Well it seems that so far we are doing great in 2012 and the world has not ended.  Of course it seems like it did with this blog and yeah sorry but life keeps getting in the way of my writing.  Needless to say I am able to write something right now.  =)

First things first, I hope that you all had a great holiday season and that your Christmas was a great one.  Ours was.  The boys got so much considering that we are not a two income household, barely a one income but I digress.  When it comes to being with your family on Christmas and enjoying the strength of a family, it really doesn’t matter what you get but who you thought of and who thought of you.

My family and friends really helped to make this year a good Christmas for us and for that I am eternally grateful.  Christmas week was filled with family dinner after family dinner as well as the first Community Christmas Dinner in our new hall.  It was a great night.  It is so nice for our Community to have their home back and by that I mean the building with which we hold our Feasts in.  The Feast Hall has been sorely missed these last six years in the community so it was great to see so many people out.

It led quite nicely into the New Year.  We got together as a community before 2011 was out and out hall was put to good use.  It is a great step toward what is in store for us and our new hall in 2012.  I feel like I am getting my strength back and I don’t just mean in my left knee.

For those not in the know, 2011 was all about me and my osteoporosis, rather my preliminary diagnosis of it following two breaks in my left knee, the first requiring a plate and 5 screws and the second requiring only 2 screws.  I have yet to see the specialist but that is in the works and before the first month of 2012 is out, I will know for sure what is in store for me and my bone density that is low enough to be of concern.  That is how I asked the doctor when I went in to see the bone scan results and that is how he responded, by repeating what I had said.  He arranged for a referral to the specialist and that is where I am with my knee.  Clinically speaking of course.

Otherwise, as I said I feel like I am getting my strength back.  I walk more and the pain even in the middle of winter is not as bad as I had thought it would be.  I am able to walk my son to school and that is something that I have not done in a little while.  Walking is something that I will be doing more often now too.

In a family dinner, the last of the year 2011, I spoke as my Uncles did and it was such a treasure and treat to have most of my Mom’s brothers and their families getting together fora meal.  We will begin to plan the wedding anniversary of my God Parents (who are also my Uncle and Aunt) and it will be a celebration.  A welcomed one as it will be the first 50th Wedding Anniversary in the community in a little while.

I feel like we are getting stronger.  I am glad that hall is back.  =)

I am glad to be back as well, I missed writing.  I hope you missed reading.  I hope your Christmas was a great one and from my family and I we wish you all the best in the year that  our family will grow by two feet.  The end of May can’t come soon enough.

I think my wife will be bringing homer some news today, news that we never thought to inquire about previously.  With our previous babies, we waited to find out that we are the parents of three boys.  I kinda hope she does find out so that we can try to keep it a secret for the remainder of the term.  The end of May can’t some soon enough but I am a patient Man.

So that is it, a retrospective of 2012 that I was compelled to write if not only to be able to write the following and I will preface this by saying that last year I was on the couch for New Years unable to stand with a freshly broken knee.  As I rang in this New Year, I was grateful to hear from my Brother over the phone as well as some great friends from Colorado and it was there that I reminded myself of the motto that I shared with my family over our Christmas Dinner – Every Step Is A Step Toward Strength.  It’s a good motto and it is the truth as well but it is nothing compared to my final thought and yes I will finally get around to saying what it was that I brought up earlier (when mentioning that I wrote this if only to say the following):

2012 is already a great year (said on the first day) because this year I entered it standing up.  =)  Happy New Year everyone, all the best to you in 2012.

As I typed that title I accidentally stumbled upon another theory that I didn’t realize could be there.  The accident was in trying to type “End”, I had typed eEnd and that sparked a whole train of thought on how the world will end in 2012 but only ONLINE and not in actuality.

Many will suffer a death of sorts if you will.  Many will have to quietly take down their The End Is Nigh sites and other conspiracy theory sort of content but that pretty much sums up my thoughts on that train of thought.  LOL  It was a shorter train than I expected.  Luckily that topic that I wanted to discuss is still here.

Will the World End in 2012?  Do the Mayans have it right or are there other possibilities that have yet to be discussed.  I don’t know and that is the essence of the question that I want to highlight.  No one knows with any certainty and if they did, they know better to keep it to themselves rather than have chaos be the last image of humanity.  It is a scary notion isn’t it?

Doom and gloom aside, the question remains.  Is this the last full calendar year that we will be afforded?  I have to ponder the question because I am sure that I am not the only one who has had the thought of, “Why bring a child into this world when it is doomed already?”  The easy answer to this is, Yes because I can and I want to.  I’m a parent and who’s to say that there isn’t a better place we will all go to?  No one can say that for sure and again that is the gist of the topic today.  With so much uncertainty, why not hold on to those things that are CERTAIN like being a Father to my children, Husband to my one and only Wife and Buddy to so many.

With Facebook I am now Buddy to so many more and while I have learned that Facebook is not the place to be if you are working and or busy, it is still a place where I can go and find something to do, if you consider sitting in front of a computer “Doing something”.  =)  It is on Facebook that I noticed a cartoon that opened up my mind in terms of the possibilities that exist around the Ultimate Question.  When Will The World End?

The Mayan Calendar

The profundity of this cartoon was enough for me to realize that at one time, the sky was falling, the Earth was flat and many other things that we realize was never the case.

Humans in their limited knowledge and capacity back then didn’t know better and so they believed that the sky was indeed falling.

Of course we have been afforded the luxury of Time and Knowledge to help shape who we are so we know that it was most likely a meteorite that was being observed by those ancient peoples.

It also helped me to realize that the Mayans at this time must have had limitations as well that we are not aware of.  Like space!  LOL  Maybe the tree this was used to make the calendar was the biggest tree around.  It is a possibility.

Much like our growing knowledge of our place in the Known Universe.  We now know that there are such things as solar flares, dark matter, massive fields of gravity, space radiation and other nasty stuff we aren’t fully aware of but for sure know that it means doom for us.  In many respects it puts me back in the place of our ancients who stood in awe of a Haley’s Comet and foresaw the immense power that must exists in something we can only observe from a distance.

Our growing bank of knowledge and reach into the Universe is expanding but at the center of all that knowledge still lies that little bundle uncertainty that we build over with our growing aspects of certainty.   It still lies there though, the uncertainty.

It helps those who need it and it holds back those who don’t but it is still there.  Now that we are on the cusp of what could be the most prophetic and dooming piece of human knowledge, we have to consider that Uncertainty MUST have been a part of the Mayan Society as well.  Heck any society of that time will have had LIMITATIONS that we may or may not be aware of.

Obviously the biggest limitation that we are aware of is their lack of technology and information sharing that we have today.  Our biggest limitation is that we have no first hand knowledge of the Mayan Calendar and its creation.  Perhaps it stops at 2012 because the artisan did in fact ran out of room or perhaps they really did know something about what our Fate holds in store for us.

Right now all I can do is continue to live my Life and be a Husband, Father, and Buddy to those that means the most to me.

Will the World End in 2012?  For some yes and I do mean the eProphets but for the rest of us?  Who knows.

If it does, I am not wasting my time.

If it doesn’t, well…we’ll laugh and point because we’re humans but there will be other things for our collectiveness to worry about.

(postscript)

The tags that I have included are suggested by WordPress.  I hope that you read this whole post before going on a journey by clicking those links.  Enjoy your day before another one is gone.

I know I haven’t posted much lately but things have been quite interesting for me of late.  In a nutshell, I broke my knee again and have been stuck on the couch.  For the most part, I’ve been trying not to slip into the void of depression at the edge of this rut.  Things are good though, worry not for me but for those in your life who are falling into that void.

Depression aside and out of the way for me, I shall get back to writing here and boy have I got a topic for today.  That last post I guess is a good indication of the stress and depression that was engulfing me but I am out of it.  On to the good news.

So last night my wife and I became Uncle and Aunty once again as my Sister in Law gave birthto a baby boy.  =)  We’re so happy to have another addition to our family.  Well the family.  As for our family, well we thought George The Third would be our third and final child.  So we thought but I’m getting ahead of myself.

What does it mean to be a Dad?  I have seen the placards, the pictures and quotes of being a sperm donor as opposed to being a father and I agree with all of them.  Ejaculation is all that is required for a guy to become a Father but it takes love, sacrifice, love, time and commitment to your family (Mom and baby) in order for you to be considered to be a father.

The best thing a Father can do for his child is to love his Mother.  Nice saying and it holds so much truth.  I won’t get into which is better when it comes to the nuclear family unit and the single parent unit because love is at the base of both of those and that is enough.  However as the first line of this paragraph states, I feel it is important for both parents to be involved in the growth of their child.  That means being a Dad and a Husband guys!  Suck it up, your single life that you cherish will not last and you will regret leaving what you have chasing something you will never get.  Trust me.

Still, there is nothing that compares n my mind to hearing from your wife that you wil be a Dad again and YES!  We are expecting again.  =)  I cannot explain the depths of happiness that I drew from or the expanse of joy that I found myself in when she told me that she was seven weeks pregnant.  I had kinda known that she may have been but didn’t want to put any pressure on her.

This will be baby number four for us and we’ve been through a lot in our 17 years together; the last ten in marriage.  When she told me that we were expecting again I was so happy that I smiled for the rest of the evening.  I’m smiling as I type this and will probably smile every time I read it.  LOL

That in a nutshell is what it means to be a Dad.   I know, kinda cryptic but at the same time so simple that it borders on the absurd.  Fatherhood should be a manual full of things to say and do and when and how and all that jazz but not something that makes you smile.  But that is what fatherhood is.  It is something that makes you smile.

I learned early on that every child is different, that they will grow and progress at their own speed.  This makes it difficult to say with any certainty that you will have the answer to your childs every questions and boy will they ask a TONNE of questions early on.  =)  Fatherhood for me is being there and loving my wife so that my sons will learn that.

There is no easy answer to the question of what does it mean to be a Father other than just smiling at the person who asks me.  =)

My wife and I are expecting our fourth child and I could not be any happier.  I love you Heather.  <3

It is something that I have been contemplaying of late.  Recently it has resurfaced after an exchange of views and well, being on Facebook.  To be clear, I commented on a politician’s status and in that thread, this politician stated that he felt that genocide has never occured in Canada.

In further discussions I realized that if one were to look at genocide and define it, most likely they start with the acts of injustice and use that as a basis for their definition.  I realized that INTENT is the only thing that seperates the concentration camps from residential schools.  In practise, there was not much that was different but when you look at the intent, it does change.

Regardless of the intent, the actions need to be addressed in a manner that is much more substantial to the survivors and the children of the survivors of residential school.  I have seen gentlemen that are several generations before me and in terms of growth, they have not left the residential school system.  They are still being held under thumb and kept in line by the memory of a ruler and other horrors that they just can’t forget.  They survived yes but if they are still “there” in mind, they really haven’t left.  There may be guilt felt, a need to stay there for those that were lost and even died in residential schools.

Sadly that sort of pain and hurt crosses into the next generation and no matte how old you are today, someone in that native household has been or is related to someone that survived residential school.  My Mom.  I love you Mom and your getting your Grade 12 Diploma after all of these years is a testament to the strength that you will find not only in our women but all First Nations.

I know that as I look toward becoming the age of 42, I have realized that there are a lot of my brethren, my generation, cohorts and peers that are no longer with me.  Guys that I grew up with that have passed on; the most difficult of them all is my Late Cousin James.  I have the worst case of survivors guilt with him.  Well, had.  I think, I just take it day by day but it has been many years now.

I was there visiting him the night he died and I can’t help but remember the pain I felt after his passing, questions of Why and What if were all I could think about.  Why did I go home when I did?  Why didn’t I stay when I know I could have done something, smelled the electrical before it was too late.  What if?  My wife laid it out in plain sight for me.  If I had remained, if I were there, I would have been gone as well.

Yeah but it doesn’t take away the guilt that is still there, moreso on some days than others.  September is the month that we used to celebrate our birthdays given that they were in the same week.  Every year.  =)  I wish things turned out differently that night but I had to realize that no matter what happened or didn’t happen, it doesn’t change the fact that tragedy touched my life and the lives of us all in this tight knit tiny community.

There is more to this I am sure but I have written enough for now.  I may add to this later or just write it into a series or something like that.

Image via Wikipedia

I look at philosophy as more than an IRC Chat room that once held me online for an 18 hour stint.  The internet was still new to me and chatting on the internet was still relatively a new thing for everybody so it made sense that I would have people to actively talk to for over 18 hours straight.  The things you think about as you listen to the rain that hasn’t stopped for almost a week.  =)

We talked about much in that chatroom and while it always came down to religion for some and belief for others, it was very cool to see the vision of so many others, to share.  One topic that was of great interest was the evolution of Man and Society.  I have since realized with this blog that Thought is something that is also evolving.

Somethings have never changed though, from those early days of the internet and online interactivity.  People still share ideas, now done in a more streamlined feed if you will.  The other day I engaged in a discussion that had me thinking back to those days when seeing people’s words across my screen had my mind whirling with thought and theory.

I was reminded not only of the Hydrological Cycle, one of my favorite forces of nature, if not my only favorite, but of the entire field of Philosophy.  I guess walking in the rain does that to me.  Several times I have been walking home in the rain and a line always comes to me.  “As I walked out into the rain…”

It starts a poem of sorts one certain days and on others, it starts a train of thought that follows a raindrop dripping from the tip of my nose, to the ground and out to sea only to evaporate into the atmosphere and find it ways back into a raincloud, waiting to fall on me again.  Empiricists will understand this.

On other days, the rain floods my thoughts
with questions and observation.
I can’t help but fall into place
with an iambic pentameric pace.
- G. Nelson Jr.

The rain does put me in a mood for poetry.  I don’t know why it does.  I think of the line, “A little rain never hurt anyone, but a lot can.”  That sort of contrast really gets me thinking.  Perhaps that contrast is why the Religious Debate continues to this day.  It is a bit of a conflict.  Religion and conflict are not estranged, far from it actually.

Within that conflict is another line of thought that I can’t ignore.  Evolution.

It was evolution in fact that sparked my thoughts on water and how water has been such a large part of Human History.  I don’t know if I could undertake a book or something like that that theorizes on Human evolution but perhaps that is what I am doing with this blog…hmm.  I will have to come back to that notion but right now I have water on my mind.

I wonder if that is a medical condition?  Water on the brain?  That is the thing about water though…a lot can hurt you and so can a little.  People have drowned from drinking an excessive amount of water, people have drowned from flash floods and the like and the point is simple. Water is Life and is it also Death.  That is one heck of a dynamic to balance.

Water is Life.  Water on this Planet is Life.  Although as I have realized, we are not as unique as I would have originally thought.  Every Star must has a region where there is a planet right in that sweet spot of Hot and Cold.  Ideal situations for water and the evolution of Life.  Or is that the miracle of Life?  See there is the balance.  Those who adhere to one side or the other can’t see the balance as having an opposing though weighs heavy on their sense of balance.

It is a bit to consider but if you look at yourself on a huge rock and that rock is spinning, you have a snse of spatial awareness that you may not have had, or forgotten.  I’m sure every one of us has felt that sense of being small when you see that fast moving cloud and realize that it isn’t the cloud that is but you yourself that is moving.

So now that your mind is awhirl, I will leave you to your part in the rain.  Enjoy whatever remains of your day and may your days ahead be free of rain, or full of it depending on your needs.

The Eagle.

Related articles

• The Nature of Philosophy (socyberty.com)
• Philosophy Weekend: What’s So Terrible About Creationism? (litkicks.com)

 

It is something that I might know a thing or two about and then again, know nothing about at all.  I say that because as I have seen in recent history, the notion of a Father has changed.  At one time it was the pipe smoking fedora wearing man in a suit who came home for dinner and solved everyone’s daily problems.

Fast forward to today where you only have to say, “Baby Daddy” to know that I am talking about an entire generation of children who will grow up not knowing their Father or worse yet, have no father figure in their life at all and no knowledge of their paternal heredity.  Of course this brings up the question of do we really need a father figure to grow up?  It is something I have pondered in the past not because I wanted to leave my wife and children but in another aspect of our lives, I have seen that a single mother can be quite effective in raising children.  My sons have lived in a student residence during the school year, it is our reality here in this tiny coastal community on British Columbia’s untamed West Coast.

Having said that, I can still see that there is a need for a balanced view on the world and that includes being able to do discuss guys stuff.

…but what does having the ability to discuss guy stuff have to do with the topic of today’s post?  A lot actually but I am getting a bit ahead of myself here.  First some backstory and a tie in from my previous blog post.  I do miss my old man, rest in peace Dad.  I love you, always will.

I guess that is the unifying feature of this blog today.  I love my Dad and I miss him because he has passed on some six years ago.  He was there for me through everything, thick and thin.  I recall with some comfort and nostalgia how my Dad looked as he stood against the wall of the mall that I was being picked up at.  I was on my way to post secondary education and being away from home for the first time and I really have to find that picture I took of my Dad at that moment.  I had said good bye already and was on the bus that would take me to the airport and I was out of his sight but he wasn’t out of mine.  It was at that moment I took the picture.  I love you Dad.  <3  =(  My heart is no longer broken but it will weep from time to time.

That brings me to my friend Evan who by all intents and purposes is in a postion where he might be a Dad someday.  In fact, every boy, young man and adult male is in the position that they may be a Dad someday but that doesn’t change the fact that they all have in their own rights, their own Dad.  I didn’t understand Evan’s comment at first in my previous blog but I do now.  The loss of a Father is a profound experience, one that I do not ever want to go through again but in some respects, I would because it means that I will get to spend time with him again before he died.  I wouldn’t wish this on anyone but I will be there for them if I can in any way.

Evan’s comment that he will be ready to connect with The Harris Boys and I some day is a warming one because it means that while he is not looking forward to it, he knows that one day he will be without his Father and I want Jake and Josh to know (should they ever come across this) that losing your Dad is profound as hell but it is not something that will stop you or defeat you.  Unless you allow that to happen, hang in there guys, you do your Dad proud.

I guess if there was anything in the form of advice that I could give to the new Dads and the Dads To Be, it would be simply…Be There.

Be there to support your child when they are in pain or fear.  Forget all that bullshit about being a man because it is only in the company of single guys that you will find that sort of bravado.  (Or those wanting to be single again?  I dunno, leaving that can of worms alone)  Be there and know that as a Dad you have the ability to ensure that your child grows up with a healthy outlook on life and an balanced one.

I don’t know if a person that was raised by a single Mom would agree with me in my naivety that you need both parents to raise a balanced view but I am willing to take any feedback on this even if it is a slur filled tirade of Leave My Mom Out Of This!  I have not lived my life without my Dad being a part of it, even today six years after his passing.  This is not a slight against Single Parent homes and Moms but if there was a slight, it would be against those guys who came and ran.  Pun intended.

So what does it take to be a Dad?  I know that all of the shows have aired their view on the topic and as a result we have terms like “Baby Daddy”, “Biological Father” and well, Oprah?  LOL  I don’t know Oprah or her family but the idea of a Stronger Woman can’t be ignored.  I take nothing away from a woman that can be both the Mom and the Dad but it would be nice for them if they had some support wouldn’t it?

I don’t know because it seems like my post is everywhere but I am hoping this post has some cohesiveness to it because it does have a few cans of worms that pop out when you look at the topic.  The cohesiveness?

Be There.

I know that adoption is a can of worms here as well and I applaud any who take children in a raise them as their own rather than as a sort of puppy mill.  Those who are career foster parents purely for the money should just stop but that is a can of worms I will leave for another day.  Perhaps.

If you are a Dad and you are there for your child/ren, more power to you and we should talk about the worst diaper you have ever changed.  Such topics need to be shared, the pain of the worst diaper that is.  =)

“I miss the old man.”

It is a quote from one of Captain Phil Harris‘ sons as they bring their boat home and pass their Late Father’s resting place at the end of the Opilio season.  This is the Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” if you aren’t already aware.  I just watched the show in its alloted time slot.  =)  I usually miss it and catch later in the week.  New programming is fun and provides some backstory for today’s blog.

To add some further backstory, I was asked recently, well not asked personally but on Facebook if I had a Hero.  After the question I wondered what the question implied.  If I had a hero, does that mean I am weak?  I honored my Father and my sons by citing them as my heroes which helped to focus the question for me.  The asker of the question cleared it up even more with, “…having one defines one…”.

That is deep.  Hero worship in its basest form is pretty much what drives the sports and entertaiment industries, almost.  Celebrity in my mind does not equal reaching Hero Status.  If “Marketing and PR” helped you reached Hero Status, you are fooling yourself.  If you can take sych hero worship and effect positive change, well more power to you.  Still, you can’t just purchase status like that.  How many Country Clubs do you know that are full of heroes?

There are many heroes and I have even written about them in this blog, firefighters, officers and front line service workers are the real heroes because they have to put up with your shit on a daily basis.  (Katie‘s my hero too!)

Consider that for a moment.  Imagine if you had to face the worst that humanity has to offer on a daily basis?  Imagine if you had to face the threat of death both personally and in the general public every time you log in for work?  Imagine being a deckhand on those crab boats that spurned this blog the next time you go to Red Lobster or have alaskan king crab.

There are many heroes and whether or not you adhere to worshipping your heroes or honoring the people in your life that have made your life all the more better, having people to look up to really does help you get through some dark days.  Heroes for the most part provide for each of us an avenue of hope and possibility.  “If they can do it, so can I.”  Choosing your hero as I have learned also defines who you are, not who you consider to be a hero.

As I have stated, my Dad is my hero I have his portrait hanging on the wall where I can always look over quickly and see him as I did some 30 minutes ago when I heard the line, “I miss the old man.”  I truly do.  Missing him is not like mourning him though and I will share that with those of you who have lost a loved one recently.  It doesn’t make sense and it may never make sense but you will be able to see that constant mourning is not the way to go.  I mourned, now I remember.

I smile when I think of him and I on the boat, the many adventures and challenges we faced together and as a family.  I dreamt of him many months after his passing and in that dream I was brought to a crossroads, well floats and there were so many boats and fisherman coming in from the waters that I felt quite peaceful, it was great.  I remember quite vividly (if you can remember vividly your dreams)…hmm.  Maybe I mean, I remember the almost visceral surroundings quite vividly as I was stopped at the intersection and my guide whom I never saw beyond the back of their feet and an arm as they pointed out four fisherman just heading up the gangplank.

I saw him.  =)  He was way younger than he was in his passing and he was happy, healthy and so happy.  =)  His smile is still with me and that wave, I can close my eyes and relive that moment time and time again.  It helps.  Having his portrait right there also helps.  Having a channel for classical music alone also helps.  I’m listening to MaxTrax, the Pop Classic channel.  My Dad instilled the love of music in me, classical music especially.  One of my favorite pieces is Von Suppe’s “Light Cavalry Overture“.

It is so cool but the Kincolith Concert Band has the sheet music for this and I really hope they practice it because it is an awesome piece of music.  My brother plays the sax and says it is quite a piece of music to play.  I love the way it starts and finishes and the best part is that my son plays the trumpet, an instrument if you know orchestra sounds awesome in this song,

[Author's note:  At the time of writing, the internet here slowed down completely and the autosave only had up until this point.  I am continuing in the hopes I can tie it all together.]

I tried linking to Von Suppe’s Light Cavalry in the hopes that you could continue reading while listening to it.  It really is a beautiful piece of music.  It plays as I think back to just my Dad and I out on the fishing boat, in between sets.  We’d play cribbage or work on puzzle books but all the while we were listening to his music.  I know he appreciated the music of my day but I appreciated his music more so we would listen to Pink Floyd as well as John Philip Sousa.  I love band music, it reminds me so of my Dad.

So does watching Deadliest Catch.  Rest in Peace Captain Phil Harris.  I’m sure you were a hero to at least two people, they honor you.

As as son, it is what I can do for my Dad.  *looks up at the portrait again*

I miss the  old man.

So the days have been pretty nice of late and after the nearly two weeks of rain prior to that, it has been a welcome site.  I still haven’t found my clipons though so it has been really, REALLY bright.    I guess I will be writing about something that is in line with taking things for granted, or being culturally shocked by a new environment but more importantly, I felt like writing.

I know that not everyone lives in a bit metropolis but there are a lot of people who do.  For those that have lived in a city for their entire lives, I wonder if they crave the mountains, sea air or as I have seen as I looked out my front window, an abundance of clean air.

We are in essence all the same, empirically and fundamentally speaking.  Yet, there are no two people exactly alike, including identical twins.  It is a bit contradictive and perhaps that is where conflict comes from.  Do the trees want to stand out or are they all in fact connected under the soil and in fact, one?  The forest is but one aspect of the bigger picture that is our world and as I have seen outside my window, it may not seem like the forest is connected to the ocean but it is.  Gah, I’ve painted myself into a creative corner.  I know what it was (re-reading helps LOL), I guess as I was writing I realized that there may be comparisons to trees that some people will not be able to get passed.  They will say that people and trees are not the same, that trees do not want an identity but who are they to say that for certain?  As you can see, that creative corner can be sketchy.

I took on the Universe and it did not explode, or implode.  I have to wait for a bit here…there,  luckily metaphorical paint dries rather instantly.

So I was talking about people who live in a city and have lived their for their entire lives.  If they don’t crave the mountains, the sea air and the forest as I do, do they still crave?  I’m sure that in any environment people will find meaning in their surroundings and it is in that pursuit that I can see how we are at all different.  I have lived in a city, not long but long enough to say I ‘lived there’.  I got used to the traffic, the sirens, the exhaust, the traffic and the sheer amount of people compared to the 500 or so in the Village right now.  However, other than getting used to those things, I really didn’t attach my self and my identity to those surroundings as I have with the mountains and other things I see outside my window.

You know, a few days ago and this will be a bit of a tangent but it will all fall into place, I hope.  =)  So a few days ago, there was a community dinner in honor of the Gathering Strength program where we hosted the send off dinner for all of the paddlers in the 8 or so large canoes that are making the journey from Kincolith to Hartley Bay, BC.  I wanted to take part this year and it would have been awesome to do but with my knee I am going to wait and see how next year goes.  Maybe my two oldest and I will take part next year, this will be like the sixth year or so in a row it has been done and the group gets bigger each year.  Getting injured sucks but recuperating beyond expectations is awesome.  I love growth, progression and getting stronger.

So what does the dinner for the paddlers we just had have to do with my looking out the window and wondering about all those people who live in the city and never see this?  I guess it is about taking on a challenge.  How many of you have challenged yourself to go outside your comfort zone?

How many of you look out your window and see something to do and then go and do it?  How many of you simply look out the window and lament?

The point is simple, looking out your window can be something as mundane as knowing where you are in relation to the horizon or something as deep and profound as seeing yourself on the other side of that window pane doing something that you never thought you could, or would.  Of course, be safe, be smart about your choices but know that you made a choice and I admire you for that.  =)

There are some choices however that are made for us and there is nothing we can do about it.  Some are huge and some are nothing at all but a bump in the road.  I had a speech in mind for that dinner with the paddlers, I wanted to express my thanks to them for giving our Community an opportunity to sing, play music and generally have a great evening over a great meal with some new friends.

I wanted to thank them because it was the first time I saw my son on the stage with the Kincolith Concert Band and if you know me, you know it is a big deal for me.  He made me so proud and I can still see him smiling as he stood up and was introduced as one of the newest members of the concert Band.  That is some serious history for me.  =)

I guess with any sort of reflection, yes even through a transparent pane of glass, you can’t help but look back at what used to be.  The community dinner gave me an opportunity to remember my wife and I’s wedding just over ten years ago.  It is weird to think that ten years ago, our road was just built and that our wedding would be the last River Wedding in Kincolith and the Nass River for that matter but that is what it is.

Seeing those canoes off the shore and the people of Kincolith gathering at the waterfront to welcome them sure was a treat.

Some windows challenge you or they let you see things you haven’t seen in a while.  Enjoy your respective days and thanks for reading.  =)

Well I guess it is time for me to sign in to my WordPress and oh look at that, all this time and I only had 2 spam in queue.  =)  I guess if I don’t write anything, no one comes to read it and no one wants to spam my site.  I think I might be on to something but then again I’m not.  it is neglect, pure and simple.

I just haven’t found the desire to write of late.  Blame the summer months, blame an XB360 in the house now, blame me.  I just didn’t feel like writing.  Now I know some of you might be waiting formy Grea Wall of China post and to be honest, I didn’t want to write it.  Go figure.

I thought it about some more and almost posted a few times but just never got around to signing in or even visiting my page.  My poor WordPress, neglected.  It seems that my title today was not only the first thing I thought of but typed.  I had it in my mind to write about a few things that I have taken for granted.

First of all is this site.  I love weilding words, crafting colloquialisms and aligning alliteration into almost poetic sentences but I have found out that I have taken my writing for granted.  It is one of the things I always did.  Whether it was a paragraph or a few pages but I wrote almost every day.  Not so much lately as you may have moticed.  I really need to make use of this place more often.

There are a lot of things that I want to do more often but just aren’t.  Exercise is probably one of the biggest things that come to mind.  I need to get outside and do more walking.  Walking is one of those things that I also took for granted.  So much so that I wasn’t paying attention to the little patch of ice that laid me up for about four months and for the last 2, slowed me down considerably.

That is changing though.  These last few weeks have seen me without my brace when I go out and even better than that?  No cane.  =)  My knee has grown pretty strong of late and I am kinda embarrassed when someone mentions it.  Iwas actually surprised like it was a surprise birthday when someone exclaimed to me (unexpectantly), “You’re walking without your cane!”  It was a nice moment, they were happy to see me without a cane and I was happy to without it.

The comments lately are how fast I am or how strong my leg is and it is nice.  That brings me to the last thing that I have taken for granted and wanted to talk about today.  The people around me.  Now that I think about it, it also means YOU too.  I am sorry I haven’t written anything in a little while.  I couldn’t bring myself to write about the latter half of my China trip because I inadvertantly wrote about the whole thing in the posts that are already there.

There really wasn’t more to say but who knows, I may still write about my trek up the Beijing Section of the Great Wall.  It is a memory I will keep forever.

So I wrote something.  It may not have been the post you were waiting for but it is something new to read.  =)

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t have something for you as well.  I have pointed to my knees which brings up walking, climbing stairs and general mobility not to mention the ability to lift things.  Have you taken for granted something like that?

I have mentioned my WordPress and the use of my writing which includes thought, creativity as well as providing an outlet.  Have you made use of your outlets?  Take some time to appreciate your creativity.

Most of all, do not take for granted the people in your lives.  Sure some of those people may have contributed greatly to the life you lead today but those people are in your past so really why are you allowing them to continue to contribute to how your life is going?  Appreciate the people in your life today.  If said people are not good for you, don’t take it for granted that things will get better.  People are creatures of habit so if you have people who only use or abuse your friendship, it will not get better.

Appreciate most of all who you are and where you came from even if you don’t like where you came from, if it wasn’t for that place, where would you be right now?  Enjoy your Friday everyone, or Thursday or whatever day you read this on.  =)

Preface:  Before you start reading this, how do you like the new feature of WP suggesting links for you?  I have a few that were suggested and one or two that I sought out myself.  Just thought I would ask before you get started reading, please enjoy.  =)

So our first day in Beijing was primarily getting to our hotel to check in, shower up and get ready for dinner.  Consider that for a moment, it took us pretty much the whole day to do that.   From arriving, getting our luggage to driving to the hotel on our tour bus to getting ready for dinner and then driving to the restaurant.  Beijing is a big city.

There is a lot to see.  Especially the Forbidden City but I will get to that in a bit as we are still on the tour bus on our first day.

I guess for our tour guide, he had to start off with talking about something that he had in common with us.  He related to us how Kentucky Fried Chicken was the first franchise to open up in China and that it not only beat McD’s into the country but that Chinese people prefer chicken over McDs’.  I guess it is a cultural thing but as one who managed to try KFC in Beijing, it is a different experience to say the least.

Everything is a different experience over there, even familiar things like eating at KFC or McDs.  The language barrier was fun at times but thankfully they have a laminated menu for you to point at when ordering so while it was somewhat familiar it was still very much a new experience.  It was to be expected though as I was not only on this trip to hear my son play his music at the Great Wall of China but also take in as much of the Wonders that I knew we were going to see.

The Forbidden City has intrigued me since I saw the movie, The Last Emporer (1987), which was filmed at the actual Forbidden City after Chinese Government Policy opened up China to the World.  This was explained to us as after the Last Emporer in China was, well go watch the movie.  It is very much a poignant moment in Chinese History as power went from The Emporer (and the Dragon Lady) to the current system they have of a Chairman being in power of Communist China.  Chairman Mao, as if you haven’t heard the name, is  really the only example to speak of.

His portrait hangs at the Forbidden City, perhaps as a reminder of the Dynasty’s being over but more likely as a symbol of the new and current regime.  His presence in a portrait is but only one facet of the new China.  At one time the Forbidden City was, well…forbidden.  For the most part, there are large sections of the Forbidden City that are still not open to the public but without a resident Emporer, what do you do with a national treasure that was started in 1911 and took 15 years to build?

You open it up to tourism and tourists.  Not the whole Forbidden City though as that is just way too much to see and I am sure there are more cultural treasures that they want to preserve.  It was explained to us that if you were to spend a night in a room on the first day that you were born, then another room the next night and for every night after that, sleep in a different room…still with me?  LOL  It would take you some 27 years to sleep in every room of the Forbidden City.  That is a lot of rooms, like 9999 rooms!  Yup.  =)

We managed to see only a portion of the Forbidden City but you wouldn’t have thought that with all the walking that it took to get around.  it felt like we walked it all.  With so many rooms, stairs (pfft, these stairs were nothing LOL) and PEOPLE!, tourists both locally and from around the world, it really was an activity that would take the entire day.  I’m glad that there was a restaurant nearby because after walking all morning, my legs and feet were beginning to get sore by the lunch hour.

We saw a Jade display room and it was pretty cool seeing the statues and learning about the culture through their use of animals and legend/myth.  I can easily draw comparisons to the Chinese Zodiac and to the tribal system of First Nations and in particular to us Nisga’a.  Here we have four main animals as our tribes and several sub tribes (animals).  Over there, the horse, the dragon, the lion and several other zodiac animals help to define who they are.  It’s quite cool actually for me to consider that now as it never occured to me then.

I was expecting a mystique and the Forbidden City did not let me down.  The mystique is there if you can look past the crowds, hear over the din of thousands and completing multilingual tour guides.  In some respects, the tourism aspect of the Forbidden City and China in general is a sight to see.  It didn’t compare though to the arcitecture and the intricacy of the many carvings of people and animals that adorn the walls, doors and entrances of the many rooms.

The doorways were interesting as well as I learned that in China, they believe that Ghosts do not have knees and as such cannot go through a door that has a beam going across the threshold.  Stepping over a beam as you enter a room was an experience that seemed not only unfamiliar but also a bit of a chore for a guy on a bum leg, using a cane.

Our tour group learned not only about those ghosts but also a little something about what life was like during the Dynasty’s and their Emporers.  Eunichs, concubines and the like were nothing in comparison however to learning about the Legend of The Dragon Lady.  She was the Mother of an Emporer who later used her nephew as the Emporer and as such, she was the unofficial Ruler of China and was very demanding.  I guess as an outsider, I can see why the Emporer was no longer a system that ‘government’ wanted to support  but that is just an outsiders view from a week long tour.

Wow, it was a week wasn’t it?  That was a lot of walking.  Man.  Walking?  Am I making an issue of walking?  How hard is it to walk right?  Well, you try walking around uneven ground all morning with a surgically repaired knee, knee brace and a cane.  I had a few moments where I thought I was going to need that Emergency Medical Insurance and I might get an idea of what health care was like in China, health care for a foreigner at that.  Thankfully, I just took my time and care to see where we were walking and take note of areas that I had to walk around.

Even their ramps were quite cool but kinda scary as one who does not like the idea of slipping, anywhere, anymore.  Their ramps were rippled, ridged, however you can imagine it without a picture, it is difficult for me to explain this quickly so I will leave it as a mystery.

We saw many things at the Forbidden City and everything was either categorized as a statue or some architecture carved out of stone or a wall.  It still amazes me to think about the detailed work of the carvings in stone.  That alone is something that I would wish for you to see for yourself.  Their stonework is an amazing thing to behold.  They built an entire city that was home to Emporers for many Dynastys.

Just imagine if they build a wall or something big enough to see from space out of rock and stone?

Wait.  That’s a blog for another day.  =)

The Forbidden City is no longer forbidden, it has become a tourist attraction complete with mobs and mobs of tour groups and vendors who won’t take no in any language.  Just walk away and you might hear a number more to your liking.  Hagglers.  LOL  Commerce is alive and well in China.

I don’t think I could hav asked for a better example of this than seeing what is  truly a Marvel to see with your own eyes.