Musing

today's column written and published from south Calgary, near Fish Creek Park

walk report: -5C/23F, joggers on sidewalks still patchy with snowmelt risk leg breakage, back pack laden boys hustling to school bus take time to jump on yesterday’s puddles hoping for a breakthrough, Gusta their eager witness; Edmonton trip-end ritual visit to the BonTon for pecan rolls yesterday produced encounter with AH – great to see you - he made Gusta’s day or, perhaps, the other way round – decompress drive back aided by mountain backlit rosy glow, like a worn crosscut blade laid on the prairie, glint on metal, shining through the missing teeth

last night Alberta and US political debates - reality shows, teach, instruct and expose shortcomings without explanation proving little; debate it was not, but that is what they call it, political rivals duke it out like gladiators from ancient ruins, hastily crafted words their weapons – like that child trying to break through ice, entertaining to watch the futility for a few minutes – no substance to the outcome

parties and media think we are stupid and lazy all at the same time – that we cannot understand complexity, that we will believe solutions to long standing problems can be solved with a sound-bite or a single decisive action

I’m hoping for a breakthrough but my optimism is waning - I sometimes wonder if the leaders who purport to lead us are really chosen by the collective ‘us’ or if it is really a random result driven by when we got tired of thinking because we forget that process does not trump a great idea, routine dismissal never stopped a flood, rhetoric neither fixes the world or makes it go faster

Mark Kolke

339,100

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