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LAST LEAF LITTERED AUTUMN
Saturday Oct. 15, 2016
What time is it?
I thought it was today …
Then I woke up to think it must be the future because it is scary. I slept on it.
I woke up, it felt like the past – what time is it? Wake up time …
I walked Gusta through familiar territory yesterday – leaf littered wet path, signs our growing season is over, dormant period has arrived. Our future to be filled with wintery cold, a long wait till warmer climes and short-sleeve conditions when golf-season returns.
Old familiar set of facts. Things are different now. I don’t mean getting older makes you think about, wonder about, and perhaps fear ‘will this be my last autumn?’.
But as years go by, obituary pages (like today) filled with way too many people younger than me – it would be ridiculous to say I don’t think about it.
I think about other things – in anticipation of being around a few more decades. Whether or not I am, these issues matter: what kind of world do we live in, is it safer or less-safe and will those we care about enjoy a better quality of life than before. The pace, it seems to be quickening. And then, yesterday unfolded – breaking news broke …
A plane crash killed four golfers on their way back to Calgary after their day of playing 36 holes in Kelowna – former Premier Jim Prentice was in that foursome. I got acquainted with Jim briefly on a project many years ago, before his elected politics days – he was a lawyer, clearly the brightest mind in that crowded board room of bright minds I’d convened. He made us better, higher minded and awed by his intellect, his ethics and his kind spirit. He went on to high-office, high-achievements and a crushing defeat. He’ll be missed for what he did, and for what he might yet have accomplished …
I couldn’t help but be reminded too, of an October trip to Kelowna 15 years ago – four of us (three of had been in that boardroom with Jim), off to Kelowna for our weekend of 36 holes – leaf littered courses, great laughs, much snoring, many pancakes, an unforgettable trip brought back to mind now in a very sad way.
Reader feedback:
STEERING AND STEWARDSHIP
This is the best, clearest analysis of the situation I have seen. Great column and Very True to reality, KM, Calgary, AB
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