At The 11th Hour, Of The 11th Day, On The 11th Month

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Like most of us, I hate conflict.

For me, this is a day that I remember ALL the victims of conflict. From the young men and women who fight, to the innocents who suffer.

I hope that very soon the day will come when my fellow citizens will not be fighting in the name of the country in which I live. In the meantime, I think of them everyday.

Today is a day to remember those who gave all, and to be aware of all those who continue to do so.

Please take a moment to consider that.

The rest I leave to Lt-Col. John McCrae.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

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Women And Children Last

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Pussies. Cowards. Elitist. Douchebags. Despicable.Take your pick or take em all.

In a move reminiscent of George Costanza pushing children out of the way to escape a fire, it came to light this week that players and staff in The Toronto Maple Leafs organisation have jumped the line ahead of children and the elderly to get the H1N1 flu shot. Ditto for the Calgary Flames.

The reasoning cited by one player is that they are more likely to get the flu. This may be true given the amount of air travel pro sports teams endure. However it is very unlikely that any pro athlete will die from H1N1.

Just to let Brian Burke know, the purpose of having a priority group is to protect the people most at risk, not the people who make the most money.

And, God forbid, should your son or daughter die because they were unable to get the shot,  you should complain to MLSE. If you're lucky, maybe they'll give you an autographed jersey to throw in the coffin.

Apparently, Spirit Is Everything, decency is nothing.


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An Ode To Old Friends

If you are blessed enough in life, you are granted at least one old friend. If you are really lucky, you may have many.

Tonight, I had dinner with one such friend.

The thing about old friends is that you must be of a certain age to have them. The friendship is unquestioned and steadfast, regardless of the direction that either life has taken. And be aware that after you cross a certain threshold in life it becomes impossible to acquire any more old friends.

Old friends are best because they knew you when you were both punk ass morons. You can't fake it with an old friend, they see your bullshit from a mile away.

Time brings trust, and an old friend comes with no need for context. An evening with an old friend brings a lot of baggage, but it is so easily checked.

Acquire them while you can, because this truly is a limited time offer, while supplies last.

I know as you read this that you have someone in your mind. Maybe you should shoot them an email while you can.

Share a meal, share a drink, reconnect. I'm sure you'll find that everything has changed, and nothing much has changed.

While time waits for no one, some things in our lives are indeed timeless, thank God.

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Who Screwed With The Bananas?

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Way back in the last century things were very different. For instance you could go to the grocery store and buy a tomato. You could take it home, cut it up, maybe put a little salt on it and it would taste like a tomato. Now we have the fishtomato.

Most common strains of tomato that are sold in this world contain a fish gene that has been spliced into the seed. The geniuses at Monsanto thought that it would be good to splice a gene into the tomato seeds from a fish that survived in cold temperatures. The purpose of this was to protect agribiz from crop failures due to frost and it is things like this that led to the term Frankenfood.

I have known about this for a long time. What I did not know is that they have now siezed control of the bananas, too.

When I was a boy and we put a banana in the fridge, it would go black within twelve hours. Not so any more.Either bananas have evolved very quickly or someone has messed with the recipe on a molecular level.

If I ever find a decent banana, I'll let you know. And I'll pick up a few tomatoes while I'm at it.

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Breaking Through The Wall(s)

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Over the next week or so, we will be hearing a lot about one of the happiest geopolitical memories of my lifetime. November 9th, 2009 will mark the twentieth anniversary of that astonishing and jubilant moment when the citizens of East and West Germany knocked down The Berlin Wall and effectively ended the Cold War. It was a jaw dropping moment, but it did not come out of thin air.

 I am no history buff, and many factors played a role, but here is my take. Mikael Gorbachev was the tipping point. A moderate who came to power and began floating notions of Perestroika and Glasnost. Openess, transparency and a restructuring of the sprawling Soviet Union, and by extension, the satellite states. This was very different than the rhetoric from previous Soviet leaders and people were taking notice around the world, most notably in  Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and East Germany.



And they began to gather. They began to act. They saw that they had been given an opening and they pressed their advantage relentlessly. Protests that were once small and fraught with peril were now spreading, and growing. The sheer breadth of the human will for a different way became irrefutable and unstoppable until it culminated in what was one of the great mass media visuals of the last century.

Breaking through the wall.

A stunning moment of humans uniting to express their desire for a better way and perhaps the greatest example in human history of people working together for a common peaceful goal.

Then again, we all have walls around us. Private, personal, political, societal, cultural, religious. This week, I'm going to find one of my own walls and bust right through it in honour of those folks who risked all for what they believe in, and by extension, changed the world.

Then I'm going to toast Mr. Gorbachev with a shot of vodka.

Its going to be a good week for breaking down walls.

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