Week 24.Miss me? Judging for the complete absence of worried Facebook messages, it appears not. Which confirms – assuming there was any doubt – that my Elder Advice is completely unsolicited.
I was in the Rockies north of Jasper the last two Saturdays. Hiking in the mountains and canoeing the Athabaska River. Without cell access and blissfully unaware of the increasingly troubled state of things. The burgeoning WE scandal, the self-serving, cynical proroguing of Parliament, the QAnon nonsense that the world is controlled by baby eating Satan worshippers, the massive California wildfires, the Beirut bombing, the global milestone of 800,000 dead from COVID-19.
It’s like a Russian nesting doll, except the dolls get larger as they are opened.
Although I confess that squalling baby on the crowded flight back from Alberta made me wish I was Q-ish.
Crossing the Great Divide Traverse, climbing through the snow at the Notch, ambling through the alpine meadows, navigating the shoals of the Athabaska River, our annual Ceremony of the Ashes. Campfires and quiet.
It is all remarkably rejuvenating. A place where you can see the forest for the trees. Even with the twinge of anxiety that comes with knowing this is Grizzly country - one wrong move and the next thing you don’t know, the marmots are coming for what’s left of you.
As for the lengthening litany of horrors listed above, they will all pass, as such things always do. And in the meantime, Elder Advice?
1. Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Any one will do. After all, they are all the same now.
2. In a time when agreement on anything is in short supply, surely we can agree on this: the most important obligation we owe one another is to ensure that the rules we make are equitable and apply equally and consistently to everyone, from the homeless drug addict on the park bench to the entitled, rich and resume-less Prime Minister. Whether they are the rules that inhibit our freedoms to speak and act as we wish, the rules that determine what societal benefits we are entitled to, or the rules that govern the discharge of the offices we hold. And while we do not undertake that tomorrow all wrongs will be made right, tomorrow will be better than today.
Otherwise, I warned Harrison and Sarah that I would have unsolicited matrimonial advice in the months to come … Marriage, as all married people know, requires much work. Over many years I have learned that we always need to work. On me. Always. Because the reality is, all Lisa has on me is my personality. Other than that, I’m still quite a catch.