Thoughts – Page 16 – Sommer Season all year

Change is inevitable!

I recently received this quote in an email and the quote got me thinking. The quote was:

Change cannot be avoided in life. So do not resist change, embrace it!

There is no doubt that life is changing all the time. I’ll use myself as an example. This year, 2015, has been very much a year of change for myself as well as my family. As I mentioned in some of my other posts, I retired as a classroom teacher after 35 years of teaching. So to say that this is a huge change for me personally is an understatement. Really, retirement is a new beginning; it is the beginning of a whole new journey. For me, that has meant following some of my passions. One of those passions is writing which is why I started this blog. I needed an outlet for my writing. I needed a place to share my stories and my opinions. It means change because now there will be no more having to get up for work unless I decide to work somewhere. Working is more of a choice now, rather than a necessity. That is a good change. I’ve heard it said, “some people work to live and others live to work”. I was always one of those that worked to live. I needed to work to support my family and to feel useful to society.

My wife and I have three wonderful children, All three of our children have gone through some sort of change this year. Our eldest daughter has moved to a new place to live after being in her previous place for five years. That was a major change for her as she is not a person who freely embraces change. Our youngest daughter is returning to university this year after living and working for the past year in her home town. Our son is also off to university after spending two years at the local community college. He is excited for this change as he has been living with us while getting his Diploma. So as you can see, there has been much change in my family. The only one that is remaining at her same job is my wife. Having said that, she has taken a three-month leave of absence from her work place so that we can do some travelling this fall. So even she has to endure some changes, although they are good changes.

If you listen to the news regularly, then you would also know that the day-to-day conditions on our planet are changing now in ways we could not have anticipated. Climate change is one of the biggest changes our planet has had to endure. Every year seems to be reported as the hottest on record. Storms seem to be getting more and more frequent and progressively more violent. According to the Union of concerned scientists, “As the Earth warms, the amount of rain or snow falling in the heaviest one percent of storms has risen nearly 20 percent on average in the United States—almost three times the rate of increase in total precipitation between 1958 and 2007.” That is definitely change, and not good change. Our planet needs help.

Changes the world will endure, according to the article, 5 ways the world will change radically, are:

The world is becoming over populated. The article states that,” India’s population will overtake China’s around 2020, and Africa’s population will overtake India’s by 2040″ That is not change to embrace since Africa is one of the world’s most poverty-stricken continents.
Urbanization will rapidly increase. The article says, “the number of people living in cities will climb from 3.5 billion today to 6.3 billion by 2050” That means there will be much less farmland to grow food to feed the people. That is not good change.
Conflicts over water shortages will probably play out on our planet. That is not positive change, for that means many people will die because the world is running short of fresh water.
At this time in history, there isn’t enough energy being extracted from known sources of fossil fuels to sustain 10 billion people. That means humans will be forced to turn to new energy sources before the end of the century. In my opinion this is good change as hopefully these new sources will mean less pollution.
The article maintains, “biologists [not all biologists] believe that with the current rate of extinction, 75 percent of the planet’s species will disappear within the next 300 to 2,000 years”. That is just sad as this planet has so much biodiversity. That definitely is not good change.

So the fact of change is real! The quote at the beginning says, “So do not resist change, embrace it.” When change happens to us individually, then yes it should be embraced. As it has been said, “A change can be as good as a vacation.” I think there is truth in that. Many spiritual writers will say that when change happens to an individual, it is God’s or the universe’s way of forcing you to do what you are not choosing to do yourself, because God knows what is best. Having said that, sometimes individuals need to resist change such as when individuals or groups of people are being forced to do something against their will. An example of this might be when groups of people are forced from their homes due to conflict like what we are witnessing in areas of the world like Africa and the Middle East.

However, when it comes to changes affecting this planet, such as climate change, or loss of biodiversity, then change needs to be resisted. It is time for us humans to “get our heads out of the sand” and start resisting planetary changes that will only cause our planet to be less desirable to live in.

Will there ever be peace?

According to International Relations.com, there are ten wars where the fatalities are greater than 1000 every year and five serious armed conflicts with fatalities just under a 1000 per year, happening on our planet at the present moment. According to the website, Syria remains the most lethal and overall “biggest” conflict, with an estimated 250,000 deaths in the past three years, of which fewer than half were battle-related deaths. The website goes on to list 15 other conflicts where less than a 1000 people are killed per year. For me, that is appalling. For me that says something about the world’s sad state of affairs. It begs the question, “Will this planet ever experience peace?” An even better question would be, “Is peace on this planet even possible?”

Personally I believe it is. At the beginning of the Great War, otherwise known as World War One, the Christmas Truce of 1914 gives me a glimmer of hope. According the BBC, a scattered series of small-scale cease fires did happen between some German and British forces. But this brief festive reprieve was not a mass event as some people have come to believe. In many places along the Western Front, December 25, 1914 was a day of brutal fighting like any other day in war times. Where it did occur, accounts suggest that men sang carols and in some cases left their trenches and met in No Man’s Land. If events where enemies put down their differences and celebrate, in this case Christmas, then those actions suggest to me that peace is achievable because of personal choices. Each soldier involved in one of those brief cease-fires made a personal choice to make efforts of peace and goodwill towards their enemies. It was a choice.

So is peace possible? Hans Küng,a scholar of theology and philosophy and author of many books, wrote in Christianity: Essence, History, Future, “No peace among the nations without peace among the religions. No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religions. No dialogue between the religions without investigation of the foundation of the religions”. Many of the conflicts in the world involve tensions between the world religions. Hans Küng holds part of the key to the solution for world peace. World religions need to understand one another and to practice what their religions teach, which is the ideals of their faith’s. All world religions teach ideals of compassion, love and tolerance.

There have been and still are many spiritual leaders in history that have given us ways to achieve peace. The historical Jesus, the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and the Dalai Lama to name a few. Gandhi once said,”An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind”. In other words, violence begets violence. History has demonstrated to humanity that most human conflicts have been as a result of stubbornness on the part of our leaders. If our leaders could just learn that most disputes can be resolved by showing a willingness to understand the issues of our opponents and that by using diplomacy and compassion these issues can be solved peacefully. Mahatma Gandhi also said, “There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no cause that I am prepared to kill for”.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal”. His wisdom holds true not only for peace in our world, but for peace within ourselves. Mr. Gandhi taught, “We must become the change we want to see in the world”. This is by far Mahatma Gandhi’s wisest teaching. To achieve peace, be peace. How does one be peace? By a sheer act of Will. By the decision to always act peacefully and by causing others to experience what you wish to experience, that is peace.

This especially holds true for our leaders, especially our political leaders. One cannot bring world peace to all unless a leader demonstrates peaceful acts of kindness daily. Just think how different the world would be if our political or even religious leaders didn’t act like bullies, but instead always acted out of love, understanding and tolerance. It would be a very different world. A world living together in peace.

So what is my point simply put? Seymour Miller & Jill Jackson, a husband and wife songwriting team, say it much better than I could when they wrote the 1955 song, “Let There Be Peace on Earth, with those beautiful words, ” Let there be peace on earth, And let it begin with me”. Peace begins with you and me!

What is really happening?

I have always been intrigued by the idea of aliens from another planet visiting our planet earth. I’ve watched Hangar 1: UFO Files on the History Channel a number of times and have found the stories of UFO sightings and encounters quite fascinating. When you “google” the words UFO sightings you get 1.8 million hits. That says there must be something to these UFOs. So when I cam across the story on Fox News: Apollo 14 astronaut claims peace-loving aliens prevented ‘nuclear war’ on Earth, I had to read it. After all, this was a story involving the sixth man to walk the surface of the moon.

The story centres around Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut who was on the Apollo 14 mission in 1971. He told Mirror Online, an online tabloid, that top-ranking military sources spotted UFOs during weapons tests. He told us military insiders had seen strange crafts flying over missile bases and the famous White Sands facility, where the world’s first ever nuclear bomb was detonated in 1945.

Mr. Mitchell’s story falls right in line with one of the episodes of Hangar 1: The UFO Files that I saw in April of this year. The episode was called UFOs at War. This episode maintains that in every war throughout history there were sightings of multiple UFOs over battlefields. That included recent conflicts such as the Afghanistan war and Iraq wars. The episode was attempting to determine if the purpose of these UFO visits was to harm us or were their visits to warn us of our own potential self-destruction? I certainly was fascinated by the topic.

I have an active brain, so when I hear, see or read about phenomena such as UFOs, I get curious and want to know more. Mostly, I want to know if this could be true. So I turn to the internet to learn more. Now one has to be careful using the World Wide Web as there is lots of misinformation on it. I always try to use information from credible sites or from credible people. In this case, I looked to Stephen Hawking who was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. Furthermore, when you research the smartest people living today, Stephen Hawking almost always appears as one of the ten smartest people alive today. So I reason what he has to say is credible.

In the article Stephen Hawking: Earth could be…, Hawking says, “The existence of 100 billion galaxies each containing hundreds of millions of stars means Earth is unlikely to be the only place where life has evolved, To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like”. The article also says that Professor Hawking has been open-minded to the existence of extraterrestrials before, but the discovery of more than 450 previously unknown planets orbiting distant stars since 1995 is believed to have strengthened his belief that life exists outside of earth.

In another article Stephen Hawking: We been overlooked, Hawking says, “that there are other forms of intelligent life out there, but that we have been overlooked. If we should pick up signals from alien civilizations, we should be wary of answering back, until we have evolved a bit further. Meeting a more advanced civilization, at our present stage, might be a bit like the original inhabitants of America meeting Columbus. I don’t think they were better off for it.”

Now I agree with Hawking views. I thinks it is just arrogance and naivety for humans to think we are the only living creatures in this vast universe. An article titled, Ignoring 500 Billion Galaxies, says, “There are some one trillion galaxies in the known universe and some 50 billion planets estimated to exist in the Milky Way alone and some 500,000,000 predicted to exist in a habitable zone [a zone where life is possible]”. The article goes on to say, “Astronomers estimate that there are 100 billion galaxies in the universe. If you want to extrapolate those numbers, that means there are around 50,000,000,000,000,000,000 (50 quintillion) potentially habitable planets in the universe”. The odds of the planet Earth being the only planet in the universe with life seems to be against us.

I especially agree with Mr. Hawking that we humans are not all that evolved. One just has to look at the way we treat one another to determine where we are on our evolutionary path. I figure if we are at war with one another and killing one another then we can’t be too far into our evolutionary development. Add to that the fact that we mistreat our planet with pollution. Evolved civilizations would not do these things to themselves and their planet.

In the article, Aliens are coming, NASA’s Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan claims, “First contact with alien life will happen very soon. I think we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years.” Stofan has held the most senior science position at NASA since August 2013, so what she has to say must be credible.

Now, I know it is difficult to know what to think or believe. If you use the internet you will find convincing arguments both for and against claims that aliens are among us. Having said that, I prefer to think that if aliens are indeed among us. then they are here for the betterment of humankind, so maybe they are protecting us from ourselves. For me that is more comforting than extraterrestrials preparing to invade and destroy Earth or it’s inhabitants. They don’t need to destroy humankind as we are doing a good job of that ourselves.

Pope Francis: A Breath of Fresh Air

This month, Pope Francis, leader of the world’s Catholics, was breaking new ground when he made the statement, “People who started a new union after the defeat of their sacramental marriage are not at all excommunicated, and they absolutely must not be treated that way. They always belong to the church.” (see Pope calls for compassion). Even more, Pope Francis goes on to say, “How can we recommend to parents to do everything they can to educate their children in Christian life, giving them an example of a convinced and practiced faith if we keep them at arm’s length from the community as if they were excommunicated?”

In essence, Pope Francis is saying remarried Catholics are not automatically removed from church membership, although the church’s rules say such couples are not allowed to receive communion. The Catholic Church permits remarriage only after a church tribunal rules that the couple’s original marriage is annulled. The pontiff understands that children of these remarried couples are watching how the church treats divorced families. What this means is Francis accepts divorced couples as members of the church and says they need to be treated as such.

This is not the first time Pope Francis has shown compassion towards those looked upon less favourably in the Catholic Church. Back in June of 2013 the pontiff made a bold statement during an interview saying, he doesn’t have any problem with the inclination to homosexuality itself. He is quoted as saying, “Who am I to judge them if they’re seeking the Lord in good faith?” (See Pope Francis reaches out to gays). It would seem that the pope accepts gays and lesbians as well.

It is so wonderful to have this “breath of fresh air” in the Catholic Church. Finally, the Catholic Church has a leader who is pastoral, who is welcoming, and most importantly, who is more inclusive than his predecessors have been. It seems to me, that when a church claims to follow the teachings and example of Jesus, then their actions need to reflect that. I honestly believe that His Holiness, Pope Francis is doing just that. He especially demonstrated this when in November of 2013, when the pontiff paused to pray and lay his hands on a man with a disfiguring disease. (See Francis embrace of a Disabled man) If that action doesn’t say, loving acceptance I don’t know what does.

Why is it so important for the leader of a Christian Institution to be so all-inclusive? Very simply, because Christians purport to be the embodiment of Jesus on earth, therefore the institution must act and teach as Jesus did. According to biblical stories Jesus was all-inclusive! Let us look at some examples.

Take the story of the Woman at the Well as told in John 4:7 – 26, for example. To summarize the biblical story, Jesus and his disciples were traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee. They took the quickest route which was through Samaria. Tired and thirsty, Jesus sat by Jacob’s Well, while his disciples went to a village to buy food. During his wait, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman who came to the well to draw water. When Jesus met this woman at the well, he did something atypical, scandalous really, in that he spoke to a Samaritan; a group the Jews traditionally loathed. Even more scandalous, Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to get him a drink of water, which would have made him ceremonially unclean, according to the Jewish faith, because he used the same cup or jar as the Samaritan woman.

To help understand how powerful this story is and just how all-inclusive Jesus was, we must understand that the hatred between Jews and Samaritans was intense and long-standing. Jews, who considered themselves pure, detested the mixed marriages and worship of the Samaritans. Thus, a faithful Jew would never go near a Samaritan let alone talk to one.

Mark 2:15-17 tells the story of Jesus sitting down to a meal in Levi’s house, the home of a tax collector. Tax collectors were for the most part Jewish people, and therefore they were hated by their own people. When they collected taxes they would collect the required amount of money for Rome, plus some additional money for themselves. They were considered to be extortioners of large sums of money. Plus, there was the fact that tax collectors worked for Rome, who were Gentiles (non Jewish) in the eyes of the Jews, and so they were treated similar to the worst kinds of sinners and prostitutes. So for Jesus to sit down and have a meal with one of these tax collectors would have been scandalous to say the least. Yet, it says that Jesus accepts even those most loathed by his community.

Jesus touching and healing a leper as told in In Mark 1:40-45 is another example . What makes this story so incredible is the fact that lepers were cursed, not only with a terrible disease, but also with exclusion from society. People wanted to keep far away from those with this contagious illness. Lepers lived in the outskirts of civilization and, if they came close to people, had to warn them by yelling, “Unclean! Unclean!” Yet, Jesus was willing touch and heal such a person. Was this not an incredible act of acceptance?

So as you can clearly see, the biblical Jesus accepted and included even those most marginalized by society. So to restate my point. If the Catholic church claims to enbody Jesus on earth, then it must be all-inclusive just as Jesus was all-inclusive. That is why Pope Francis is such a “breath of fresh air.” He accepts all those that have been traditionally marginalized by the church. So “Thumbs up” for Pope Francis!

Where are all the Good People?

I recently read a news story called, City cracks down on bad behaviour in Calgary cabs. about a cab driver in Calgary, Canada who was being verbally abused by his clients. Just recently in our local paper was a news story issued by the police warning citizens of a tax scam. The scam involves a person who calls saying that they represent a government tax agency and that the person they are trying to scam owes back taxes. The caller then requests that the payment be made to an individual rather than the agency, and if the person does not pay a warrant will be issued for their arrest. Apparently this happens in many countries as the article Tax time ‘ATO’ scammers indicates. Then there are the atrocities committed by the terror group known as ISIS or ISIL. The list of people being mistreated goes on and on. When you hear these stories you begin to ask, “What is the matter with people?” You begin to lose faith in the goodness of human nature. You begin to wonder is there are any good people in this world. I felt this way until I thought about it.

As I reflected upon human behaviour, I started to realize that with the exception of a few “bad apples”, the vast majority of humans are good. It doesn’t matter where I go, there are good, kind, nice people everywhere. I would like to share some of my experiences with such people.

Earlier this summer, my wife and I were helping our eldest daughter who was preparing to move to a different place. She had purchased a media unit that she found on an on line garage sale site. We picked it up for her and took it to her apartment to unload it. My wife asked, “How will we carry this heavy thing up to the apartment, which was located on the third flour. The only solution I had was me on one end and my wife and daughter on the other end. I pulled the unit part way out of the back of the truck when young couple out walking their dog walked by. The kind gentleman then turned around and said, “Do you need a hand?” He then proceeded to help me carry the heavy unit up to the third floor of my daughter’s apartment. Moments later, while my wife was preparing to carry up the middle section of the unit, two guys on bicycles stopped and asked my wife if she needed help. It is reassuring to know that there are kind people willing to “lend a hand” when it is needed.

While visiting Toronto a few years ago, our experience with the its people was most positive. We spent one day going to various places throughout the city using the subway or underground system. Any of you who ever used these rapid transit systems knows how easy it is to get lost or to not know which platform to be on. There were numerous occasions where we would be standing somewhere in the Toronto underground looking confused, when some kindhearted, random stranger would come up to us and ask us if we needed help. Thankfully, there are many kind, caring people in Toronto.

When I was backpacking alone in Europe in 1986, I had hitchhiked to Berlin with my American travel mate from Alabama. The driver dropped us off at the Berlin University where we could catch the Subway to downtown. When we got dropped off, my travel mate and myself both had to use the facilities, very badly I might add, and so we walked into a university building thinking that a public washroom would be easy to find. We could not find one, so we asked a lady working at a desk. She showed us the washroom and when we returned, she randomly asked us if we would like a sandwich and a coffee. We graciously accepted her offer and had lunch. I fell in love with Berlin right then and there. I will always be grateful for meeting this kind Berliner.

Then there were those times when my wife and I were travelling in Europe 26 years ago. We were making our way to Sarajevo in what was then the country of Yugoslavia. We arrived early, 6:20 AM, at the train station in Ljubljana, in the former Yugoslavia in the hopes of making a reservation for a compartment only to discover that the train was full. Now when they say full, they mean it. There were people everywhere. The compartments were full. The hallway was wall to wall people. Having no choice to take the train anyway, we sat in a small area in front of the W.C (symbol for Toilet). We sat on what looked like a heater, and had maybe three inches to sit on. It was hard and most uncomfortable on the butt. About two hours later, the train stops in some town and a young couple come onto the train, followed by about seven pieces of large luggage bags. My first thought was, “There’s not even room for people on this train let alone seven large bags.” A few minutes later, the lady of the couple said to us in Croatian, what I can only assume was “come” and pointed her finger at my wife and I. We of course followed them. They led us to a compartment that they located with empty seats. Her husband then came and helped with our backpacks. When we got settled into the compartment, the kind Croatian gentleman pulled out a beer and hands it to me, and then handed my wife a juice. These were truly good, kind people.

On that same trip, travelling from the former Yugoslavia to Rome, Italy, my wife and I boarded an overnight fairy to cross the Adriatic sea.. We settled into our tiny room and then went up to the deck where we met a young couple from Switzerland. Now since we wanted to go there, my wife struck up a conversation, as she is the talkative one. In the process of the conversation the Swiss people invited us to join them in their home in Switzerland. They said they would show us around their country. They even bought us a drink that evening. We graciously accepted their invitation and met up with them after visiting Rome. The time we spent with them was fantastic. They were most gracious and hospitable. We will always be grateful for these kind, sweet Swiss friends.

Now I could go on with more stories, but I think you get the point. I truly believe, based on my experiences, that there are more good people on this wonderful planet of ours than bad ones. So to all the numerous kind, wonderful people in the world, I salute you!

Vive La France

I just read a really interesting article. In May of this year, the France National Assembly voted unanimously to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food. According to the article, France pass new law forbidding food waste, large grocery stores must donate edible food to charities and allow inedible food to be used for animal feed or compost. Way to go France! Now this got me thinking. How much food is actually wasted in the world? How much food is wasted in North America (namely Canada and United States)? So, I did some internet research to find an answer to these questions.

According to the United Nations Environment Program,

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted.
Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes).
In the United States 30% of all food, worth US$48.3 billion, is thrown away each year.
United Kingdom households waste an estimated 6.7 million tonnes of food every year, around one third of the 21.7 million tonnes purchased. This means that approximately 32% of all food purchased per year is not eaten.

To paraphrase from the article Food Waste Cost Canada, more than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada, and that the total doesn’t include what’s being wasted at federal institutions like prisons, jails, hospitals and schools because there isn’t reliable data on that. If those numbers are included, along with the true cost of things like energy, water, land, labour, capital investment, infrastructure, machinery and transport, the true cost of wasted food is actually closer to $100 billion a year.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find these statistics rather disturbing. What if a law, like the one France passed, was put into place in North America or other parts of Europe? Or even better, a law not only applying to the large grocery chains, but a law that also applies to institutions such as prisons, hospitals and universities. How much of a difference would such a law make? If the edible food was sent to charities, such as food banks and soup kitchens, how many fewer people would go hungry? That got me wondering, how many people in wealthy countries like United States and Canada go hungry? So, once again, I sought to find out the answer.

According to 11 Facts About Hunger in the US by DoSomething.org, a global organization for young people and social change, 1 in 6 people in the United States face hunger. The article also says 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table. Now lets put that into perspective. That means about six times the number of people who live in New York City go hungry. That is a shocking number of people to me.

So what about Canada? Well, according to PROOF, an organization that does research to identify policy options to reduce food insecurity, claims that in 2012 four million Canadians (1.5 million are children) live in households that struggle to afford the food they need. Now keep in mind that Canada’s population in 2012 was 34.75 million people. Now to put that in perspective, that is about the number of people who lived in Los Angeles, California in 2014 or that lived in Montreal, Canada in 2011. That seems like a staggering number of people to me.

I was told by a former employee at one of the grocery stores in my community that the store the former employee worked at throws out up to 50 loaves of bread a day and up to 10 cooked chickens a week, The reason, I was told, that this much bread is thrown out is because the bakery has been told to bake a certain amount of bread so that the shelves remain fully stocked even though the store’s decision makers know that they sell much less per day. As for the cooked chickens, the store’s policy is to ensure that the customer will always have cooked chickens available to purchase.

Now I know this is the teacher in me coming out, but if there was a law forcing institutions and large chain grocery stores to donate all their throw away edible foods to charitable organizations, such as food banks and soup kitchens, then I have no doubt that the number of people experiencing food insecurity would drop. The world can only become a better place to live in with such laws. So France, I applaud you for taking the lead on such a law. I sincerely hope that the remaining wealthy countries of the world will follow suit. We are human beings and human beings help one another.

I also got to thinking that it is unfair of me to just rely on governments to make change. Don’t get me wrong. They do need to make laws like the one France has passed. But, what can I do as an individual to help reduce food waste? Could I be doing more to make a difference? Curious as to how much households waste, once again I did some research. According to the The Washington Post article, How the U.S. manages to waste food, American families throw out between 14 and 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy. This can cost the average family between $1,365 to $2,275 annually. According to the Globe and Mail article, Canadians waste seven billion kilograms, the average Canadian household wastes between 500 to 750 grams of food per person a day, or about $1,500 a year. Now that is a lot of food. This is shocking! This is wrong! It reminds me of some of the lyrics from Nickelback’s song, When We Stand Together, that says,

How can we fall asleep at night?
When something’s clearly wrong
When we could feed a starving world
With what we throw away

So what does a person do about it? One of the comments regarding the article, Food waste cost Canada, the commenter indicated that he had cut back on food waste (quoted exactly as he wrote it) by

Buying less and going to the grocery store more frequently means less spoiled food.
Careful planning of meals and making all your own meals at home.
Less income in the past several years makes me aware of foods value – the less money you have the less food you waste. I know that for a fact.

Now I thought this was good advice, especially now in light of the fact that I am living on a fixed income as a pensioner. Furthermore, eat your leftovers. I personally know of people who refuse to eat leftovers. They throw out their leftovers. My wife and I like leftovers as it means less cooking. We have at least one night a week where we eat just leftovers. I challenge all of you to make individual changes to lessen food waste. If each household wastes less food, then less people would go hungry. We all need to do our part! Together we can make a better world.

The Outdoor Experience!

Every year during the summer season North Americans dig out their tents and camping gear to experience the great outdoors. I personally have done this for most of my life. In July my son and I, along with cousins, a brother-in-law and friends, were camping at Lake Louise in Banff National Park. Lake Louise is known as one of Canada’s most beautiful places. The lake has visitors from all over the world. Just sitting along the lake or hiking on one of the trails, you will likely hear ten or more different languages. It really is cool to witness.

On our first night of tenting, across from our campsite were a group of young campers of Asian heritage. I’m not sure which part of Asia they were from; China, Japan, Korea and really it does not matter. They looked to be university students or at least of that age. What was fun to watch was that this was obviously their first time tenting. Likely the first time they camped ever. They apparently had just purchased a new tent and were attempting to set it up. One of the young ladies was holding the instruction papers. Several individuals were scuttled around the tent lying on the ground. And so our “entertainment” for the evening began. Two of the young men pulled out the tent poles and placed them into where they believed them to go. Eventually, they got the tent to “stand up” only to fall down once they let go. This went on three or four times. At one point they appeared to have the tent looking as it should but still had a pole. Where to put the pole? They had not realized that the extra pole was for the tent’s fly.

There were two or three times when one of the young people would run over to another camp site of what I can only assume to be friends that were camping with them. They would return with someone else in the hope that they could help them understand the directions and get their tent set up. We referred to these as the “consultants”. This also went on two or three times.

What was great to see is that this was all in great fun. At no point did they appear frustrated as we heard much laughter. Feeling sorry for them, I suggested on more than one occasion that one or more of us should go over to help them, but we were just too engrossed to find out if they would succeed. I am happy to report that they eventually did get their tent set up; without our help I might add.

It is so wonderful to see people from all parts of the world experiencing the outdoors of our beautiful country. I must admit, we were entertained by them for a least an hour and an half. I am sure that we can be equally as entertaining to people in other countries when we visit their country. I know the French were most entertained by my attempt to speak to them in their own tongue. I can just picture them laughing after I left them. To be human means to laugh and some of the best laughs are at ourselves. I have no doubt that these visiting Asians, or perhaps new Canadians, will tell their story of tenting in the Canadian Rockies many times in the future and have many laughs about their experience. I know my family and I still laugh when telling the stories of my attempts at speaking French.

So don’t be afraid to have a good laugh at yourself once in a while. Laugh with those laughing at your entertaining ways.