MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

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STAND ON GUARD FOR THEE
 
Friday, July 1, 2022
 
Living in a free country is something most Canadians take for granted, and I would assert this is the same in most democratic countries. We sleep easy. We walk our streets and drive our highways with freedom in our nostrils and liberty in our bellies.

Today is our Dominion Day, our Canada Day, when we say Oh Canada!, and sing Oh Canada with bravado and pride. We celebrate one day a year the incredible rights of citizenship we bask in 365 days a year.

And then we have Ukraine. And NATO. And the UN. And the U.S. Supreme Court. And in Canada, we have the Liberal party and the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) effectively governing by fiat.

The pandemic is over, but its ramifications are not. The power/standing of Russia/Putin is diminished, but that land-grab and global economic ramifications are far from over.

The rulings of governments, the rhetoric of politicians on their way in or on their way out, and the trends/movements and lobbying are rarely rooted in facts, science, or fairness – but more rooted in maintaining a perception of those things while less visible agendas of the power-hungry play out behind the dust and haze.

Every rule and law of any government, religious dogma, the scripture of any holy book, or today’s headlines – are all created by humankind, not by nature.

Our landscape as a country is primarily determined by nature. Wars, treaties and politics have blurred and altered the natural contours of our maps and cut the continent into pieces. I like our Canadian pieces, mainland and islands, provinces and territories and enormous bodies of inland water and offshore rights/boundaries.

We perceive our Confederation will hold.

We perceive those boundaries will not change.

We believe the magnificence of our resource-rich and those mostly underpopulated regions of our country will remain intact.

We typically don’t question those perceptions – we take them for granted just as we take our landscapes, wilderness, forests and mountains for granted. We take our clean air and rivers, our lakes and seashores for granted.

Canadians are a trusting people, but we should not be blind to threats of competition from adversaries just as certainly as we should be vigilant about threats to our natural environment.

If it were up to nature, there would be no roads, bridges, airports or dams on rivers other than those built by beavers. Those same beavers who, along with our codfish, were why Europeans came here – for trade goods to acquire, for lands to conquer and native populations to exploit and denigrate.

A few centuries forward, despite progress, much more is wrong with this country. None of it caused by nature, but all of it caused by the nature of man, including once revered builders of the country whose actions are now viewed through a different lens, and we must denounce their wrongful actions.

While so much is right about Canada, much is far superior to the ‘rights of citizenship’ of many other countries. We have resources, food, freedom, medicare, hockey, a pride worthy flag and population.

There is still far too much wrong with this country, so many issues to address, redress, and solve – and we trust in ourselves to make progress – and despite our democracy’s many unresolved problems, our personal and collective values as a society are celebrated today and envied worldwide.

We are in control of our collective destiny in a world with a population of 8.5 billion people. Will we enjoy the same peace and freedom when there are 15 billion competing for food, shelter, clean air and clean water?

We are true north strong and free, not by accident, and we’ll only remain that way if we are committed to retaining our peace and freedom. We cannot do that in weakness or by coasting on-accident – we need to make it happen and provide for future generations but doing wise things on-purpose.

We should not be complacent.


Reader feedback:
 
DISTRACTION ATTRACTION
 
Mark, I think for many people that’s a difficult question to answer. So much of what we accomplish seems normal at the time or just an expectation we are meeting. As we age and begin to reflect it then becomes a matter of mentally ranking decades of doing. And if the question is asked on a different day, the ranking would be different and different cream would be at the top. But it’s great to look back and celebrate, HM, Calgary, AB
 
I love reading your words everyday and you are an inspiration to me Mark. Thank you for all you do, NM, Calgary, AB … p.s.  Here’s a link to access a free copy of my book. I’m taking you up on your invitation to share more about myself. It’s a book on working smarter and becoming more organized and productive yes, but it’s also full of real women’s stories, including how I become The Unexpected Entrepreneur  https://unexpectedentrepreneurbook.gr8.com/ . Feel free to share the link to access a free copy of my book with your readers. My passion is to share and teach these practices and principles to as many people as possible so that they can experience less friction and frustration in their work. The point of productivity is to be able to enjoy life more.
 

 


 
 

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