Looking for the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

It would be so easy to become and stay depressed for the whole day. All one has to do is to read the news' headlines. For example, this morning there are stories about the two mass shootings in the US; the fact that India has changed the semi-independence status of the Kashmir region, thereby making the region a potentially even more explosive point between Pakistan and India; Trump has cancelled the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons between itself and Russia so that it has the option of placing land-based nuclear weapons close to China; the climate is getting even warmer than the scientists anticipated; there may be a shortage of medically needed drugs in Canada; the authorities in Hong Kong are still beating up their citizens who are protesting; some 17 year old has apparently tossed a younger person of the roof of the Tate Museum in London and the prevalence of ticks means that we need to always check ourselves for them after going for a walk in the forest. Ugh!!!

It is hardly worth getting up. It would be so much easier to just stay in bed, with the covers pulled up over our heads, pretending that tomorrow will be a better day. But it won't. Or at least tomorrow will not be any better unless we do something to change the world today - and then do something every day thereafter. I suspect that our collective inertia and chronic depression over the state of the world has as much to do with the realization that we need to all work hard, all of the time if we want our grandchildren and their children to have a future. It just sounds exhausting.

However, there are rays of hope shining through the dark grey clouds that are formed by stupid politicians and their frightened acolytes. One of the tasks that we can do every day is to find those little but startling beacons of hope and to talk about them, to disseminate the positive news, to tell our neighbours, our friends, our families that there are some good things happening in this sorry world of hours.

My favourite news story of the weekend is the fact that our Prime Minister, and the leaders of two other, frequently opposing political parties all marched in the Vancouver Pride Parade - beside each other, talking about the importance of diversity and the acceptance of differences. Trudeau (Liberals) May (Green Party) and Singh (NDP) will all, in a few months, be hotly contesting the right to run the country. They will face each other in public debates and do their best negate (if not destroy) the opposing points of views. They will walk and on occasion cross the line of personal attacks. At least two of them run the risk of losing their jobs as heads of their parties if they lose the election. But in spite of the enmity that can exist in Canadian politics, in spite of the political stakes that the election will challenge, in spite of the frustration they each must share with the opposing points of views - they walked together in a parade that recognized people have the right to be who and what they want to be.


I know that marching in a Pride parade is an attempt to garner votes. I know that being seen at such an event, especially on the West Coast is not politically risky. In fact, the leaders would have faced more of a public backlash if they had not appeared. But they appeared together, looking as if they were having fun. There has to be hope in the world when competing political leaders can have fun together - doing a good thing.

Pass it on.
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