1) Please walk, bike and jog in single file when passing other people on sidewalks, pathways, trails. Common sense! And good courtesy. The life you save may be your own.
2) I love outdoor work. I would be happy to work in our farm fields if I were still under 60. Even if individually we only did a few hours a day, we would have a big impact on the ability of our growers to plant, tend, harvest and deliver. We are going to need labour to do the jobs migrant workers have done for far too long. They have made our food seem so accessible and inexpensive, we have been royally spoiled! Do I hear the word privileged?? I know migrant workers support their families back home and this will be a hardship if they can't come to Canada, but at some point we need to step up and provide for ourselves. If not actually on a farm, we can do a lot with some gardening of our own.
3) Did the folks who relied on horses, carriages, livery stables, hay farms, saddlery and harness makers have a nervous breakdown and insist the government subsidize their endeavours to keep them afloat when gas guzzlers came along?? Any harness maker worth his salt got busy making leather goods for cars. Livery stables became garages and gas stations. About time our fossil industry recognized they are horses that need to be put out to pasture.
4) The folks who make big money in times like these are the innovators!
5) I can't believe our government values our collapsing and destructive fossil industry so highly. In fact, I'm offended that my endeavours have never been treated so well. I suppose artists can always "make do," but why can't oil industry workers be given the chance to see how they can "make do." Is a young oil worker more valuable than a writer, artist, musician?? Are oil industry workers worth more because they make a product we're addicted to?? In an industry that makes big bucks for a few people and works others hard in dangerous trades, where they live in mass temporary housing provided by their employers? I do feel seriously slighted that nothing I have done merits the money and attention that is still showered on an industry that refuses to make changes...an industry that has left us thousands of abandoned wells and mine workings that need cleaning up. Why am I less than that, and my work rarely deemed essential? I have noticed recent posts that remind us how valuable are the books, games, movies, songs, and musicals we are now enjoying and deem essential to mental health. Those are produced by millions of creatives that are rarely acknowledged when billions of dollars are plopped into the pockets of oil industry cronies and their government shills.
6) Despite all of the above, I am overwhelmed by the news of folks who are shifting to PPE mask making, gardening, supporting, caring and more. I just heard a story this morning that the engineers at Magna, a major Canadian auto parts manufacturer, are transitioning to researching / designing a sterilizing system for ventilators!!
7) I'm actually excited by the creativity I'm seeing. Creativity is what moves us forward. It was creativity that invented the car and all the strange and wondrous oil production enterprises. It's creativity that gave us fracking and other amazing technologies. Unfortunately all creativity is not necessarily healthful and environmentally sensitive. Perhaps we can temper our creativity with compassion, sensitivity and immediate reversal when something we design does more harm than good. May we have the wisdom to recognize the diversity, integration, interconnectedness that Coronavirus demands of us. May we be open to challenges and changes to our expectations, our needs, our relationships and how we relate to this remarkable planet. And if we don't get it...the planet has a way of dealing with us.
2) I love outdoor work. I would be happy to work in our farm fields if I were still under 60. Even if individually we only did a few hours a day, we would have a big impact on the ability of our growers to plant, tend, harvest and deliver. We are going to need labour to do the jobs migrant workers have done for far too long. They have made our food seem so accessible and inexpensive, we have been royally spoiled! Do I hear the word privileged?? I know migrant workers support their families back home and this will be a hardship if they can't come to Canada, but at some point we need to step up and provide for ourselves. If not actually on a farm, we can do a lot with some gardening of our own.
3) Did the folks who relied on horses, carriages, livery stables, hay farms, saddlery and harness makers have a nervous breakdown and insist the government subsidize their endeavours to keep them afloat when gas guzzlers came along?? Any harness maker worth his salt got busy making leather goods for cars. Livery stables became garages and gas stations. About time our fossil industry recognized they are horses that need to be put out to pasture.
4) The folks who make big money in times like these are the innovators!
5) I can't believe our government values our collapsing and destructive fossil industry so highly. In fact, I'm offended that my endeavours have never been treated so well. I suppose artists can always "make do," but why can't oil industry workers be given the chance to see how they can "make do." Is a young oil worker more valuable than a writer, artist, musician?? Are oil industry workers worth more because they make a product we're addicted to?? In an industry that makes big bucks for a few people and works others hard in dangerous trades, where they live in mass temporary housing provided by their employers? I do feel seriously slighted that nothing I have done merits the money and attention that is still showered on an industry that refuses to make changes...an industry that has left us thousands of abandoned wells and mine workings that need cleaning up. Why am I less than that, and my work rarely deemed essential? I have noticed recent posts that remind us how valuable are the books, games, movies, songs, and musicals we are now enjoying and deem essential to mental health. Those are produced by millions of creatives that are rarely acknowledged when billions of dollars are plopped into the pockets of oil industry cronies and their government shills.
6) Despite all of the above, I am overwhelmed by the news of folks who are shifting to PPE mask making, gardening, supporting, caring and more. I just heard a story this morning that the engineers at Magna, a major Canadian auto parts manufacturer, are transitioning to researching / designing a sterilizing system for ventilators!!
7) I'm actually excited by the creativity I'm seeing. Creativity is what moves us forward. It was creativity that invented the car and all the strange and wondrous oil production enterprises. It's creativity that gave us fracking and other amazing technologies. Unfortunately all creativity is not necessarily healthful and environmentally sensitive. Perhaps we can temper our creativity with compassion, sensitivity and immediate reversal when something we design does more harm than good. May we have the wisdom to recognize the diversity, integration, interconnectedness that Coronavirus demands of us. May we be open to challenges and changes to our expectations, our needs, our relationships and how we relate to this remarkable planet. And if we don't get it...the planet has a way of dealing with us.
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