Oh, Little Towns.

 

Oh, Little Towns.

Around 1995, I began considering a place to retire. A co-worker mentioned the Crowsnest Pass, but I remembered it from the late sixties and it didn’t look great in those days. The friend told me it was now clean, “pure mountain air” and that fixer-upper little homes were selling for as low as $16,000. I drove over. That trip changed my life. Now I am an old-timer here. This is home.

In the beginning, it looked as if the place was declining, but so was the world economy. Every few years there is an adjustment when many poor people lose their savings and homes later to change around and start again. My real estate agent, a Swiss guy, told me he was waiting for the place to become like a European mountain town with a lot of little businesses, pretty homes, and many people vacationing away from the cities. There was a steady talk from old-timers about “heavy industry” and coal mining, but protecting the water took first consideration with governments, and mining was regulated by law, as I was told.

I didn’t know the background of the arguments yet decided that the place was a gem. It had the looks of a place that is on the verge of developing into a historic attractive self-sustained community housing some coal miners, folks seeking an old-style rural feeling, and businesses to cater to them. It had a reputation for being friendly and welcoming. On my first Christmas Eve here I saw “folks dressed up like Eskimos” heard church bells ringing, observed bright stars above snowy mountains, and placed a down payment.

When I moved here, I found out that there were many attempts to develop the towns that were often refused by the local population and their councils. Some people wanted the coal mines (heavy industry) to come back and nothing else. Others simply didn’t want the place to change but complained persistently about the small tax base and lack of money for improvements. Businesses started and died, a mall converted to a storage place, and new projects stood undeveloped for years. There were good reasons, I am sure, but I am telling what I saw.

I discovered a town in Colorado that is much like our towns. As a matter of fact, from the air, you could mistake it for the Crowsnest Pass. Its name is Crested Butte, and they call it a Zoom Boom town. It is a recent phenomenon that appeared since COVID started.

People from the big cities are looking for small, attractive, peaceful places to live in. Zoom and the internet at large make it possible to work and study from home. If the workers need some time in the city, they can rent their country homes out for a period of months or even a day like an Air B &| B. The income can finance the home. People moving in, even for a short term, often are much more well off than the old locals. Animosity is building up and we hear the old French revolution slogan “eat the rich” used.

Overall, the little towns that were looking for new residents to move in and pay local taxes, find their towns becoming too expensive to live or even rent in, and the new people may change the town’s character. Resentment is building. With the Zoom Boom, there is a fresh development and a noticeable shortage of service workers. We halted immigration for over a year. If you have working-class level employment, you may not be able to find a place that you can afford to live in. Where there was an unemployment problem now, under-employment makes things less affordable, especially for those on fixed incomes, which many old-timers are.

I realize that complaining is not the solution. I also know that blaming new people who invest in our community will not serve us, or the new people. When the province cuts money to education, healthcare, infrastructure building, municipality programs, recreation, transit, policing, and who knows what else, we must be prepared. Many are helpless to do anything. We need to figure out solutions other than waiting for the oil prices to rise and bring a windfall or new energy investors to return.

Instead of fighting for some foreign companies to mine our resources and sell them to other foreign countries, we could take initiative and help ourselves. If “heavy industry” will not work, a string of smaller businesses will do the same. We need modern-day solutions, not solutions that would have worked in the past but perhaps are outdated. If kicking a dead horse doesn’t work, a fresh horse may be a good idea.

We have historic little towns near cities with relatively wonderful services. We have good people that can serve on council and do what’s good for us. There is potential here for a lot of light industries, and businesses on the internet or on the ground. Let’s attract them, help them (Not tax them to death) improve services and go on aggressively with the beautification plans that already began. Retain and market our advantages and use the skills and experience of those moving in. They love our place and want to help.

We see a push towards reducing services in rural areas designed to herd populations to cities, leaving the countryside to large corporations. It is slow yet effective. Fewer voters in rural areas will reduce our ability to influence politics. However, for most of us, it is a way of life worth preserving. Now, with the Zoom Boom, it is our chance to rebuild our communities up to modern standards.

We may never go back underground or even mine coal again, it’s in the courts, but can influence our and our children’s future. It takes having a vision and a plan of how to achieve it. Let’s show what country people, old and new, can do.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Saving Women and Girls.

 

 

Saving Women and Girls.

A heyday for the media and I wish it was also for the farmers, but it’s not. In a normal year, the news media is happy to have one or two major events and look now. Disasters are competing with each other for news coverage. Haiti again devastated, snap elections were called, a pandemic is regaining strength, a pipeline is not even on the news, oil prices are up and Albertans are getting nothing for it, past and present abuses of First Nations exposed, food prices rising, housing situation across the country is critical, education and healthcare threatened, fires next door and everywhere else, caused by global warming.

In a world like this, what should we talk about first? I look at the news and in the last few days, the situation in Afghanistan is the most eye-catching. Twenty years ago, the US and NATO nations, Canada included, invaded the poor far away backward country. We went to destroy terrorist training camps but ended up officially fighting for women’s rights. Thousands of lives and trillions of dollars were invested, and the girls amazed us with what they could do. Out of the blue burqas emerged girls who became doctors, lawyers, business leaders, judges, politicians, teachers, scientists, Nobel Prize winners, you name it.

Now the West was beaten, leaving the country and evacuating people. Out of all the pictures on the news, one sticks to my mind. A bearded brute was chasing a woman in front of the airport, beating her with a stick. The Taliban calls it crowd control. The West leaders said that they will evacuate Afghans in danger, especially women and girls. I am not good at believing in politicians’ promises. I judge by what I see.

The women and girls that we are airlifting or rescuing will come here. What will be their fate? What about the families with children? Over there they were the Intelligentsia, the Afghanis who could speak English. Here they are arriving with a suitcase to beat the bottom of the bottom of the social order. I remember the feeling. They will work hard, live cheaply, and hope for their future generations to do well. Some people will call them “refugees” or worst while others will tell them to go back where they came from.

As they will assimilate into our society, the old horrors will fade from memory and they will face our realities. Here legally women are equal, but we value many only for their labour or looks. We don’t force them to wear a blue or black tent, but most will be “working people” catering to “rich people” whom they may never see in real life.

Women and girls will find themselves in a much more advanced society but still a society that exploits them, some for having darker skin, some for being a religious minority, and others for being female. They will witness us debating how and when the laws should force restrictions on what they may do with their bodies. The debate is ongoing in many states across the border, as we speak.

Here, girls are not covered but compete with each other for a sexy look. (Not all.) They will use much of their income on makeup, fashions, and perhaps a sporty car or a bigger, fancier home. Some may be trafficked for sex work, others will join the competition to appear like our high class. I remember an interview I saw a few years ago. An Iranian father was asked why his daughters were not allowed to choose who they will marry or which crowd of kids they could hang out with. After a long talk, out came the truth. “We don’t want our daughters to turn out like Britney Spears,” he said.

Our girls may try to use their charm to get a better life for themselves and their future children. “Marry up” is the idea. There was a conversation recorded secretly between George Bush and his brother before they became known political figures. In it, one was saying something like this. “Go to a trailer court, tie a $100 bill to a fishing line and start pulling it, and see what you will come up with.” The rich boys know that the poor girls will give them what they want, hoping to advance through the ranks, and a few may do.

Now I watch the “Me too” movement and wonder how come all those cases of sexual abuse were not reported or investigated many years ago. Often it was our way of life. The generals, movie tycoons, politicians, and others who are now being demoted or even jailed were doing what then was acceptable. Taking advantage of their high class and using what we call (Mistakingly?) Gold Diggers. There are stories in the Bible about the same happening many years ago.

Our society is now struggling with a new identity. The equality-seeking group is competing with those who view women as baby-making machines. We can’t win unless we change the whole social order that includes great inequality in society. It may end up with a revolution, God forbid. In Afghanistan, now the more conservative group won, but here we are trying to reach a consensus democratically. The disasters I named are pressing us to take decisive action.

I look at the peaceful valley I live in and see our towns growing. New people moving into new and renovated homes. There are lots of visitors and we can’t find a table in a restaurant. The fires are staying away and the weather map shows us to be a bubble protected from the worst. The pandemic cases reduce on the way here from all directions.

I don’t want to brag, but I thank the invisible hand that protects us. I notice calmness between the genders instead of the competition in other places and I wonder. Are we here doing something better than most of the world? Could we become an example of true equality while we are at it?

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Moderation and balance spells hope.

 

Moderation and balance spells hope.

When I was a child in Israel, I hated summer. I was happy about time off from school, but the suffocating heat was oppressive and anything not watered was dry. We moved to Canada, and it was turned upside down. Here the flowers bloomed in the summer and all was dead in the winter. Luckily, there is winter beauty in most of Canada that can’t be ignored. Now I am an old Canadian who cherishes the short couple of months when all is green.

I remember good and bad years, yet none like the present. I know the stories from the great depression were horrible, but we will not remember 2021 as a good time either. We started the year with a raging pandemic and things went from bad to worst. By mid summer desperation was setting in.

Most of the country wanted to get us over the hump, but we found ourselves fighting against friends and neighbours who believe that you can wish problems away and they will go away. Society was spending resources to find an effective vaccine and an undercurrent of positive thinking freedom fighters were threatening any possible success of our efforts. While we had millions of life saving vaccines spoiling in the fridge, millions of people around the world were facing death and severe illness without help.

By midsummer, we all witnessed a new world shaping up all around us. Some countries were locking up, like Japan, and others faced bigger problems than the Pandemic. Hong Kong bravely stood up to China. Lebanon tried to restart life after severe damage by a government that ignored the people. Here we were facing a summer without tourism from our big neighbour to the south. Some tourist’s attractions suffered but overall, the economy didn’t see major downtrends. We learned that unemployment figures were artificial and we couldn’t survive without cheap temporary foreign labour. Also, the labour of new emigrants in businesses like meat processing was declared “essential.” Who would have guessed?

Mid summer spelled more disasters locally and around the globe. Heat waves and floods like we have not seen in our lifetime devastated the rich and poor alike. Here it was fires, in Europe and Asia, big floods and everywhere unvaccinated people spreading a forever changing pandemic. Being a student of history, I began worrying that all the changes merging at the same time may change the course of human history.

When I was a child, the world was fascinated by the British Empire. Although other powers were competing for ruling the world, people around me were convinced that the British were number one. It went into transition in front of my eyes and the world was divided into two major forces, the American Capitalism and the Russian Communism. Both were equally scary, but I was on the Capitalist side and feared the other. By the time I had children, Communism lost and Free Market won, headed by the United States. As I was raising my children, the Market Capitalism without the threat of the Far Left changed, and became a threat to its own followers.

I knew people who fought in the Korean war that ended with a stalemate. I came to Canada when young men who refused to take part in an unjust war in Vietnam were flocking in looking for a way out. Soon after, I saw the TV coverage of the US running away and countless people floated on the ocean trying to remain alive. We called them “boat people.” I met Hungarians who escaped to Canada when the US deserted them to fight the Soviets alone. Florida was full of refugees from Cuba. Far left and far right, both failed people like me.

Now I am watching Afghanistan. Twenty-year war that cost trillions and so many lives is coming to an end. The beneficiaries are the weapon manufacturers and the losers are those who believed that a war can improve their lives. The biggest empire in the world ever is defeated by a backward, poor country that doesn’t even have a unified nation. I no longer believe humans can win over each other by war, no matter how much we invest in it. I retreat to what I have learned about spirituality. It’s not much, but it’s the only way that makes sense to me.

I am not talking about any religion. They all have some good points and all believe that they are the true faith. Nowadays we can call science a religion as well. To me, spirituality is all of them, people believing that there is something bigger than what our senses can perceive and our logic can figure out. The bible dictates not to assign human description to the entity which we named God.

When people’s emotions are aroused, they say God, or Jesus, Allah, or whatever name. The religious Jews say “hashem” meaning “the name.” We should not invoke lightly the name of God. We pray and expect Him to save us by miracles. It is easily and conveniently forgotten that we have knowledge and must use it ourselves before needing the help of the creator. He gave us the power to do so and the free will to choose.

Spiritual beings must take a picture of the world we recreated in our image and study it. If we see that we became addicted to power, fame, money, immorality, cheating, electronic devices, a lazy life style, irrational fears, dominating the needy, losing touch with reality and more, we must take steps to fix the problem before calling God. Like a good father, He will not pick us up but tell us to stand up. It is the only way we learn.

Our enemy that we must defeat is called totalitarianism. God created us to be our best in the balance between universal forces. I am most comfortable with minority governments, moderate weather, and political ideologies balancing each other.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Money makes us tick?

 

Money makes us tick?

When you are a child, you think that the greatest thing is to grow up. Adults have all the freedom that you envy, and they get to make the rules. I remember my teenage years and later watched a “replay” as my kids were growing up. All adults can tell you that becoming an adult is just the beginning, not the end. There is a lot to learn, but most people are afraid to do things. The catchy phrase is, “who is going to pay for it”. We try, learn, and pay for our mistakes that we adults know we will make.

Who is going to pay is also the main reason for people to choose a political philosophy to follow through life. We have three main political systems to choose from. Christian: give your material possessions away and attend to helping the poor. Only monks and crazy people follow it. “I fought and worked hard for my things and will not give them away.” Well, the funeral director tells me that eventually, we do.

The Liberal system is another. We place all of our resources and efforts into looking after all humans and guide them to be fruitful if they can. They cheat and try to live well while we work hard to pay for it. They should have done what we did, so they would have what we have. As my old hunting partner used to say, If they want to eat they must work. We can work moving forward or be stuck in a dead-end job until the end.

Next comes the Conservative view, greatly promoted by the writings of Charles Darwin about evolution. Nature looks after all problems. Now it’s the Market, not nature. The fittest survive and the weakest perish. Big dog eats smaller dogs and governments should stay out of it. That philosophy is missing a major component. The wolf pack can hunt the great bear. The ants defeat the grasshopper and the viruses beat the mighty humans. That philosophy denies taking chances and expanding.

Young people are eager to face life, believing that they will work and study hard and have a significant life, and a few do. If we include all the world population, we see that most people struggle hard to have the bare minimum and often less. That is the direct outcome of our greatest invention, money.

Gold and other rare metals used to be the medium of exchange. For convenience, we changed it to paper money and recently into electronic digits. Both are plentiful and can’t easily be controlled. First, we were strict about how much was circulating and people could trust it to some degree, but things have changed. We now see that it was just the beginning.

Money is no longer a medium of exchange, it became a way to buy pleasure, avoid work, and hoard wealth. Christ told us to give it back to the issuing government, but we failed. Some did very well, mostly by finding ways around just using the money for exchange, while others slowly gave up freedom and became enslaved to some degree or another. Now we are adults and life has no mercy. You owe, you pay.

In some places like Canada, we found ways to live and negotiate credit, payments, jobs, and all else, but there is another spectrum that we are unfamiliar with. Half of the world or more is living with hardly any money and all that it brings. While we try to buy pleasure, others can’t buy the necessities of life. They are on the move. Either they will find a way to survive or they will march.

We believed that our military might will save us but recently discovered that the great United States can’t even win a war against the poorest most backwords country, such as Afghanistan. The Wolfpack can hunt the great bear. Now we also have to deal with a war against a virus. We could win, but the pursuit of money stops us. It also stops us from saving our planet from being killed and buried under garbage on the surface, in the water, and in the air.

For example, we can look south of us where money won against people. We are honoured to be friends of the greatest empire the world has ever seen, but we see it crumbling down. Large numbers of their citizens don’t even have Health Care when they are sick. Many kids don’t have a proper diet and education. Yet they and other countries have people who own so much money they couldn’t spend it in many lifetimes. Some call them Oligarchs.

We print or create money all the time. It finds its way to the richest people in the world rather quickly while others work two jobs and hardly affords food and shelter. Eventually, the poor people discover what the Taliban did. (I don’t like the Taliban.) They get weapons and beat the system. That is not the desired outcome.

Humans could create money, as we do, and use it directly to do what we need by hiring, building things, and serving people. We don’t need to hand it over to a few individuals, in China, Russia, the USA, etc, and borrow it back on interest. We, the majority in society, can set our own new rules and not listen to those who say that we can’t. It’s just another monetary theory and we don’t have to set off inflation. Money performs and is taxed back to prevent inflation. Some very rich people advocate doing it when asked for their opinion.

The main idea we must remember is that we are adults and should fix things in a way that works for us, not against us. Even the biggest business needs customers and starving people shoot not buy. Under that system, all of us could have much more time for leisure, and we would pay for it.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Locals, newbies, and weekenders.

 

Locals, newbies, and weekenders.

Soon I will pass 25 years of involvement in the Crowsnest Pass. I was a weekender, later purchased a place and as soon as I could, moved here full time. The mountains are majestic, but the wonderful people attracted me the most. When I first arrived, half of the place was for sale, if not more. I remember ads selling homes for $16,000 and gigantic signs, “lots for sale” and “cheap acreages.” I walked into a store and was asked if I wanted to buy a business.

I have seen this trend in the city. A neighbourhood gets old and transforms. Inglewood, Calgary for example, used to be where all the CPR workers lived. The railway privatized its repair shop, and the area became poor. First, when the local industry moves or changes it seems as if it will kill part of the city but it doesn’t. Artists move in, builders get involved and the “last become first.” We saw it again when the armed forces left Calgary. Now their old area is beautiful.

That same trend happens with pretty tiny mountain towns. The economy changes and the worker’s old neighbourhoods go through a rebuilding phase. The old people always talk about the “good old days” often remembering the shiny highlights and forgetting the rest.

Now when I am witnessing a conflict brewing between “pro-mining” people and others, it worries me. Already the fight is extending to be between “weekenders” and “locals.” I saw a “local” crying and saying, all those people are moving here and changing “our” place, why don’t they go back where they came from. A hundred-plus years ago the people who lived here before mining and ranching felt the same. We named a mountain after them and moved them away.

Now the rage is around reopening coal mines. There is a popular story about the ranchers blocking the mines wanting to use the area for free grazing on public lands. It’s possible, but how many are we talking about? I see another popular story circling about the possible Selenium contamination of the water in the lower lands. The mining companies “guarantee” to block it but the question is for how long? Mines come and go but agriculture, (that also pollutes,) remains.

I need steel and also need food. My feeling is that we must work to have both. Mind you, there is research going on for ways to replace steel but it’s far from completion. Whose side should I support? Do I have to take sides? The most excitable people are pushing for all of us to take sides.

I asked some old people here about the good old days of mining. Stories emerged. A woman told me about the days when folks in Coleman had to stay indoors and couldn’t dry their laundry since it got black. Another told me that her dad, a miner, spent years waiting every day to hear a whistle to see if his labour was needed the next day, which often wasn’t. He had to work for a farmer in Beaver Mines for potatoes to feed the family. Miners died early and their widows and kids lived poorly. Another zeroed in on the great strikes, fights with coal barons, scabs, and police.

Some old-timers remember “good old days” but they were not miners. They had stores, theatres, medical clinics, barbershops, and other services. Apparently, mining companies lured people to mining towns with great promises and were not as great when it was time to pay. Similar stories are told by the farmers and ranchers about their history. I am a working man, so I will take the side of miners, ranchers, farmers, and those who serve them.

Since I was young, there were two competing stories that we all learned. One was that God created all that there is in a few days around six thousand years ago, and another was about evolution. Again, I like to not take sides. I simply wasn’t here. However, over my lifetime, the evolution story beat the creation story and churches lost attendance. Evolution based on competition took center stage and was declared as scientific truth. Recently the story began to change.

To my surprise, we realized we don’t live in a “dog eat dog” world. Some places in the world dropped the idea that the world belongs to the fittest who will survive and started a new social experiment. The “new” idea is that we do best when we exercise cooperation and bring the least of our brothers up. Sharing and caring seem to work better than winning. Perhaps it is simply the next step in our social evolution.

As the debate about what is more important, mining or farming heats up, some of us are veering in a new direction. It is possible to have both if we pay the price. There will be less profit from the mines if they don’t pollute so much water and food prices will rise if farmers will have to desalinate the water they use.

All humans need steel and all need food that grows with water. If people are not yet ready to pay higher prices for steel and food, soon they will. In the meantime, both prairie and mountain towns are finding ways to survive.

I see many new homes being built in the Pass and new businesses opening up. I asked the mayor if those are people moving in because of the mines and he said no. Those are people who want to move in and be a part of our community. I was delighted. Folks like me are retiring here and others are moving in since they can work from home.

Possibly we can take it easy, try one mine, reach a friendly hand to our neighbours, the ranchers and farmers and grow naturally. We discover new solutions for every problem every day. Possibly we could be a part of the solution.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Alberta’s future in a Crystal ball.

 

Alberta’s future in a Crystal ball.

A hundred and twenty years ago Alberta was the promised land and a new Canada was investing to develop it. There was farmland, ranch land, minerals, and coal. The aboriginal population didn’t fight as their relatives in the US did, and the only problem was getting people to move here. Train lines were built, and governments and churches got together in an effort to bring people who are tough enough to survive and build a province.

When I first saw Alberta it was a dreamland or heaven on earth. Farms and ranches dotted fertile fields, little coal mining towns with churches, and cities with industries and services. The population was comprised of a lot of optimistic people who enjoyed life and were looking forward to an even better future. During the Lougheed years, we built universities and hospitals, new infrastructure appeared everywhere and rural Alberta was booming. People from everywhere were waiting in line to move here, and in 1988 Alberta became a world-famous destination.

Sadly, later on, the leadership changed, and we focused the Alberta economy on oil alone, letting all else recede and decline. Foreign interests moved in, intending to make quick money and ignoring the well-being of the province and its people.

Imagine Alberta without the rural population. Miles and miles of export-grade farm commodities undisturbed by farms, villages, hamlets, towns, and small cities. Some areas are fully devoted to mining and others systematically stripped of forests. Seasonal workers in camps using large machines to harvest and mine, supply cheap labour, and are sent back to their home countries when the work is done. No need for schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure, only what is needed to make profits remains.

Alberta without rural communities wouldn’t have to worry about how rural people vote or about what will happen to older farmers when their working life is done. No school buses on the roads, few restaurants or religious communities, and no call for services. The whole rich province could be run from a central location in the most efficient way with one aim; make most money for the investors who financed the venture.

The cities would have the human resources but competition for jobs would eliminate the need to pay high wages or provide incentives other than pay. People would work and fly to other places to live, as they do now in Fort McMurray. Without the rural population, the cities would not need to serve so many people and would be focused on profit-making from the sales of resources. No need for the RCMP and no call for art. Only efficiency and austerity.

How would one go about creating such a utopian business? It could be easier than expected. Alberta is rich in resources and extracting or profiting from them is now no longer very labour intensive. Those who wish to cash in have a problem with large rural communities demanding services, having environmental concerns, and influencing politics away from easy profit-making. What would be an easy way to speed up the slow trickle of people moving away from the country? A solution is obvious. Life in the country could be made less attractive or even impossible. Corporations can use a sizeable amount of money to elect governments more loyal to revenues and less to the voting public. A government devoted to austerity will naturally lean towards spending less where the population is not dense.

Avoid developing labour-intensive industries in rural communities. Discourage health care professionals from serving in the countryside by removing incentives and reducing pay. Close hospitals and other medical facilities. Reduce the quality of education so the young generation will look for opportunities in cities. Reduce the number of teachers and support staff. Short change Seniors care or not support places for them to live. Reduce government services forcing people to go further for their needs. Reduce the quality of policing by forcing small communities to pay for it and offering cheaper less qualified options. Welcome temporary workers from poor countries at peak seasons and send them back at slow times. We had regulations that enhanced life in rural places and governments can remove them.

Next, a government can remember the empire’s motto of divide and rule. A simple change in regulations can divide the rural population and set them up against each other. Remove a rule that protected water for farms and wave a couple of hundred short-lived jobs in front of declining towns folks and you have them fighting each other. Farmers can’t give up fresh water and mines can promise to keep the water clean “if possible” knowing that it’s not. After all, they will be long gone when the problems they caused will show up. Just like cleaning “Orphaned wells” the socialist solution of “the public will pay” will be the only one.

I saw on the news a woman on the floor of emergency in a hospital (In Ontario) where all the beds were taken. She died shortly after. I don’t want this to happen here in rural Alberta, but it will if we don’t fight for our rights now while we can. I am afraid government policies or removal of such could end the way of life we enjoyed for over a hundred years. We built the province and we want to keep it for ourselves, not for “international corporations” that come and go.

People around me are confused, thinking that fighting for freedom means fighting not to wear masks. I wish it was that easy. The actual fight is the fight for our way of life. We look across the border and see millions of bankruptcies related to medical expenses. People working eighty hours a week to keep food on the table. We drive through barren lands viewing poor farms and see cities crumbling back to the ground. The people can’t trust their electoral system and many of them envy our way of life. What we have in Alberta is worth fighting for.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Converting to dollars.

 

Converting to dollars.

A young man wanted to follow a certain Rabbi from Nazareth. First, he needed to bury his father. Another did the same, but needed to do something with his fields. Another had a similar story. They were all told by the Rabbi to rid themselves of the money concerns and just come and they all couldn’t. Poor fishermen and a few women joined.

In my life, I faced similar situations a few times. I thought that working in recreation, a job designed to help people mentally and physically, I could safely follow my Christian morality and make a living, but I couldn’t. My boss during my annual performance review gently told me that I must consider what is a moral decision and what is a business decision. At work, they paid me with money funnelled from a political party and I had to make business decisions.

Later in my career, I found myself involved in committees that dealt with the gentrification of parts of the City. Our mission was to clean up areas and get rid of humans considered undesirable. It was tied to property values and corporate investments. Definitely a business decision. When you have a clear mission, you do the job and we all did.

Where did the undesirables go? They were chased around, always landing in a new older neighbourhood where crime soon soared and they moved to another place. To fix the problem permanently would have taken a lot more than what we could do. We would have had to change what society values.

A few people in every group have no pride and are willing to live on charity or beg for sustenance. Some fake it and enrich themselves with donations. Most are keen to be useful. Given an opportunity, most people will work, learn, and seek recognition. Olympic athletes will try to be the best even if the crowd is not there to cheer.  

Humans excel by working together. We admire stars, heroes, or even beautiful people, but our biggest achievements result from many people working together. For that, we need to know the right stories.

We have been telling ourselves stories that are the opposite of what the Nazarene told us. Even the churches do. Governments are completely sold on the idea that material success is supreme. We could classify all the countries that used to colonize parts of the world as antichristian, even those who didn’t send crusaders to exterminate the opposing religions. I am not surprised that so many folks left the churches and don’t have faith in governments.

People measure their personal success by how much money they have or control. They make sure that money is in short supply so they alone will have most, or inflation takes over and the economy crashes. The competition is fierce and the victims are many.

A good example of how the system works we will see in the immediate future. The country of Lebanon, which used to be known as the jewel of the Middle East, is now on the verge of bankruptcy. Bank owners and corporate high rollers drained its resources and millions are facing starvation.

Another sign of bad stories are the rich or famous men. Their nature drives them to try their best to impregnate as many females as they can and leave them to raise the young on their own. There are stories about a past president of the USA spreading his oats and it does not deter his so-called Christian followers at all. People are mesmerized by his success instead.

We name ourselves “Christian” countries but we are only two hundred years removed from selling and buying human beings. In our countries, we still practice trafficking girls for sex. All our actions are assigned a monetary value and we gear all our efforts in life towards increasing and hoarding more value.

People consider time that is not spent to produce wealth or its equivalent as a wasted life. You have to make something, socially advance yourself or travel, or you haven’t lived. If you go walking you brag about the trails you walked or the mountains you climbed, or you don’t do it.

I propose a new story told long ago. In that story, people measure success by loving and making life more enjoyable for all living things, including the planet we inhabit. A planet that provides us with our existence and gives life to all the creatures upon it, free of charge. A place in the vast universe that can be the heaven people die to be in, in exchange for minimal well-directed effort.

I don’t think that we must give all our possessions and experiences away, only need to work together for reducing suffering and helping those less capable. When we don’t compete to dominate and hoard, we have enough leftovers to feed all who are created.

If I will have time to reflect on my life before I die, what will I think about? Will I say I produced something in great quantities? Will I brag about the size of my home? Will I show a map of the places I travelled to? Will I tell those around me how much money I amassed by denying others basic comforts?

I think I will remember tender moments. My first interaction with my wife, the first time I held my child and attending her/his graduation, or being around a dying friend providing comfort. I will think about speaking up against the kids bullying a poor child in school or picking up a stray cat feeding it. I will remember the smell of the pines in the early morning when the fog blurs the mountains.

Life is not about the zeros in our bank accounts or the bling surrounding us, it is about the simple things that we exchange with the rest of God’s creation. If we must fight, let it be a fight for justice, not for power and money. That is when He blesses our sword.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.