Excuses....

 On occasion I come across someone’s blog. A number of them appear to have been dormant for weeks or even months. Quite frequently there is a rather lame apology about how they got busy or that given the chaos of their lives the blog became less important to them or perhaps they had nothing to write about. These explanations always seem to end with a promise to do better in the future. I always said that that would never happen to me.

It has and I have no excuse. The urge to write just left for a while. Perhaps I had no more words in me, perhaps I found another outlet or perhaps I was just tired of pumping out a couple of thousand words a week for a few months. It also may be connected to the fact that that I have lost most of my TV stations because of the almost universal switch to digital from analogue broadcasting. (I really don’t know what that means – but it sounds as if I do). I therefore have not

watched either CBC news or the Agenda on TVO – I am lacking fodder for my rants. It is hard to get irate when I don’t know what is going on. But I miss the routine and the discipline of writing. So I am going to try harder to post something on a more regular better. Who knows, I may even get a bit creative and make up things.

Of course without the news and without me travelling  - perhaps I have nothing to say. I have made a conscious choice to not to write about  my kids and grandkids  nor do I write about my teaching career (although Lord knows there could be lots to talk about). Considering that I spend a good chunk of my time at school or with my family – that doesn’t leave much to discuss.I could of couse talk about my “playing with wool”.  I have been consumed in the past month or so trying to produce enough product to enter a sale down in Cobourg in a few week. I think I will almost be ready the day before the sale.

For those of you who have been checking in on occasion to see what is happening – thank you. I will try to do better in the future.

Rant - Prisons October 2012

According to the CBC the Government of Canada  - that is our government in case anyone has forgotten- has decided to cancel the contracts of all part time chaplains who work in the Federal prison system. It turns out that that also means that all of chaplains who are not of the Christian faith will lose their jobs.
"The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding…..” http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/10/04/bc-non-christian-prison-chaplains-cancelled.html retrieved October 10, 2012.

On a whole bunch of levels this decision, if not downright silly, at the very least, reflects a lack of foresight and consistency in policy. It is of course ethnocentric and very likely racist.

If one assumes that part of the function of prison is to ensure that when the individual leaves that institution they are less likely to reoffend, then surely we should do all that we can to facilitate that hoped-for result. While I personally chose not to utilize the support of a recognized religion, I can easily understand why for some people it is useful tool to look at their life and to make some life changes. To deprive anyone of the option of investigating a personal relationship with the Great Spirit (or whatever you call him/her) is just silly and I suspect against someone’s Charter rights. So we are saving a million dollars. Really? How much will it cost if just one person re-offends and get re-incarcerated?

It does not feel like an accident that there will be only Christian chaplains left in the prison system.  In spite of the apparent political correctness of the above quote – the minister is not supporting freedom of religion – in fact he is doing the exact opposite. He is saying that if you are not a Christian then you cannot talk to a spiritual advisor of your own faith. Most of us have a choice. If we don’t like or feel a connection to a particular faith we can walk down the street and enter the next church, temple synagogue or mosque. If you are in prison that choice is no longer available. Pity.

On the Road Again 2012 - the Train trip

The genesis of the following was generated on the train from Sudbury Station to Winnipeg.

"sitting in a railroad station, got a ticket for my destination..................." It is always a strange start to the day and to the trip to sit in the Sudbury Junction train station with my pack, watching the sky get lighter and lighter with the rising of the sun.  Unlike other times I have taken this train, I did not have to wait very long in the train station or rather the train was not as late as it has been in the past. The train was only 40 minutes late this year so it felt as if things were starting off well. It was also far busier than normal at the station. There was a crew of six young people and two adults who had slept in the train yard overnight and were now packing up their gear along with four canoes and carrying it all to the train tracks. There were as well 7-8 men along with their tools and some drywall mud  heading to some construction job.

I really need to thank my daughter who gets up so early in the morning and sees me off....never once saying how nervous she is about my chosen means of travel.

When I got on the train, I was surprised how full it was. There were far more children than normal- some of whom were being a bit cranky, which is not surprising considering that they had been on the train for 7-8 hours already. One wonders if they would cry even louder if they knew how much longer they would be on the train. But I didn't care. I was on my way. It felt good. In 24 hours I would be on the road. 

Almost as soon as we got started we stopped for a break at Capriola which is only a little bit down the track. I guess it is a scheduled stop but the last few times we were so late that the train just skipped it.

What a busy train...almost at every possible stop people got on. At one point I think I was the only person left who has a seat to themselves. There are some advantages to having a beard.  I think it scares people away. There were a pile of kids on the train running up and down the aisles. They  played well and it was quite pleasant to hear their voices. This train car was a Northerner's car. It was the one that people got on who were making shorter trips, whereas those who were going straight through to Edmonton or Vancouver were in the next car down.  A number of the folks in my car seemed to know either each other or at the least have connections with each other. It was quite enjoyable to listen to them chat to each other. As we passed through a burnt out area I over heard one of  mothers telling her children about the forest fire that started right here.... I would not have realize that the Timins fire went through this area. I  was quite content to sit there, read and listen to music -gently eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

What a difference it made to be on time.  By the time it was 12 noon the train had already stopped twice for long enough periods to have people get out. On my previous trips, we have been limited to one stop every 24 hour. We had all of this extra time in spite of the fact that we stopped twice to let off large groups including 6-7 workmen and the 8 canoeists. Both groups got off in the middle of nowhere. The workmen were met by someone with a pickup truck for their tools and one could see small houses through the trees. The canoeists got off in the thick bush. As the train pulled away, some of the young people were starting to look for the path leading, I assume, down to a lake or a river. I couldn't see either. The seemed to be so focused and clear as to what they needed to do. I am sure that they had a great adventure

For much of the trip there are endless of miles of almost no view at all as the train drifts (there is sometimes almost no sense of speed as the trees are so close to the train) through an almost endless green tunnel, then all of a sudden there is an explosion of light as the trees give way to an extraordinary jewel of a lake. It is easy to see why people fall in love with the near north. There are large sections of nothing to see and then amazing beauty.

Most of us got out for the half hour break at Hornpayne. It is the place where the train crews switch and garbage is taken out and new supplies are carried in. It is also the place where passengers run up to the corner store to stock up on drinks and snacks. I am sure that the small store makes much of its  annual profits on the passenger trains that stop here. It was surprisingly hot outside. After the air conditioned comfort of the train, the humidity was a shock. None-the-less it was nice to get out and walk about.

As the day moved into the late afternoon and then into the evening more people got off the train than got on. By the time we were all settling down for the night even couples are sitting in their own seats. Hopefully we will all get a good night's rest.

Shortley after this point I broke my tablet......

On the Raod AGain 2012 addendum

But it is not finished…the trip I mean. As some may remember when I headed out the last week of June I took the train from Sudbury to Winnipeg. On the train I started to do an entry on my tablet and then I broke the tablet. At some point this summer my son managed to retrieve those notes from the old tablet. I had forgotten about that but I will in the next day or so post them here – just so the story is complete.

Later

  P.S. people are allowed/encouraged to respond to the blog in the comments section. In fact it would be rather nice

On the Road Again 2012 closing notes

And so the trip was over. At the end of all of my trips I am filled with feelings that seem diametrically opposite to each other.  I was thankful and at the same time sad that I am done travelling for another year. I was grateful that I was safe, healthy and would soon be sleeping in my own bed. I was also sad and perhaps just a little bit depressed because my life was about to become structured and predicable and just a little bit boring. I can’t imagine ever not wanting to travel.

 Like all of my trips this one was an amazing adventure. In the space of eight or nine weeks I went from Sudbury to Winnipeg, to Edmonton, to Yellow knife then to Duncan on Vancouver Island; and then back to Sudbury. I think I travelled about 10,000 kilometers in other people’s car and trucks.  I met people I could have only have met hitchhiking. I saw things that perhaps hundreds if not thousands also saw, but I had the time to just stand there and truly see. I can still see the brilliant yellow of the canola flowers for acres and acres not too far west of Winnipeg, the great big bull bison ten feet away from me casually sauntering amongst the yellow construction equipment on the banks of the Mackenzie River, all of the bears who wandered, both to my concern and I think theirs, a bit too close to me, the cougar tracks on the beach of some nameless river at the north end of Vancouver Island, the long stretches of almost empty highway, the shore line of a hundred rivers or lakes and of course the mountains. If I work at it just a little bit I can see the trucks and cars of the people who picked me up, my driver’s faces and of course every place I slept.

It was an unusual trip in that those who picked me up were a bit different than in other years. For example I got four rides, all of them long rides, from women. In the past ten years, other than on the islands, I have only ever had two rides from women. And what amazing women my drivers were this year. All of them had an adventuresome spirit, but they also had the courage to be what they knew they could be. With the exception of the nurse who drove me from High Level to the turn-off to Yellowknife and who in her own right had created a life for herself that was quite extraordinary; the three other female drivers had, as if almost out of nothing, created careers for themselves that were innovative and ground breaking. All of them seemed to be doing something that not only would I have never dreamed of doing; they were doing things that I didn’t know needed to be done. I learnt so much from them.

I have thought a lot about those four men who gave me drives between Yellowknife and Chilliwack and whose values and perceptions of women were so different than mine.  I have, on occasion, wondered if it is me who is so out of touch with the real world; but I don’t think so. If I am, I want to remain disconnected from their world where women appear to have, at best, limited value outside of their sexuality. It concerns me that there are those who treat their partners with so little respect. Perhaps I should have said more to them.

I also, particularly in the dark hours of the morning, think about those four or five drivers who gave me long rides and never asked me about my story. There were a couple of drives where after seven or eight hours of being together, my drivers didn’t even know what I did for a living. In fact it felt as if on this trip, I spent less time talking than on any other previous trip. Part of me was a bit resentful – I am a story teller and I need to tell the stories that I have learned. If stories aren’t share they die.  But, in part because of a course that I am teaching this semester, I think I have come to the understanding that other people also need to tell their stories too. And that perhaps in this world where it feels as everyone you see on the street is wearing a clear sign saying “please ignore me” by displaying the ubiguous ear pieces that are plugged into their I-Pod – it is harder than ever to find people who want to hear those stories.  Sometimes my job as a passenger is just to allow them to do that. So I learnt another lesson this trip – it was a good one and one that I need to remember. But I also wonder about those drivers and what their lives are really like. It seemed as if they needed to dominate the conversation just so that they could tell a complete stranger their stories. What does it say about our society when people have no one in their lives to share with?

I have been trying to write this blog for four or five days. It has been more difficult than usual to find anywhere near the right words to place upon the page. I was confused about why I was struggling. But of course the answer is obvious. To finish writing is to finally finish the trip and I don’t want to finish the trip. I want to be out there on the road right now, bored out of my mind, worried if I will run out of water, wondering where I am going to sleep tonight and incredibly excited about the possibility that the driver of the next car or truck that drives by will stop and offer me a ride. And he or she will tell me a story or two and I will tell him a few back in return.

Next year I will do it all again