THEY TEACH ME
Monday Dec. 16, 2013
Problem doesn’t possess personality. No attitude. Nor agenda.
We do.
We, consumers, voters, statistics – simply data, without whom marketers, politicians and pollsters could neither justify their existence or explain why some things work and others don’t.
We, top end of the food chain animals, eat all animals.
We fear none.
OK, grizzlies and lions in the wild.
Or is that simply fear of wretched death?
Otherwise, we don’t fear.
Sitting with Gary yesterday, three hours of discussion, reminiscing. Conversation kept coming full circle – not to his cancer, but to his son, to his family issues that have been around since toddler-hood, to every frustration in life that can’t be resolved at all, or in time. Not in life or in death.
It could be argued – he has nothing left to do, yet I think he has so much to do.
Similar to what my dad has been showing in recent years – as ability evaporates and disability becomes better description – that dignity and calmness serve better as our energy wanes.
There is little time and little strength to pursue what matters– and all the rest doesn’t matter much at all.
If one considers the notion – and reality – that we are ALL dieing, we are all in some form of countdown, at what point do we throw our hands in the air, surrender and simply give up because the time available is not sufficient, or the strength we have left insufficient, to make decisions, make choices and to make some difference?
Counting days, seems endless and frustrating.
Counting down – rocket lift-off – is very exciting.
Distance from where we are to where we triumph isn’t calculable.
Mark Kolke
200,512
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: -3C/ 26F, big dump of snow overnight, to call it traffic chaos would be understatement – as 40th Avenue is the confluence of normal traffic volume compounded by three stuck buses, tow-trucks sadly undersized for the job and pedestrians falling because they weren’t paying attention while holding a coffee in one hand and their cell-phone in the other, all of this under a picture-postcard perfect blanket of wet sticky snow – perfect for snowballs ‘n stuff.
Comments Received:
Hope everything works out Mark, SC, ?
Merry Christmas. If you indeed have no fear of your daughter, as to give a whistle to a 19-month-old, then boy, do I have a deal for you. Next year, you can give Isla a whole drum set that's been sitting in my barn, since I banished it many years ago! I think, over the years, the whatchamacallits that one drums with have been lost in holes punched into my walls by overzealous nieces and nephews. That fancy, sparkly red drum set - yes, with cymbals! - is yours for the asking. What a great present that would be for Christmas. Free! I hope that you got to see Gary for a minute. I never met Gary but he was supposed to come here for steak. Tonight, we had moose steak and I thought of Gary. Perhaps, as I eat steak so seldom, I'll think of Gary whenever I do. I like that thought. I know that this week you'll be remembering all the things that Gary is to you. Have a wonderful Christmas, Mark, From an almost-old friend, treasure your dad more than ever this Christmas. You are so lucky to have him, VJP, Red Deer Lake, AB
