Musing

[written and published from the Regina Inn, Regina, Saskatchewan]

5C/41F, sunny and calm; my early morning walk on Victoria Avenue heading east from the hotel was not interrupted by vehicles, people or critters of any kind save for a few scrawny pigeons who really ought to be out in a stubble field having breakfast

the 'conference elements' I like most are the people and behaviour watching, the talking
about things that matter with total strangers from places I don't visit . . people I will likely never meet again; it is a great construct for discussing things totally out of usual context;
the education session Shelly and I did was a ton of fun . . and I think the audience learned
some portion of what we did . . ooh-ha . . worth doing again

yesterday was a great day; some teaching, some learning, some listening, some talking, some visiting, some laughing, some eating, some more eating, some more eating and my body started to react about midnight, easing off to minor groaning by wake up time when channel surfing yielded nothing more interesting that Bob Onyschuk on CPAC (watch those ums & ahs Bob); really Bob, you were competing with lots of cartoons, religion and documentaries and still – you were the best thing on the tube .. but it was early

the part of town I walked through this morning – it could be any town or city – was not the best part of town, a place where most businesses are called ‘For Lease’, where the notion of a clean car, a tidy yard or any sign of removal from the poverty cycle is conspicuous by its absence; I think I notice these things most when I am away because when I am at home I don’t go to that part of town – or if I do, I don’t do it on foot at 5:30 AM

traveling, to any place, lets me see things I miss every day in familiar surroundings, but
when I am away, some elements stand out - ones I would be oblivious to in my regular comfort zone; being away is a great way to explore the dis-comfort zone; sometimes our comfort zone needs a re-zoning application; doing it hear is certainly avoidance of NIMBY (not in my backyard) issues

the poor should be helped, the helpless should be lifted up, the destitute should be helped to feed, clothe and house themselves - yeah, sure . .

I/we can all talk a good story, but who gets out there to help them? . . given the help we see in action by governments and community agencies, we need to give our head a shake and wonder if anyone really cares; sure . . we care when it is convenient, we donate money to causes but rarely do we donate our labour, seldom do we stop on the street to talk to ‘those people’

those people live where we live, those people

those people have the same right to opportunity as we do, those people

those people deserve their fair share of the prosperity pie and of our help, those people

so easy to write off the already marginalized, so easy to step around, drive by, avoid and ignore those people

I am neither a social worker, economist or community activist but I know the cost of those people; the cost is enormous; I don’t mean the difference between an economy on which they are a drain vs. the contributions they could make and the taxes they could pay

I mean the cost of a life not lived, the cost of a dream not dreamed – not of a dream not fulfilled, but I am talking about those who cannot dream of having a dream because they live in a place and in a way where it is hard to see how anyone could see a way out

no way out is not just a place on streets in ‘that kind of neighbourhood’, but with so many of us not in those circumstances avoiding it like the plague . . it would be hard to imagine those living there in such circumstances thinking of the rest of us as someone/a group they would want to embrace in any way or form; if there is a state of mind THEY have, surely WE have played a large part in its creation . . and an even larger part in maintaining that as a staus quo

I saw this today without talking to or meeting a single person, I saw it so clearly yet I know when I am in my own backyard I drive by it all the time

Mark Kolke
225,336
204.5

Responses/comments welcomed; send an e-mail to musing@maxcomm.ca – please give me your feedback.