For at least a decade there was the same routine.  Dina and I would have dinner on Saturday at Steve and Sharon’s.  After  dinner, Steve and I would do the dishes.  Usually Steve would wash and I would dry.  It would take us maybe an hour and during that hour we would talk.  We’d catch up on what had happened during the week,  share ideas and problems and just generally shoot the shit.  It wasn’t  the content  that mattered;  it was the conversation – the touching base.  Two young fathers talking and  doing the dishes  together.  I came to value that hour highly as the years rolled.

Then one Saturday after dinner Steve opened the door of his new dishwasher.   It took us barely  ten minutes to  load it and the job was done.  We moved on into the living room with Dina and Sharon.

It was not until a few Saturday dinners had passed that I realized that something important had happened; that the dishwashing hour was gone.  That, even though other conversations happened,  there had been something special about that hour and it was missed.

I don’t see Steve much these days.  I’m in Vancouver;  he’s in Calgary.  But lately we have revived an old ritual of camping together for a week or so in the summer.    Each night after dinner there are dishes to be done and, of course,  no automatic dishwasher in sight.   Steve and I are often the first to volunteer for the job.

Here’s The Next Installment of the Alphakids by Paul Fryer.  Click on the image to enlarge.

Best of the Season from Kestrel Books.  Here is the first installment of a humourous alphabet created by Paul Fryer.  Each letter stands for a classmate or teacher Paul remembers from his school days.  I’m sure you can find someone you know or knew  among this diverse group.

We’ll show more of these charming individuals in further posts.  Stay tuned!

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It is the ride, the rolling, lifting, soaring tumble of life’s ride we crave. Another day; another beginning; another shot at immortality.  One more eager phrase typed into the latest chapter of our story.

It is ours! We own it.  We hold the brush and pallet with which to create this day; a promising blank canvas.

Resist the doubts.   There is only the miraculous, only the magical potential of life waiting to accompany us on our journey through the wonder  that is this day.

The very air we breathe is dependent on the way we treat our planet.  The biosphere is a   system that regulates the percentage of oxygen available in the air we breathe.   This  fuels and aids all of our bodily systems.  So our awareness of this system and its health is vital to our continued existence.  The less connected we feel to the earth  the less likely we are to make choices that benefit the biosphere.

So stop for a moment.  Take off your shoes and socks.  Walk barefoot on the earth.  Think about the planet and its biosphere and how it keeps us alive.

When was the last time you took off your shoes and socks and walked barefoot on the earth?

There exists in our society an astounding yet subtle irony. We live in a world where the availability and convenience of our tools of communication and connectivity far surpasses any we have ever known. We are instantly and constantly in touch with each other and our institutions. And yet, we have become profoundly disconnected – disconnected from the very planet on which we live.

We awaken, get out of bed and move about on the floors of our homes. We ready ourselves for the day’s activities and leave our homes walking on the concrete or asphalt of the garage, carport or sidewalk and get into our car or board a bus in which we travel to work or shop. Upon arriving at our destination we exit the car and step onto the concrete of the parkade or exit the bus onto the concrete sidewalk. We travel to the office or store on concrete/asphalt and then return the same way at the end of our task. Never once for days, weeks, perhaps months on end do we actually come into direct contact with the earth.

In our busy lives we can easily fail to notice such a disconnect. We are much accustomed to traveling artificial surfaces and the hectic pace of our lives keeps us moving ahead without being much aware of the mode of travel.

This lack of connection to the actual earth is a metaphor for our lack of connection to the environment, to our world in total. It is incumbent on us to explore such a disconnect in light of what it means for our health, and ultimately, the health of the planet.

More to come.

Neil Boyd, professor of criminology and Associate Director of the Criminology Program at Simon Fraser University has spoken out about the Harper government’s latest criminal code changes.

In an article in The Vancover Sun July 5, he questions both the motives and the rationality of the proposed changes.

“In these days of public sector restraint, there is one realm of waste that is often neglected -the planned and pointless expenditure of billions of tax dollars on new provincial and federal prisons, the consequence of a series of Conservative crime bills.

Never mind that Canada already is a global leader in rates of incarceration, far ahead of almost all of the nation states of Western Europe -and, perhaps paradoxically, Canada typically has higher rates of crime.

The more interesting and relevant finding from recent research is that rates of imprisonment and rates of crime are not related in any systematic way, from one nation state to the next.

What is significant, however, is the relationship between confidence in the political and justice systems of a country and rates of imprisonment. Polls consistently demonstrate that nation states with the lowest rates of imprisonment also have citizens who have the highest levels of confidence in their political systems and their justice systems.”

Boyd  goes on to question the Conservative government’s rather obvious disregard for scientific research into the roots and remedies of crime.

“As one contemplates the lack of science in virtually every crime bill dutifully trotted out in Parliament by the Harper Conservatives, one is tempted to either laugh or cry.

It’s easy to dismiss them as ideologically driven fools (and there is certainly a wealth of evidence in support of such a proposition), but I think we have a deeper problem -a fundamental lack of belief in the tenets of science.

Consider the recent legislative initiative regarding mandatory minimum sentences for any person who grows more than six marijuana plants.

Does it make sense to spend billions of our tax dollars putting the producers of a relatively benign mind-active drug in jail, at the same time that the executives of tobacco and alcohol companies are regarded as contributing corporate citizens?”

Does it, indeed?

Here’s a video that will tear you up unless you’re made of stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVjXufO_zkU
Tell your friends!

All of those heart-warming photo ops of volunteers scrubbing oiled pelicans are just that. Photo ops. According to Silvia Gaus, a German biologist who has studied oil spill rescue results, the post-rehabilitation survival rate for these birds is less than 1%.

BP, of course, loves to see such pictures on the front pages of our newspapers. It is a huge PR plus for them that helps massively to mitigate their monstrous crime in the eyes of the public. Don’t be deceived.

The U.S. Minerals Management Service stated in a 2002 report: “Studies are indicating that rescue and cleaning of oiled birds makes no effective contribution to conservation.”

In quoting the 1 per cent figure, Gaus was likely referring to the work of ornithologist Brian Sharp, who produced a 1995 study showing extremely low survival rates for certain types of oiled sea birds between 1969 and 1994. Oil companies’ support for rehabilitation, Sharp wrote, “should be considered a public relations effort.”

Some have experienced organ damage; some suffer from anemia; some are forever traumatized by the cleaning process; some return to their tarnished habitats and get oiled again, said Gaus.

(IBRRC photo)

Photo - Paul Hanna, Reuters

Each one of us who continues to accept an oil fueled economy and deny the idiocy of that course shares the responsibility for the oilmageddon we are about to witness.