Monday 1 September 2014

The longer the picket line, the shorter the strike!

In honour of Labour Day, I have used this old labour saying, although I must confess this morning I feel as pessimistic and defeated as it is possible for a glass half full person like myself to feel.  No matter what I have thought and hoped for all along, the news has been unrelentingly worse and worse and it certainly doesn't help to have the premier trashing us on Facebook and Twitter.   I am not going to fight that battle here, but I will say that many teachers feel like Christy Clark has it "in" for us and the nasty attacks I've read from her in the news make that idea seem less like paranoia and more like reality.

I went for a nice outing to the Nitobe Garden at UBC yesterday.  It is considered to be one of the most authentic Japanese gardens in North America and it is lovely and peaceful and really helped my frame of mind.  There is thick green moss everywhere and you could imagine yourself lying under the stars and sleeping with your backpack and your walking stick as you made your Basho pilgrimage through medieval Japan.  There is running water and still water and lots of little benches in different sunny and shady spots.  We watched the dragonflies dipping in for bugs on the water and then the carp splashing up trying to catch the dragonflies.  The natural world can provide us with a different perspective that is comforting and calming, even though I guess the poor dragonflies don't feel that way when a huge carp leaps out of the water and snaps at them.  I guess I'm the dragonfly and Christy Clark is the carp!

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