Time Flies...Slowly

 

 

 

It is hard to believe that summer is over, school is started, and Halloween is just around the corner. It will be a mere matter of weeks and we'll be breaking all our New Year's lies, uh, resolutions. It's trite to say that time flies, so let's change it and say that time dashes...speeds...races... or even zooms.

Trite smite, let's stick with "time flies."

I am Day-Timer freak (my words), so addicted to scheduling that I even colour-code my monthly calendar My Day-Timer is bigger than my Bible, thicker than my journal, and neater than my planner. My family laughs at my insistence at going to Staples to get the next year's filler by late July.

Shifting to the country should have brought a nice change of pace, a slowing down from the rat race that marked life in BC's Lower Mainland. Or so I thought. This past year has been insane for us as a family. I cannot think of a cluster of months, going back many, many months, that I personally have been as run off my feet. Daughters getting married, sons working away from home, along with outside and inside chore demands (now re-adjusted because of marrying daughters and working sons no longer available) will do that every time.

And I believe there is a growing home school service, a large family, plus the upkeep on the seventy acres in there somewhere.

Because I wear so many different hats – writer, teacher, editor, speaker, facilitator – and each role is full with its respective demands, I cannot see this frenzied lifestyle slowing down in the near future. The main thing I can say, and I assume that you'll agree, is that busyness is good, so long as it is a productive busyness.

Generally speaking, upon being asked how things are going, the most correct, acceptable answer is: "Great. I'm really busy." Well, that is the right answer if it is a good busyness, but the wrong answer if it is a bad busyness.

How does one define "bad busyness"? That, my friends, is a loaded question. I think a simple rule of thumb is as follows: Am I driving or driven? "Driving" (good) means that, for the most part, I am in charge of the schedule and the demands; I set the direction and pace. "Driven" would be the inverse, namely, others set the agenda for my day and week, and, by extension, my life.

It's an imperfect world out there, and I admit that there are times when we are controlled by circumstances beyond ourselves. For myself, I have to be at Cherry Coulee at certain times on certain days; I have to make house calls during specific times of the year for my home school visits; I have to meet many deadlines on a regular, weekly basis (this column being a classic example).

As we get older (or better stated, mature), there will continue to be many voices that will clamour for our attention, but they will have to wait in line. Their demands will have to take a number, as it were. Relationships, hobbies, and time for reflection should become higher priorities. "No" may become the most over-used word in our vocabulary over the next few months, as in: "No, I can't join that board," and "No, I am not coming."

The strange irony in all of this is that we have more time-busting toys at our disposal than our parents ever had, yet we seem to have less time than they did. Our lives are easier but certainly busier, and I would posit that they are likely less productive in the things that really matter.

I wouldn't mind slowing down myself. Those long treks to Staples every summer are getting very tiring.

A Big Deal about a "Big River"

 

Only on a stage do you play at a recital and recite at a play. I went to one of those the other day, that is, a play where there was a lot of reciting. In fact, "Big River" was almost three hours long, less the fifteen minutes we were given for an intermission.

The weather was great, I had three of my kids with me, Burger Baron came through with another great meal, and the play itself was fantastic. It doesn't get any better than this. It made me feel so, well, civilized. And cultured.

And that's what a good, wholesome drama production represents – culture. The audience clapped and laughed at the right time; no one was rude or loud, like, say, at a hockey game. The performers were professional but not slick, a microcosm of what's great about Canadian entertainment. And the content was yet another meaningful presentation of real history from 150 years ago, with no need to slip into the raunchy, rowdy, and risqué element that normally assaults our moral standards.

Clearly, I love live performances, be it in most forms of musicals and dramas. For years I have gone to Larry Dye's early November production at his church on Centre Street in Bow Island. As stated previously, it too has been marked the same standards as classy dramas, namely, a responsive audience, unpretentious acting, and a significant production – usually a Christian spoof of some well-known Hollywood movie. I would describe that church's drama ministry as witty, entertaining, and clean. Again, part of a healthy society.

Yet unlike the Yates Theatre in Lethbridge, Dye's congregation serves very good dessert and coffee during the intermission. You might say that even their yogurt was cultured..

I think if we lose our taste for the live stage, we slip as a society. That loss can come in one of two ways: On the one hand, there is the sense we need to cross the line morally, or on the other hand, there is no stomach for it at all – that is, there is no live theatre. For example, as the Balkan countries and the Iraqi nation have slowly lurched back into something that resembles a civilized state, one of the first expressions of such has been live stage productions.

And you thought having a Starbucks on every corner was a step toward civilization!

Most prairie towns that have any life – including our own Foremost - have the usual landmarks of golf courses, graveyards, liquor stores, post offices and theatrical clubs. Even a good movie doesn't move me like a good musical. (Obviously, there are exceptions, but there is just something about a live performance that really grabs me.)

I have been on both sides of the audience as well – clapping in the crowd and speaking on the stage. I love drama, both as a bystander and a performer. There is a real rush with acting, and I have done quite a bit myself with some of my family over the years.

I would be hard-pressed to tell you whether I would rather watch "The Sound of Music" on DVD or head down to Milk River to watch it live, as I did last year. There is no question that Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer did a supreme job in the former, but there is also no question that watching some gas jockey, school teacher, and waitress perform their hearts out has a different appeal. In other words, I don't think it is a matter of either/or. Both are good, both are necessary, both are moving.

Now if you want to compare a live performance to a hockey game, well, that is a different story.

I love a good 'Canes game as much as anyone, but I don't find I am as moved or touched there as I am when Jim and Huck sing, "World's Apart."

No, I think I'll take the crowd, the performers, and the meaningfulness at a play over a game any day. I even like the score better – the musical score, that is.

A Pandemic of Fear

 

 

 

My wife and kids go to a female chiropractor in Coaldale. She actually teams up with her husband and has done wonders for my family. Dr. L is a very reasonable, sane, and competent human being, and the same can be said for her medical expertise. When I suggest she comes unglued at the word "H1N1," I do not believe I am exaggerating.

In other words, she is very concerned about the dangers of H1N1 immunization.

Then I read some behind-the-scenes information as to what comprises the vaccine - again, from reputable medical professionals - and I get confused, afraid, and mad. If a fraction of the information is true, then I honestly believe we do have a pandemic – but it is a pandemic of ignorance and gullibility.

When I consider the hype and pressure surrounding the whole immunization frenzy, I get really worried. To be sure, there is a so-called swine flu out there. Granted, people are getting sick, a number have died. I don't wish to minimize sickness or death. These are facts, and who can argue with facts?

But where I draw the line is the massive hysteria about the shots, and the hours of line-ups waiting for the great poke. Yet there is an incomplete, partial picture of what the vaccine is comprised of – and the damage that those shots are doing to our bodies. I think every reader should look into the background of H1N1 immunization – and don't just take my word for it, or the government's word for it, for that matter.

Thousands of Canadians will not be getting vaccinated this winter, but it's not because of a shortage of vaccine. Nor will it be because they could care less about their health. In fact, that couldn't be further from the truth. Truth be told, they understand the severe risks involved in getting immunized. They are simply no longer willing to blindly submit to peer pressure.

Despite the hype that has been foisted on us - from the government, the media, and the medical profession - I am frankly alarmed that so few people have paused to take a breath and investigate all the salient details behind the noise.

We live in a world of limited discernment. We are told something, so we believe it. Schools of every description and every form of media are the main conduits of such propaganda. Space forbids even a partial listing of examples, but I would cite some of the following: evolution, global warming, abortion, promiscuity. I humbly suggest that if one would pause and examine facts and evidence, motivation and goals (for starters), I think there would be many shocked seekers.

In other words, we don't do something because the government tells us do it, nor should we not do it because the government says we should do it. The key to my argument here is we should do what is right, once armed with the impartial facts.

I toss in the H1N1 rush with the above. There is a history of flues that have been far more deadly over the past 100 years. (Check out the epidemic of 1918-19, with the twenty million souls that lost their lives.) Even the common flu remains far more toxic the H1N1. And the general hysteria that has erupted in the past few weeks has me deeply concerned as to how people react to well-orchestrated decrees.

Lest there is any confusion as to my warning, I am not suggesting for a moment that we be less careful or cautious about our health. I am suggesting that we do due diligence when it comes to any public or popular trend. Check things out; examine the facts; get more than one opinion; reflect and discern.

Don't necessarily follow the crowd: They may be headed in the wrong direction.