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Author: allen.pizzey

To Slow Time, Savour the Shortest Season

To Slow Time, Savour the Shortest Season

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The lone maple among the white pine and spruce out­side the win­dow of my “writ­ing nook” trans­formed into autumn colours so sub­tly I only reg­is­tered dif­fer­ences every few days. As the days grew short­er and cold­er, the leaves became more vivid, and sud­den­ly, they’re gone. The bare­ly per­cep­ti­ble pace of change gave me pause to reflect that rather than sav­ing time, the nano-sec­ond fast tech­nol­o­gy at our fin­ger­tips speeds its passage.… Read the rest

WHEN LESS IS MORE, AND MORE IS LESS

WHEN LESS IS MORE, AND MORE IS LESS

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The loons have been talk­ing more fre­quent­ly of late, the haunt­ing call known as the “wail”. One of four sounds loons use to com­mu­ni­cate, ornithol­o­gists believe its few notes speak vol­umes. Human com­mu­ni­ca­tion, by com­par­i­son increas­ing­ly brings to mind the first lines of Har­ry Nilsson’s sig­na­ture song: “Every­body’s talk­ing at me/I don’t hear a word they’re saying/Only the echoes of my mind”.… Read the rest

WHEN THE ONLY CHOICE IS NO CHOICE

WHEN THE ONLY CHOICE IS NO CHOICE

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Pad­dling a kayak across a pris­tine lake pro­vides not only solace for the soul, but often as not, unex­pect­ed lessons. Ear­ly one morn­ing this week, I came upon a clus­ter of male mer­ganser ducks frol­ick­ing, fish­ing and preen­ing. It occurred to me that the lake I love is pop­u­lat­ed with migrants.… Read the rest

Not All Epithets and Insults are Equal

Not All Epithets and Insults are Equal

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The “new nor­mal” of pro­tect­ing every­one from any­thing and every­thing has reached the lev­el of social media inani­ties like the ‘Tik­Tok’ chal­lenge. The Nation­al Foot­ball League is impos­ing penal­ties for “bait­ing or taunt­ing acts or words that may engen­der ill-will between teams”. Expe­ri­ence makes me doubt 350-pound line­men are in immi­nent dan­ger from ges­tures or name-call­ing.… Read the rest

Did ‘Boomers’ Have it Better?

Did ‘Boomers’ Have it Better?

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While on an ear­ly morn­ing pad­dle this week I watched a pair of young white-tailed deer lock antlers and shove each oth­er, prac­tis­ing for the upcom­ing strug­gle to find a mate. It made me glad I’m not a deer. In the ran­dom way that thoughts progress, it also brought to mind the ques­tion of whether “boomers” (like me) have had it bet­ter than sub­se­quent generations.… Read the rest

THE DUMBEST WORD IN POLITICS

THE DUMBEST WORD IN POLITICS

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It nev­er ceas­es to bemuse me that would-be lead­ers of coun­tries where peace and per­son­al secu­ri­ty are pret­ty much the expect­ed norm, reflex­ive­ly vow to fight on behalf of vot­ers, as opposed to work, which is what we actu­al­ly pay them to do. The upcom­ing Cana­di­an elec­tion is a case in point.… Read the rest

TO TURN OFF A WORLD GONE MAD, FIND LOONS

TO TURN OFF A WORLD GONE MAD, FIND LOONS

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Thus far, I’ve used my “perch” to  pon­der and com­ment (OK, pon­tif­i­cate) on strife, con­flict, suf­fer­ing and human fol­ly. Now it’s time for a break, to fol­low the dic­tum of “Desider­a­ta”, the ide­al­is­tic poem we ‘boomers’ taped on our bed­room wall: “Go placid­ly amid the noise and the haste…”.… Read the rest

When Cultural Awareness is a Weapon Wasted

When Cultural Awareness is a Weapon Wasted

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In con­ven­tion­al war­fare, cul­tur­al aware­ness ranks con­sid­er­ably low­er than supe­ri­or fire­pow­er. In uncon­ven­tion­al con­flicts, it’s the oppo­site side of the same coin. The U.S. mil­i­tary has ignored it three times in the last thir­ty years, with a vari­a­tion of the same neg­a­tive result each time.… Read the rest

The Humans Giving Weasels a Bad Name

The Humans Giving Weasels a Bad Name

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Among the many remark­able inhab­i­tants of the lake where the pho­to for this blog site was tak­en are weasels.
Resource­ful, fast noc­tur­nal hunters, weasels avoid humans. They also have the mis­for­tune to be a syn­onym for cun­ning or deceit, which unjust­ly asso­ciates them with the kind of peo­ple try­ing to “weasel” their way out of their share of respon­si­bil­i­ty for what is hap­pen­ing in Afghanistan.… Read the rest

Will Afghanistan Prove Churchill Got America Wrong?

Will Afghanistan Prove Churchill Got America Wrong?

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“You can always count on Amer­i­cans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried every­thing else.”
Had Sir Win­ston Churchill coined his famous phrase with the Afghan deba­cle as a bench­mark, he could have added that the learn­ing process invari­ably includes tuition fees paid by those with no say in the curriculum.… Read the rest