People I haven't seen too much over the winter are like spring flowers beginning to pop up all around; their smiles as warm as the first breath of summer. They ask what I've been doing over the winter; have I been doing any painting to which I reply, "Nothing creative, just the walls and cupboards in the upstairs bathroom/bedroom renovations." For the balance of this year, I'm planning and hoping to finish off the major construction jobs such as the upstairs and the new extension on Sarah's little coffee shop; I just aint getting any younger and the old joints and muscles appear to be complaining more than usual. And then, after that, hopefully next winter, I'll pick up the artsy-fartsy brushes and splash a little paint around - attempt to do something a little more creative - maybe even publish a book or two or at least write some more stories that seem to continually spin a yarn inside my head. I hate to say it, but my old body is in a downright rebellious state; just keeps on complaining and complaining and I'm getting rather tired of it.
So here I sit this slightly breezy May morning, looking out my studio window at the nearby ridge where soon the greyness of winter will turn to green; at least our stand of forest hides the hideous large clear-cut portion, a giant scar across Green Mountain (I expect its name could change in the not too distant future since most of the trees have been axed). I try to look at the bright side of life with a goodly portion of positive thinking in my stride but after hearing what our no-brain Premier Aldred who just cut a deal with Irving, giving them the go ahead to level the forests until they deem it's not profitable anymore, which will be when the last tree standing has fallen, it's difficult not to be cynical. I generally don't complain too much or get overly upset but the events that are taking place across our country to help perhaps the dumbest government I've ever experienced since I began voting over 50 years ago to cover their blatant ineptness and total disregard and respect for the people and the creatures abiding here, an abomination of our planet, it's difficult to have a bright and bushy-tailed demeanor and attitude for our future, especially the younger generations'.
We still have a 12 year old daughter at home and the education, in comparison to what I experienced when I was her age, is downright disgraceful - she's at least 3 to 4 years behind. I sometimes wonder, since China is the huge manufacturer of asinine crap for slave wages and conditions if the corporations here in the west have a conspiracy against education, so that the younger generations will only have enough brains to sit at a long assembly line for 6 days a week for 16 hours a day for a mere pittance of a wage. It appears to me that the world began a huge digression at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and never before in history, has it been more rapidly descending. The planet is running out of resources, which has been largely used for destruction and the mind-set hasn't changed. The armies continually keep blowing everything up and the infantile junk that's lined up on shelves built to the ceilings in dollar-stores is a huge source of our diminishing resources - it's as if our planet is becoming a gargantuan junk yard, where soon the whole of civilization will be living like rats and gnawing on each other's bones for sustenance.
It's impossible to blame one individual or a handful of individuals for the state of our world; we are all, every last one of us to blame, including myself. I've wasted forest products, metal objects and have purchased useless ornamentations and when I drove during my younger and careless years, took meaningless rides on my motorcycle just for the shear pleasure of feeling the wind flowing through my hair and the excitement of the speed and now, I'm paying like the rest of us for our own pleasurable indulgences; we're down to squeezing fuel out of sand. And all this crap we've (the more so called well-off individuals) have bought into at a certain age, that we've actually earned the right to a large pension that affords us to jump on jets, gigantic cruise ships to sit our fat asses down at some resort pool, with unlimited margaritas to knockback and be waited on hand and foot by people who are most likely living in hovels with a family to feed - how ludicrous is that?
Well, it's Sunday morning; the sky is cloudy and I wouldn't be surprised if it rains soon but I hear many birds singing in the forest and even though they no doubt know the weather better than I, their cheery melodic notes tell me that there's nothing we can do about it but enjoy the fact that the rain slakes not just our own thirst but every other living thing's thirst. And speaking of thirst, at least my own, I do believe it's time for me to head inside the house and have a hot cup of coffee with my wife; a good shot of "elephant balls" tossed in to give it that added flavour and medicinal benefit will be much appreciated as well - cheers, eh!
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