I’m a Lumberjack and I’m OK …

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I just spent a week lumberjacking for my cousin on Manitoulin Island. She had several dead and rotting fir trees on her property that needed to come down. I had promised her two years ago that I would help her clear the view to her beloved grove of cedars.

After a seven hour drive from Caledon to Espanola through Little Current to Kagawong, we arrived at her home. Advanced Tree Felling TechniquesFor the next six days I chainsawed, felled, trimmed, piled logs for firewood, and several times took her trailer of branch trimmings to the compost dump. My cousin, all 110 lbs of her, was determined to get the job done. In the end, however, she said I had exhausted her.

I think it was the dance routine that did her in. I couldn’t help myself. That song from Monty Python’s Flying Circus had become an ear worm and, of course we had to act out the whole routine to “I’m a Lumberjack and i’m OK

I was driven to keep my promise to get all of  those trees and stumps down, but a dull chainsaw slowed me down. I’ll be back in September to finish off those stumps!. Her saws will be sharpened by then. I will keep my promise to clear her dead trees and stumps because I’m a lumberjack, and I’m OK. Monty Python would be proud.

The way I see it.

*****

*Visual from Getty Images

A Blood Red Carpet

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The most shocking thing about the meeting in Alaska between President Trump and President Putin was that there was not an arrest.

A war criminal arrives in a country bound by UN obligations to enforce the warrants the International Criminal Court and he is greeting with hand clapping by President Trump and a red carpet role out by kneeling American soldiers. WTF!

Yes, Donald, it was a red carpet all right, stained with the blood of 1,000,000 Ukrainians.You have revealed yourself to not only be a complete buffoon on the international stage, but a traitor to all the values of the American dream.

The Statue of Liberty hangs her head in shame. The way I see it.

Lessons from Ukraine

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We are bearing witness to one of the most obscene moments in 21st century history. A President with a malignant narcissistic personality disorder is sitting down with a President who is the epitome of the cold blooded killer to determine the fate of another country.

One is only interested in mineral wealth, the other wants to expand his borders. Neither President cares one iota about the country they are screwing. If the rest of the free world allows this travesty to continue, we are all screwed.

So far, Canada and 26 EU countries (except for Dictator Orban’s Hungary) have issued a statement in support of Ukraine. Ukraine is the canary in the coal mine. If Trump and Putin take this one south, western “democracy” has failed. The way I see it.

Random Acts

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In an earlier blog titled “Moments of Peace” I referred to meeting my new friend Bonnie and the beautiful flower gardens that I walk by every day with our dog. One morning Bonnie told me that the gardens were maintained by a man named Tony as a tribute to his late-daughter-in-law.

So, being me, I just had to meet Tony. Two days ago I walked up to the door and introduced myself and thanked him for making the world a more beautiful place. Tony invited me in and introduced me to his wife Lisa. We started chatting and discovered that we were both retired teachers. Not unusual, but then 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon happened!

We had both gone to Toronto Teacher’s College in 1967-68. He signed on with the Toronto Separate Board and I went North York Public. We knew all the same schools! I mentioned that I had specialized in outdoor and environmental education, working with schools to create native species outdoor classrooms In their schoolyards. Tony told me that when he retired he took horticultural classes at Humber College and that led him to his native species pollinator gardens!

Then he mentioned that he was part of a Bruce Trail hiking group. Whoa! My outdoor ed career began on the Bruce Trail in 1972 when I hiked 30 students out the last week of September on a 50 mile 5 day hike on the Bruce Trail. We did that every year from 1972 to 1980.

What comes next? Well, Tony and I will be hiking the Trail together very soon. Stranger things have happened, but this random act showed me that the universe is unfolding as it should. The way I see it.

There’s the Rub

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Ah, you have to love Hamlet. “To sleep; perchance to dream: ay there’s the rub: for in that sleep of death what dreams may come?”

We already knew things were rotten in many of our political states, but sometimes the explanations that politicians give for their actions is like we were in a dreamworld. “Oh yes, my family personally benefited from my cryptocurrency scam, but it did not affect  my decision to allow people to bid for a seat at my dinner table.” “Oh yes, this developer contributed thousands to my personal fundraiser, but it did not affect my decision to change our laws to give him what he wanted.” Ay, there’s the rub.

My wife recently submitted her first ever political comment to our local newspaper. Our local politician did not answer a single one of her questions, instead submitting a “Statement” reminiscent of the Schrodinger’s cat hypothesis. The issue of concern to my wife has to do with a motion, submitted by the Mayor of a town, to allow a developer to infill a fully rehabilitated gravel pit’s freshwater lake with his excess soil. The site is not currently zoned to receive excess soil, so the Strong Mayor initiated a motion to allow this to happen. The developer just happens to be a major donor to the mayor’s private fundraisers.  Not saying that there is any connection, but the perception of conflict of interest is there.

The politician’s response to my wife’s letter was calm and treasonable and meaningless. The motion she brought forward should never have been raised in the first place. It was misleading in its description of the site and a violation of the Town’s own By-laws. Now it is subject to staff reviews as to whether or not the lake should be infilled. And who is paying for those reviews? Will they be subject to  impartial review?  This is potentially a tragedy of common sense and ethics. apparently illegal, and for those who have seen “Swan Lake”, most definitely immoral.

Are we sleepwalking ourselves into the death of democracy in our community?  Politicians issuing sweet words in media releases that lull us to sleep but say nothing of truth, nothing of accountability, nothing of apology.

That is truly rotten. The way I see it.s