Category Archives: Lifes Lessons

Health, Lifes Lessons, Politics

Kenney on COVID

What is the Kenney position on COVID? I listen to him from time to time on the COVID updates. Most of the time I find him balanced, reasonable, and thoughtful. The one noticeable verbal slip was couple of weeks ago when he suggested that Alberta was going to have the best summer in its history. I just don’t have the problem with Kenney that  so many others do. He’s a good orator and his convictions are supported by his policy. He has not infused (yet anyway) any of his social policy biases into legislative proposals which was frankly my biggest concern when he became the Premier of Alberta. I ‘m insufficiently versed on alleged shenanigans during his rise to the leadership of the UCP.   

He handles media questions quite well in the context of COVID. Every province has been at the mercy of poor federal handling of COVID from the outset. It’s become apparent from his comments today that dozens of municipalities in Alberta have flagrantly disavowed restrictive measures and it is in this context that Alberta faces infractions by its citizenry. It’s become obvious that our legal system with all its intricacies and high power prosecutors have much to account for right now with the lack of enforcement and conviction around laws which have been ignored by hordes of people across the province. In lieu of the Bowden rodeo on the weekend, I had expected more on the topic of justice and COVID from the premier today. He has referenced another announcement upcoming tomorrow.    

I have witnessed indifference from law enforcement in Alberta pre-pandemic. I’m sensing that fellow Albertans are now also asking the question as to why people can flagrantly break the law with no consequences. I predict that there was no police officer nor Alberta Health Services marshal recording license plate numbers at the Bowden Rodeo over the weekend.  

Lifes Lessons

Covid Rational Mind In Overdrive

Post inspired by friend because of an engaging conversation. Let me start out by saying – you may have come to learn more about human nature in the past year than in your entire life time.

Too many people have not known how to allocate their mental resources in the midst of government regulations arising from the pandemic. There is evidence galore. Those who haven’t been able to assert their mental faculties in productive ways have hence allowed the default to pervade via the newswire and daily COVID stats. Some have been so obsessed with manifestation of COVID that they’ve gone so far as to think that the bogeyman is out to get them through planned annihilation. Apparently some feeble minded have been so brash that they’ve been compelled to make an unmasked scene at the grocery store.

Here is the thing. If you have nothing going on in your life, you’ll reduce yourself to minimalism through an unfiltered reactive mind accessible to the slightest in perturbation. If your mental construct is not sufficiently fertilized with creativity, spirit, gratitude, purpose, and wonderment, you will be exposed to negative threat. If you are not continually nourishing the mind through learning you will be stagnant in your personal development thereby impeding the prospect of hopeful utility.

If you gossip or engage in the company of people who are innately negative, their negativity will rub off on you. If you are desperate for the company of others, you may not have found comfort in your own skin. If you judge quickly, you will drown in absolutism and behave boorishly. It didn’t take a pandemic in order to espouse such revelation but it certainly has brought clarity.   

Gratitude, Lifes Lessons

Modern Growth And Development

“Growth and Development” was a core subject during my tenure at the faculty of Physical Education and Sports Studies. I recall the course work focused around stages of development naturally occurring chronologically while considering causes of anomalies. However; back then there was no pandemic, no mobile electronic gadgets, and single parent families were lesser.   

Today I witnessed a girl nearly the size of her mother learning to ride a bike without training wheels and without the support of a dad to prop her up. Mom didn’t know quite how to help because she lacked the physical prowess to latch on and run along. It gave me pause to assign metaphor for our changing time and reminisce over my good fortune growing up. I suppose daughter would have learned last summer if it wasn’t for pandemic related reservations.  

We’ve devised spousal / child supports and the “Canada Child Benefit” but kids still really grow up oftentimes in the company of one and not two adults. They miss witnessing the fun repartee between loving couples. They miss the family car vacation with rest stops and adventure rides. They miss the joy of witnessing both parents adorn them with admiration have shared their achievements. They miss that one needed game player to thicken the plot. They miss the strength of a man clutching them in safety from the asphalt confident that he’ll know when time is right to let go. They miss mom waiting in the wings for a report and that wink and a nod shared between mom and dad.    

Lifes Lessons, Sport

World Record 1500 Metre Run By Gudaf Tsegay

Have you ever noticed how unwittingly those navel gazing smart people dismiss the power of the human spirit while enshrined in their cerebral gymnastics. This was precisely what happened when the announcer of the ladies 1500 metre indoor championships called the race on February 9, 2021 in Lievin France. You see he thought two pace makers given their inexperience totally misjudged their duty in paving the way for competitors by leading out unusually fast. As laps progressed around the indoor track an indignant sense grew in his tone. In fact, he became so baffled, he forgot to even contextually interpolate the world record time as Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia crossed the line.

Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia now holds the women’s indoor 1500 meter world running record.

The call of the race prompts memories of a 100m quarterfinals heat in Indianapolis Indiana on July 16, 1988 when Florence Griffith- Joyner set the 100 metre world record which still stands to this day. During that momentous occasion, there were two variables clouding the expression of two announcers;  namely – doping and wind. Without questions these variables tempered the excitement of these men calling the exactness of what transpired on that peculiar day when wind was swirling and the functionality of the wind measuring apparatus came into question. One particular announcer again seemed more cerebral than visceral when doing his job on a day which will indelibly be referenced decades from now.

You would think that within a world class race sanctioned by the IAAF any announcer must assume that within the field, any particular athlete could arrive on site prepared to eclipse a world record. You also might assume that if a pace maker leads out in break neck speed that there was an agenda put in play by one or more athletes to make one race on one particular day their particular signature run.

Health, Lifes Lessons, Politics

Medical Associations and COVID

It’s evident that there is a problem in supporting health care workers during this pandemic as reflected in the slow vaccination rate and stress reported by doctors and nurses. Quebec doctor Karine Dion has committed suicide. It’s hard to fathom that the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians is reporting that five to eight per cent of doctors have contemplated suicide in the last year alone.

I’ve always contended that professional associations have been protectionist in the way they administer their power. In Canada, it’s very challenging to obtain credentials as a doctor. When living in residence at University, I recall two pre-med students on my floor studying excessively in order to score the grades they needed in order to fulfill entry requirements. I recall a story by one of these two students lobbying a professor strenuously for the most infinitesimal amount fearful that one missed mark could break the threshold required.

Naturally, having a limited supply of doctors and refusing to acknowledge credentials from new Canadians arriving from abroad, the profession on behalf of their members casts increased negotiating power with governments. The calamity of a pandemic exposes associations to a particular shortcoming of their inward posture of protectionism.

One might reasonably ask…”how difficult can it be to administer a vaccine shot”? What kind of credentials do you think are necessary? In the very rare event of something going wrong with a vaccination, would it not be reasonable to assign a back up resource who is a professional association member?

You have a tremendous number of Canadian who have studied in the health sciences but are at home cocooning when they could be contributing toward the resolution of this big problem. I suggest that the lack of mobility of deploying more manpower quickly rests with a lack of resolve by governments and potential push back from associations.