Got Me Drove

Climate change is a global issue whose major actors --  and factors --  seem impersonal and impenetrable. Corporations, government bodies and industry influencers make our personal attempts to reduce our own individual daily burning of fossil fuels -- e.g. taking Metrobus, walking to school or work when possible, etc. -- appear insignificant. Our individual efforts (or equally, our personal ignorance) thus look to be inconsequential in the face of the problem of climate change, which in turn drives many into a state of apathy. But presumably not everyone has met the issue of climate change with complete resignation. Not everyone has covered their eyes and ears to mute the mumble jumble of convoluted, self-interested political-speak, overly technical scientific data and proliferation of semi-truths and FAKE NEWS! in the media. If that was the case, I doubt you would be reading these words. But how much of the question "Do we care about climate change?" is entangled with th

This blog post has been a 'long time coming.' But I'm not sure it's worth the wait. For the past two weeks, I've been trying to put my feelings about Gord, the Hip and the End into words. The amount of words required for that endeavour is growing, and yet they still remain inadequate. But before they grow into untimely irrelevance, I want to send them out into the world. Most of us have a few formative bands that are a permanent fixture in our library through life's transitions. Considering the monumental career of The Tragically Hip in Canada, I am sure they are one of those groups for many. But beyond that, Gord Downie (henceforth simply "Gord") was a  unique and critical poet , which meant we could continually reinterpret his lyrics (and famous on-stage monologues) at various points in along our own existential journeys. And now that Gord is gone, people are once again turning to his words to find an answer to how to process his death. This s