Day 14: Fixing Stuff

It used to be OK to get things fixed. Gone are the cobblers and small appliance repair-shops. The Maytag-Man was forced into an early retirement. North americans are finding better and more efficient ways to exploit cheap overseas products eliminating the need to fix anything. It's cheaper to have children kidnaped from the streets of Indian and Asian cities work to build a new one then it is to pay a repairman in your own neighborhood to fix it.

Day 13: Failing

It used to be OK to fail a student if they did not meet the minimum academic requirements in a given school year. This is a tough one as I agree with both sides of this argument. I do believe that curriculum is only part of what you learn at school and that the social acclimation component is as, if not more, important. Holding a kid back a year may have a significant negative affect on his or her social education which could effect them for their entire lives. I also, however, cringe to imagine how my formal education and subsequently my adult life would have progressed without the fear of real consequence. I struggled through periods of my education as most people do and it wasn't until 3rd year University that things really started to come together. Without the fear and social consequences of failing I don't expect I would have ever made it to 3rd year. Apparently failing doesn't even happen in University anymore.

I think adversity is a necessary part of growing up. As a parent I would like to shield my children from all difficulties even though I know this would only be doing them harm. Facing difficulties allows a person to sort out the tools they will eventually need to succeed in life. The difficulties are an important part of what makes us who we are. So I guess I vote for consequences even the harsh ones like being held back a grade.

Day 12:Use a clothesline

Although many of the younger generation would think this is referring to a wrestling move, it used to be okay to hang your laundry out on the clothesline. Developers and communities began banning laundry lines to improve the image of their neighborhoods, as laundry hanging out was a sign of the working class, those unable to afford expensive dryers, and people found it offensive to see there neighbors gotch on the line. Considering that the dryer is the second largest consumer of electrical energy in the home it has now become an environmental rights issue, with states and provinces now passing anti-clothesline ban legislation and documentaries being filmed about laundry line rebellions. Now that so many communities have regained the right to dry the way they want, night classes will need to be offered to show new laundry liners how to safely use clothespins.

Day 11: Dropping In

It used to be OK to drop in on your friends for a visit. In todays over scheduled world dropping in unannounced has become fully rude. Everything from play dates for your kids to simply having coffee with a friend needs to be scheduled weeks in advance. Part of the problem is that the world has become more competitive and this includes parenting. "Competitive parenting", where parents are constantly comparing themselves and their kids to others who seem more organized, more together isn't a new phenomena but rather an important part of human nature.



To evolutionary maintain a healthy population, individuals within a given gene pool should be comparing themselves as a relative gage of success the problem lies in the definition of success. Beyond the biological success of passing on your genes, individual success really should be about living each day as fully and happily as possible. A person should spend their time reducing the frequency of stressful circumstances and, using an independent individual measure, do as many things that make them happy as possible. Living like this is not selfish and does not mean neglecting ones responsibilities as acting selfishly leads to loneliness and neglecting responsibility leads to stressful circumstances.

We instead allow ourselves to be crushed by social expectations and generally feel helpless, like life is happening to us beyond our personal control. Changing the definition of success even just a little may help bring a perspective that allows the false importance of social expectations (manifested as over scheduling) to be realized and maybe we can all slow down enough to figure out what is really important in our lives. With only 16,425 days left in my life I hope I can live happily as many days as possible.

Day 10: Fur

It used to be OK to wear fur even for Joe Namath. In general people in North America no longer recognize fur as a symbol of status but rather an indication of ignorance or at the least irresponsible complacency. I'm not sure this is entirely fair.

Some of the information that I could find regarding human comsumption of animals:
- 50 million animals are killed annually for their fur.

- In the US alone 18,329,712,900 (I think that's 18 trillion) animals are killed annually for food consumption (Cattle:35,507,500 - Pigs:116,558,900 - Chickens:9,075,261,000 - Layer hens:69,683,000 - Broiler chickens:9,005,578,000 - Turkeys: 271,245,000)

- Most information I came across suggested that animals raised for fur and animals raised for food are governed by the same agricultural laws and in general are raised under similarly horrific conditions.

The difference between animals raised for food and animals raised for fur is rationalized by most people using the obvious distinction that fur is self indulgence and food is a necessity. For me this argument doesn't hold water here in North America where the average household wastes 50% of the food produced for their consumption. Some of this waste comes at the production level but most of it comes in the home.

If we are talking about irresponsible indulgence fur is the least of our offences. Think about the lakes we have drained in the Canadian Arctic to mine jewelry grade diamonds for rings and earrings. Or the everyday ritual of stand around for 15 minutes singing being lightly caressed with clean drinkable water while a billion people a day go thirsty. It is estimated that for a high quality of life a human needs 135 liters of water a day. The average Canadian uses 700 liters a day. This volume includes water used for cooking, drinking, hygiene, industry (oil production), agriculture and the service sector.

So the next time you righteously look down your nose at that fur clad movie star, take a minute to think about the 1 million people that died that day of hunger and thirst and how your lifestyle may have played a part.



We all need to start making decisions based on morality and equality rather then greed. Only then can we add fur to the list of things that makes a person ignorant.

How about that for a wondering rant, eh!!!

Day 9: Leave your kids in the car

It used to be okay to leave your kids in the car to run in to the store or even to have a quick drink with the boys. Section 17 (2) g) of the Child and Family Services Act states that a child under the age of 12 years, is not to be left unattended without reasonable provision being made for the supervision and safety of the child. I don't think that means having a 4 year old watch his 1 year old sister in a parked car with the window cracked. Safety advocates are reporting that deaths from hyperthermia have been more prevalent since the mid-1990s when drivers were first required to put their children in the back seat, where they are safer in transit but more likely to be forgotten. I can't imagine the horror of accidently leaving your child in a car on a hot day, but to purposely plan to leave them there baffles me.

Day 8: Racist

It used to be OK to be racist. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Thinking about this scenario playing out on my own bus ride into work today was really difficult for me to imagine. I suppose the fact that I couldn't fathom public segragation is a good indication of how far we have come as a society in only 50 years. I do feel, however, that there is still a long way to go to reach Martin Luther King, Jr. dream of every man being judged by the content of his character and not the colour of his skin.



In todays world we still allow people to identifying themselves by race and show pride associated with that identification. When Oprah Winfrey stands up as a strong woman for change and not a strong black woman to set an example for other African Americans perhaps then we can start to realize the true dream of equality.