Making a difference

Many things happen in this world that seem to have no logic. Needless deaths are at the top of this list. As a parent, having to bury your child is about as bad as it gets. Everything you thought important becomes very trivial, for some, the reason to live becomes too hard to bare. For others a great cause is started bringing family and friends close together. It is these causes that make our lives more fulfilled.
One great cause is called"purple day" in Toronto, raising awareness for epilepsy. The CN Tower is lit in purple and a group of people that have dedicated themselves open the Toronto Stock Exchange. I want to take a moment to say congratulations to my big brother Hank, who has taken up this cause and drives it year after year. Believe it or not, there are dogs that are trained to know when someone is having an epileptic attack and help that person before an accident happens. These dogs are really amazing to be able to sense this, and to have one must be very comforting to people who have this affliction. This year two were donated to needy families.
But really what I want to say is how great it is to make a difference, and Hank, you and everyone who are helping you are making a difference! It makes me very proud to be your brother. You are one out of 7 billion and counting that is trying to make a difference.

It's the Pet Generation

Are we so susceptible that the care of our pets exceed that of our own species? We all know how bad humans are at treating animals on this planet, how many are becoming extinct because of us. But the treatment of cats and dogs goes beyond anything we do for ourselves. There are wars breaking out in subdivisions over the unleashing areas and of cats being allowed to roam freely. Do we need to raise these predators at such a high degree? Yes, they are predators and yes they go outside and attack many other animals that do not have the protection they enjoy. The worst of it is that most of their kills are just for fun, as most pets are so well fed they do not eat what they kill.
Maybe that is what it is, killing for joy, or the notion that these pets can and do kill "just for the fun of it". Sounds like we want company in this area, as that is what we do on a regular basis. But when is it enough, when are there too many pets to be a health problem. These animals create a lot of waste, and we all have to deal with that, not just the pet owners. Pet"owners", maybe it's "owning" a pet or another living thing that is the draw. Because we all know that trying to"own" our kids gets nowhere. Whatever the case, with 7 billion and counting we all can't have these pets as they will eat us out of house and home!
But please, pick up after them! PLEASE

Reinvent Jobs

The speed at which we are going, is making more and more jobs obsolete. It's happening faster right now then it ever has. Even during the first industrial revolution things did not go nearly as fast. Maybe when electricity became widespread, but outside of that the path we are on now is like none before.
I propose we start organizing new jobs for everyone. Job sharing, outsourcing, and community kind of jobs will all need to be rethought. We need the happiness meter to move up, we need things to do that matter. Like organizing and sharing resources in you local neighbour hood, you could have the gardeners, the composters, tool bins for sharing, water resources, snow removal and well pretty must all these tasks need to be professions soon so we can survive. Growing food by the neighbour hood will cut way back on the logistics now being used to move goods. 3-D printing is going to take a whole bunch more as well, so new kind of jobs will be needed, as well as a good government sponsored barter system to make the transition easy and fair.
I really think some kind of capitalistic and social governing system needs to be put in place. One with out the other has shown to only create conflict and favouritism. Combined and enforced with everyones input. We have the means now, do we have the will? No amount of greed will stop this, I think this change is barreling toward us now and if we are lucky, we may even be partly ready for the change when it slams into us.
Used to be you tried to think globally, now more then ever we need to think locally. Reach out and say hi to your neighbour, I think soon we will have to be closer to each other, more helping and less aggressive. There are 7 billion out there, and we need to get along.

Shhh, it's a secret

If ever there was a secret, it's with regards to gardening. When you look at all the things they want to sell you it can become overwhelming in a hurry. Has there been a better industry to reinvent? Just how many implements are needed? This is a big racket for sure, and every year the newcomers feed this bottomless pit.
How so? Well every grocery store and hardware outlet have a section for gardening. The big food stores close off a section of their lot just to get in on the action. And the books, my goodness not many bargains here. It would seem everyone has a secret to share with you, for a price of coarse. It's all in a day I suppose, the economy has to chug along, and we really do love blowing money on something, might as well be this.
I'm entering my 2nd year in full tilt gardening, and already I feel like I too could write a book. It would be about what not to buy, and how little it takes to grow some food. No green thumb needed. It's hard to be cynical though, working the soil in the spring is simply the best thing there is to do, well maybe the 2nd best thing lol.

More Snow

Sorry, but no amount of extra winter can get me down today. Trays are set up, lights are hung, heating pads turned on, tomorrow I start my garden seeds! And I just can't wait to get my hands dirty and start growing my "Garden 2013 Edition". This for sure will affect my blog for the rest of the season, I'm thinking of making the title,"The Ironic Gardener" as I have gone crazy with planning this years garden.
Not sure why it took me this long to grow one. I farmed when I was a teenager for a few years. Loved it, but hated the 24x7 care of animals. Growing the crops, making hay, putting in silage, that part I loved. Driving the tractor all day, getting a great tan. No, there is nothing quite like it.
Shoot ahead 40 plus years and I'm growing crops again. Becoming vegan made growing my own food all the better, it becomes such a passion, and rewarding. The "blues" just float away.
I will be posting pictures and sharing my experience with anyone willing to read up. Because growing food, well it's just about the coolest thing you can do for yourself, your family, and the environment. Getting together with neighbours and sharing food with each other, imagine many different gardens, all growing something different, sharing the chores, rotating crops and doing organic gardening. I'm very lucky to have had the time to research and do the work necessary to plant this, and want to share it with everyone I know. Spring, it can't come fast enough.
7 billion, learning to garden, and counting!

Blondes, are they really having fun?

The ironic opposite is always front and centre. Case in point, does having blonde hair make life more fun? Having spent years in the hairdressing world I'm inclined to think, it better be as the pain and price of being blonde is high. And it always seemed that the darker ones hair was, the more they wanted to be blonde. This is not just white people, African Americans are equal to this in their pursuit of straight hair. They of coarse have the worlds most curly hair. We just hate the way we are and are always looking for "a fix" to make something we are born with different.
Is this trend something that has always been? Or has it come out only in the last 100 years or so. Do we have so much time and money now that pursuing these changes is all we have to do? The professionals will tell us it's all in our heads, and then book you for next weeks session.
It is always the pursuit of that one thing, whatever it is, that drives us to try to be different. Yet leaves us more or less the same.

Sport Brawls

I think that I'm missing something, I for some reason do not like seeing sports players fighting. I understand it, at least the competitive side of fighting where someone just "looses it" and needs to push someone around, but bare knuckle brawls do nothing for me. I fail to see the "sportsmanship" in this activity. It seems not only senseless, but primitive. Maybe all those beer commercials depicting how dumb males are is true.

The one great thing about the NFL is this kind of behaviour is not tolerated. I have many times cited this as being because these players all have gone to college or university and are a little more civilized then Hockey. Yet what they do is "but heads" and tackle opponents with as much force as possible. 

The real problem as I see it is that the professional players and franchise owners have all gotten bigger then the game. This is why I'm having trouble watching them anymore. The money is getting out of hand and the pressure too great for "good sportsmanship" to survive. 

But why are so many players so dirty? If they are "growing the game" then respect for their fellow players should be present. But somehow this is viewed as weak, and not doing what ever you can to "win". In both football and hockey hit's to the head is becoming an epidemic. But this is learned from minor leagues, coaches that feel they "must win" at all costs to keep their positions. They train the players to"finnish their hits" and to follow through, never back down. If you want to make sports safer, this is where you need to start. 

I loved hockey growing up, and football and baseball. But I was shown the door when I refused to be unsportsmanlike, I would not or could not throw at someone, or hit someone from behind. I just can't see how that was fun, and today I can't watch hockey as that is what is shown, the fights. Was it fun watching that player get knocked out the other day? Guess I'm just not mean (or man) enough.

7 billion "beating each other senseless" and counting.