefs dying – the entire system of harmony in nature is being dramatically disrupted. It may never normalize now.  It may be too late.  These extremes of climatic behaviour reflect the Earth’s anger and pain. We in our smallness do not see that this is not about one emergent environmental catastrophe after another, it is about the new abnormal-normal that we have created.

Of course, there are many forces that have brought us to this tipping point of environmental unrest.  There is ignorance – lack of knowledge about how the complex systems of atmospheres and oceans actually work.  We have come a long way in understanding these, and now we are fearful, rightfully.  There is denial – lack of interest in how things work with an accompanying doubt that we are responsible for how the Earth feels or behaves.  This lack of capability to learn, read and think is pervasive and prevents us as communities or societies to do our significant part to alter the course and destinations of climactic changes, above and below the seas and the land. There is greed – many policies prevent governments and industries from being responsible.  They are always breaking rules, modifying laws and ignoring facts for self-interest – the “all-mighty” dollar drives the bus.  Our torturing approaches to air, water and land pollution, fossil fuel retrieval, fossil fuel dependence, and to the overuse of ores and metals offered up by the Earth…….these are among our greatest blind spots as socially responsible species.  Politicians and other “leaders” who lie about our climates and their illnesses should be jailed for life.  Everyone’s lives are being put at risk by their immoral and inane disregard for truth and consequences.

I am getting a little closer to the time when I can do my tour of the neighbourhood to pick up errantly dropped trash bits.  It won’t make a big difference, but on days like today, it will make me feel better while I walk and hum and breathe.