A strange sight in our town this week. In addition to the summer people with their foreign (Alberta) license plates taking all the parking spaces and causing line-ups at the recycling depot with truckloads of empty beer cans and wine bottles, a different kind of invader has arrived. On top of our uber-cute Chamber of Commerce building flies an American flag, replacing our own cheery Maple Leaf.
They are filming a movie here and have turned Qualicum Beach into the fictional town of Chesapeake Shores. The Chamber has been converted into a bogus cafe (great idea), they have repainted and decorated the previously nondescript Canton House restaurant across the street into a thing of beauty and if you look closely, an arbor on the sidewalk is now lush with, yes, plastic leaves and yellow roses. A bit of an insult, I’d say, to this award-winning Canada Blooms town already awash with flower-filled planters and hanging baskets.
The day I was there they were filming and the street was filled with crew and onlookers. As I was photographing the flag a young gal with walkie-talkie working crowd control gently suggested they were discouraging picture taking. No problem – after I get my “Americans Are Coming” shot. “A good Facebook title” she said. “Especially with all the Americans who want to move to Canada now, because of Donald Trump and all that.”
Let’s not talk about Donald Trump. No, let’s not.
Going Postal
Earlier. It turned out to be a bad day. What can I say. I snapped. I didn’t actually kill anybody but I sure ruined a few people’s peace of mind, mine included.
I was sitting across the desk from the bank person, watching the painfully slow process of her doing data entry. Asking me a question, entering the answer on the screen, making a mistake, backing up, making a comment about “the (computer) system”, asking another question, same slow retarded process. What I had thought was supposed to be a simple transaction was becoming a nightmare. I could feel my frustration of being trapped, wasting time, in this little windowless office with this person, rise. And rise. Starting to boil. So when finally, one stupid question later I couldn’t help myself (well yes I could have) and let her have it. Walked out. I should have walked out before I lost my temper but there you have it.
Later, feeling crappy (losing your temper only hurts yourself), I was thinking about how generally unsettled and irritable and uncharitable I’ve been feeling lately.
I’ve been focusing on the wrong things. The world seems to have gone crazy, I think. How do I live in this world when fear and loathing spreads and I have nothing but contempt for my fellow man? Love thy neighbour? Ha! How do I find my peace when I despair that hatred and racism and violence and murder is the norm not the exception? How do I turn off this madness?
One answer appears.
Just turn it off.
It is time for another news blackout, something that has worked for me in the past. Things are going to get ugly – be afraid, be very afraid. I don’t intend to bear witness through the lense of a now 24 hour news cycle. My joy comes from the natural world, the creative and Mary Oliver, who says, although I don’t think she really believes it, that “Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually”.
I’m also planning a return trip to New Zealand. Now how far away can I actually get from North America and Europe and Middle East…? Hmm. I look at the map. How about Stewart Island? When you get there, the only next stop further is Antarctica!
When the world feels like one big hornet’s nest, best to just focus on my own backyard. With apologies to the hornets for the comparison.
