Hey Kids,
Well, we’ve done it again, survived another year on
this crazy blue
planet. Its been a wild one for me, hope its been good for you.
Right now I’m in Calgary, where I have gone to
celebrate the
holidays with some old friends. Truth be known, I haven’t seen much of
my old friends, but have made friends with their family. Its been
interesting, first time I’ve done Christmas (like Christmas is done,
with trees, presents and feasts) in many years, since 1993 in fact.
I’ve enjoyed it, although its been a total
distraction. Just before
I left to Kootenays to come over here I was getting tons of writing
done. Since I’ve been here I’ve pretty much failed to get anything
done, where my writing is concerned.
I am pleased to announce that I have updated my
webpages. Click:
“http://community.netidea.com/willbilly”,
to have a look at them. You
might also wish to take a look at my 2007 Festival by Bicycle
Travelogs, which complete with photos and a short movie, can be found
at: “http://community.netidea.com/willbilly/2007travelmaster.html”.
My blog has also been updated. It can be found at: http://willbilly.blogspot.com.
If’n you have problems with the links I’ve provided
here, just
google the words “Will” “Billy” and “poet”, you’ll find my pages quick
enough!
Highlight of this year’s cycling effort was the two
folk festivals
I attended. Winnipeg was my favourite. They have a majestic site, great
systems, and a stellar line up. I think it may well be the best music
festival I ever attended. Of course, it does not measure up to the old
Courtenay Renaissance Fair, but then I’m partial. Edmonton was also
good, but the line up was fairly mediocre, and it did not have some of
the anemities Winnipeg possessed, like a festival campground. You
can
read more about my adventures at these festivals by pointing your
browser at my 2007 travelog page.
The year started out the way it has most of the past
several years.
I was home alone in Kaslo minding the house and writing up a storm. In
early spring I took off, and didn’t return until late September. Since
then I’ve pretty much been in limbo.
Somehow I got it in my head that I wanted to move
away from Kaslo,
find a place of my own, settle down, unpack my boxes which have
remained packed, for the mostpart, since 2001. I searched high and low,
up and down the Slocan Valley and all around the West Kootenays, but
wasn’t able to come up with a suitable place that was affordable and
secure. In the end I was basically left with no option but to return to
the housesit in Kaslo, which is where things got real limbo-ish.
My host, and sometime roomate, as some of you know,
spends his
winters in Cuba. A couple years ago he married a Cuban woman. This
year, she came to Canada. According to my roommate, they’d planned to
leave in November and stay gone until April. In the end, she left in
November, but not to Cuba, and not with her new husband. She took off
to Ontario, got a job and an apartment, and left my poor foolish
roommate all by his lonesome.
It has taken my roommate some time to accept he was
duped, and to
snap himself out of it. Now that he has, he has decided to go back to
Cuba and be nice to all the folks his fly-by-night wife had warned him
to stay away from!
Foolish, you bet, but the end result is I get the
house back for a
few months, starting in early January. So I will soon be back in Kaslo
to while away the winter months in the deep snow, under clouded skies.
I’m actually looking forward to it, I have much writing and work to do,
and that is one place I know I can get it done.
Put on about 6,000 K, in all, this summer. Have
whipped myself into
awesome shape. For all intent and purpose I’m a jock now. Not only can
I crack nuts with my thighs, which for some is a very amusing party
trick, but the fitness has made me much more resistant to colds and flu
bugs. While folks around me are dropping like flies, I’m getting a few
sneezles, blowing my nose, and being done with it.
I saw a pretty good sign of how well I’m doing
physically, last
fall, when I got jumped by a crackhead at the bus stop in Nelson. The
fellow, who was mad because I’d asked him to move away from me with his
cell phone, came at me with a few of his posse backing him up. He
started swinging with his fists, and I pulled him in close to me by the
collar, and let him tucker himself out with giant round house blows,
which were glancing off my head. While he was engaged in this foolhardy
attempt to knock me out, I was laughing at him, saying, “Man, you’re
hitting the hard part!”
After some minutes I grew tired of his crap and
grabbed him by the
throat, squeezing my thumb and forfingers deep in behind his adams
apple. He was about to go to sleep, and I felt him weaken, when two of
his posse jumped in and tried to start whaling on me. I managed to push
them both aside, and the first guy as well, when a woman jumped between
us and started begging these three numbsculls to hit her. They backed
off, I guess because now the odds were a little better. There were
three of them and two of us, and the little turds were afraid they were
going to lose, so they dispersed.
I stood there afterwards for a few minutes, checking
myself for
injury. There were none! Realizing that I was not at all worn out or
fatigued from the expereince, was a bit of a surprise. In fact, I was
ready to go another round! I’d let a guy hit me about 10 times, I’d
moved him around a bit, then almost put him to sleep, and here I was
not feeling any sort of tiredness! All I could think was; Man, you sure
have some endurance you didn’t have before.
In the end the cops came, knew right away who the
guys were who’d
assaulted me, and told me they been had making something of a habit of
such activity. They were a gang of sorts, but after the incident with
me, the cops managed to finally break them up a bit. For me, the
incident just helped me to understand what a wonderful thing all this
long distance cycling has done for me.
Another aspect of all this is in my own ability to
deal with
people, places and things. I think, because I’m in such good physical
condition, I’m in better mental and emotional condition. Many things
that used to bother me don’t anymore, although people using cell phones
right next to my ears do hear more than they really want to hear, and
not all of it is coming through the phone, and I’m generally a much
happier human being.
What is all this cell phone craze anyway? What did
we ever do
without those interminable things? How did we ever stay in touch and
get a day’s work done? I personally think a day will come when our
descendants, or whatever other lifeform occupies this planet when we
are gone, will look back at us and wonder what the blazes was wrong.
What insanity had befallen us to race around in little metal cans that
emitted enough poisons to melt the polar ice caps, talking into little
machines that in turn rotted our brains to mush!
Here I will repeat one of my favourite mantras.
“Save the world: Get out of the car and leave your phone at home!”
By the way: Did you know the only independent
studies ever done on
the cellphone chip showed extremely high incidence of brain cancer in
the labratory animals used in the study. The chip was okayed sometime
later when Masters and Johnson, a subsiduary of the company that owned
the patent for the chip, did a study showing the chip had little effect
on the lab animals! Ah, but I digress.
Back to my fitness diatribe, yesterday I was out
walking along
Shaganappi Bluffs, overlooking downtown Calgary and the eastern
horizon. As I walked it occured to me that I’ve now ridden across the
prairies three times! I had to pinch myself at that point and check to
make sure its me, and that I have not in fact occupied some hard body.
Nope, its me, I realized. Then I thought; Man, you must have something
going on if you can do that, and I don’t mean just total madness! It
takes a strong body, but it also requires a stable head and heart to go
riding thousands of K on a bicycle? The whole exercise may be madness,
but its a madness that leaves a person feeling good, looking good,
thinking good and good to go!
If any of you out there are feeling broken down, out
of shape, out
of sorts, out of mind, out of whack, unstable, unsure, unable, then I
got one thing to say to you, one piece of advice. Get on a bicycle and
ride! It may take a while, but I assure you, after a time, you’ll be
feeling fit, fervent, full, firm, fixed up, fun and fantastic. Riding a
bicycle may not save the world, but it could well save you!
As usual, we’ve had our usual Christmastime tragedy.
Some years its
mother nature, others its just humankind’s insanity. The events in
Pakistan this past week shook me up pretty good. It wasn’t because I
thought of Ms. Bhutto as some sort of freedom fighter or anything. In
fact, I think she was just another American stooge in many respects,
but there is no questioning her courage. Methinks she knew what was
coming and went anyway. Why, only she knew, but on some level I’m quite
certain she realized that, as my host here says: She will be more
trouble dead than she ever could have been alive.
Whodonit? I don’t believe it was Al Queda, or the
US. I think if it
was Al Queda they’d have openly said so, and the Americans are hardly
about to go out and shoot their own mole. From my experience covering
crime back when I was a reporter, the first question I had to ask was:
“Who profits?” From what I can tell her opponents profit politically,
especially the one Sharif who was quick to show up and grandstand in
the aftermath. The other potential profiteer was Musharaff, obviously,
but I have to wonder if he is so stupid as to risk the potential
backlash against his government. No, from my perspective, it was
someone in the ranks of her opponents. It makes sense in a place where
a bullet often replaces a ballot pencil. Last person standing wins. Its
all so very sad.
Hate to go all political on you all but what would
one of my annual rants be without some politics?
I will first turn my analytic browns on the
Americans, mostly
because they are so big and fat these days that they make an easy
target. Its going to be an interesting year down there. I think we’re
in for some surprises. For one, it seems to me that the Democratic
Party does not get that the people voted for them in the mid-terms with
a clear message to get the hell out of Iraq. Their waffling on that
issue, and reluctance to halt funding to that war, or to move toward
impeaching both the VP and the Bush, for their lies and other crimes,
is going to hurt them big time. They are not catching the people’s
imagination, nor are they making the strong stands they were elected to
make. For all intent and purpose, they are sitting on the fence hoping
for an “anybody but Bush” movement. If they keep it up they are going
to find themselves in a situation where it will be “anybody but any of
the clowns who are already there.” This would be a good time for a
strong independent candidate. Heck, I think a guy like Ross Perrot
could actually win. Look for Al Gore to make a move from the convention
floor. His stand on the environment makes him credible, and that, the
environment, even moreso than Iraq, is going to play big in politics
this year.
Here in Canada its not so much different. People
here were
embarrassed to be Canadians after the Harper performance in Bali. Even
in Alberta where pretty much everyone has an SUV of one description or
another, the environment is the major issue, and people just are not
buying the ‘wait and see’ approach being taken by our current
government. However, like in the US, the opposition is not presenting
the people with a clear alternative. In fact, the main opposition party
has been propping up the minority Conservative government for some
months now, to the point where people are rightfully asking if there
really is a difference between them at all. This could all bode well
for the third party and for the fledgling so-called ‘fringe’ parties
and independents.
Barring another “terrorist” attack that whips us all
into a fear
frenzy, and makes us tow the military industrial complexe’s line, I see
big changes coming, and they could be for the better. Imagine for a
moment a national government in which a handful of independents, who
have no ties to anyone but the people who voted for them, holding the
balance of power. What a concept, a government that is forced to
legislate based on what is good for their constituents. What a novel
idea. I think they call it ‘democracy’!
It could happen, or at least I hope it could.
Politics is the science by which people govern
themselves, thus my
undying interest in it. Here in Canada we have a society that is made
up of people who fled other countries because democracy did not exist
there, and they were not free to have a hand in how they were governed.
In my own family people were exiled from undemocratic countries, like
England, where they were stripped of their land and possessions and
sent packing. Some fought and died for the freedoms we all claim to
want and to cherish. Many perished for the right to vote. In their
honour I will never abandon my interst in politics, or my belief that
democracy will one day work. To me, voting is at the core of it. People
died so I could have the vote. For me to turn my back on the voting
process, just because it is flawed or has in someway been co-opted by
the rich and the corporations, is to capitualate and dishonour the hard
work and sacrifice of many generations. I just won’t do it. I will
vote, even if the only choice I have is to write in the name of someone
I think would do a good job. In my opinion it should be illegal not to
vote. If you don’t vote then you should have your income tax cheque
witheld, and you should have to go live a year in a country where
people are not allowed to vote. I challenge anyone to go live in a
place where the people have absolutely no say in their governance, then
come back here and tell me voting is a waste of time. You won’t do it!
Anyway, like the rest of you I have absolutely no
idea what comes
next, except maybe death and taxes. I am encouraged and disheartened in
the same moment sometimes. The other day I was listening to a 13 year
old girl from Victoria giving a speech before the United Nations. Her
speech was not widely publicized, but it was one that every person in
the world should hear. She talked about the world from a 13-year-old’s
perspective and her conclusion was that the people who are running this
world seem to be insane. Here we are on the brink of environmental
collapse, but we’re selling and driving bigger and bigger cars. We have
the technology and ability to feed the entire world, instead we’re
dropping bombs and hourding everything. We have the science to end
disease, instead we’re using it to keep men sexually active into their
old age. I think the girl was right. We are insane. But you know, the
first step in overcoming disease is acknowledging the disease. She was
asking the UN to listen. If we listen, we will hear. If we hear,
perhaps we will acknowledge. If we acknowledge, the healing will begin.
I personally am filled with hope when I witness young people like this
girl. There is hope, all we need to do is get on the bandwagon!
If we want change, then lets go make changes. If we
want a better
world, then lets improve the world around us. I’ll do my best this
coming year to say nice things to people, to encourage people, to
praise them. I’m going to do my best to find one thing I good about
everyone I meet, whether I like them or not. Each day I’ll try to come
up with one idea I’ve not had before. I’m going to make it my business
each day to find one thing I like about the world and the people in it.
I’m also going to ride my bike at least one K further than I rode it
last year. That’s not going to save the world, but its going to make me
feel good, and when I feel good, I’ve noticed, the people around me
feel better too.
So, once again I’ve filled many more pages than I’d
planned. I hope
you all have a good year ahead, and I hope you all do one thing to make
the world a better place. I hope you all smile more and consume less.
And I hope we all become active participants in making this life a
little happier for everyone.
My best to all of you, stay in touch.
Will
December
31, 2006
Well kids, its been quite a year. Where do I begin?
How about I start where I am, which is basically the
same place I was last year, just minus a few things.
For starters, my annual rant is not going to crash
your computer! I've learned to post the phat parts, and simply provide
links to it all from this email. Who says an old dog can't learn new
tricks?
I’m in Kaslo again. We’ve had a white Christmas! The
snow came Christmas Eve and began running off Christmas Day. But the
weather has
changed. Gone are the weeks of minus 20 weather and deep snow we
used to experience.
Many of the birds around here no longer bother to migrate, its simply
not cold enough to drive them out. Meanwhile, the local forest is
turning red, summer and winter, from the pine beetle infestation. Its
not cold enough to kill the little critters. The end result is the
evergreens branches turning a dull Indian red. Its a far cry from my
first days in this country when it would get cold enough to build ice
rinks and the snow was deep enough, and powdery enough, to enjoy
toboganning five months of the year.
I said I was minus a few things. One thing I’m
missing is the money I got from my Dad’s estate last year. I spent it
on a new bike, a new computer and a trip to Europe. You can read all
about my trip to Europe by pointing your browser at: “http://community.netidea.com/willbilly/06travelmaster.html”.
I’m also missing my best feline pal and most
excellent company, Kat,
who disappeared last June. He is believed to have finally lost his
ongoing battle with the local racoon family. You can read all about Kat
by pointing your browser at: “http://community.netidea.com/willbilly/Kat.html”
Also lost an old friend this year. Well, he’s been
gone from my life over 30 years, but I’d always hoped to meet up with
him again someday and have a good long talk. Jack, also known as Papa
Bear, was something of a mentor to me when I was a young scared hippie
kid way back in the 1970s. You can read about him by pointing your
browser at: “http://community.netidea.com/willbilly/Jack.html”
Amid all these changes I have continued to rage
against the machine. Much of that rage has been directed at Canada’s
current Prime Minister. He’s come to power on the strength of just over
30 per cent of the popular vote, but is acting very much like he owns
the place. While many people don’t really take him too seriously, I
think they should. We’ve seen, or at least our parents have, how much
damage a man who wins just over 30 percent of the popular vote can do.
It happened in the early 1930s, and it can happen again. Read all my
political rants by pointing your browser at: “http://willbillyblog.blogspot.com”
For an overall view of my life this past year, my
literary efforts, and even some photos of the goings on, you can point
your browser at my webpage, “http://community.netidea.com/willbilly”.
No doubt there will be some changes to come.
Methinks this is my last winter in Kaslo. Sometime in the new year I
plan to relocate. Where is still a mystery. I suspect it will be
somewhere here in the Kootenays, but it could be further afield. I’m
not sure. I only know that my stake in this place is due, and I’m not
predisposed to renewal. I want change. I haven’t lived in my own space
for many years now, at least seven. All my possessions are in big
plastic rubbermaids that have been packed for so long I don’t even
recall what’s in them. Its time I got somewhere and unpacked. Or at
least that’s what I’m telling myself right now.
Chances are I will get out on my bike again come
spring. I still plan to finish my trans-Canada ride at some point. Some
of you will remember it was cut short by an accident a couple years
back. I’d like to complete it out to Newfoundland, but this time I
think I’ll be a good Canadian and bus or train across Ontario, then
make like that province doesn’t exist. I can now say I’ve cycled nearly
half way around the world and there is no place worse for cycling than
Ontario. It is the worst, anywhere, except maybe downtown London
England at rush hour!
As far as the outside world goes, I’ve seen some
hope this year. Although I don’t believe for a moment that the
Democratic Party in the US is any better than the Republican Party, it
has brought me some hope to hear the American people talking about
their own foreign policy. As far as I’m concerned America, or the
American government, is the greatest threat to peace in the world
today. Over the past few years the safety and well being of everyday
people all around the globe has been threatened by American stupidity,
greed and ignorance. Some will tell you its really no different than
other times, that sooner or later things will change and get better.
However, there are some things that are really different than they ever
were before in history. We did not have weaponry that could wipe out
the entire planet before. We did not have cars polluting every corner
of the globe before. We did not have a lot of things that are in the
world today. The US is not just like Rome was. The US is bigger,
stronger, and a lot more dangerous than Rome ever hoped to be.
While I’ve personally drawn some hope from the
recent defeat of many in the pro-Bush camp in the US, and by the
movements towards withdrawl from Iraq and for peace, I’m troubled by
more recent discussions coming from the south, that include expanding
the military numbers in Iraq.
An aside here. The reason George Bush has no exit
strategy for Iraq is because Bush, and his backers, have no plans
whatsoever of pulling out of Iraq, ever! It has always been their
intention to set up permanent military bases there, just as they did in
Germany after World War II. The reason, to protect their oil sources of
course! Iraq was never about Hussein or democracy. Iraq has always been
about oil, and the exhaustion of military hardware so the arms builders
in the US can keep their factories running and their merchandise
selling. Short of making Iraq the 51st state, the US has no plans to
get out, and the Democrats, who are just as dependant on donations from
the oil industry as the Repulicans, are not about to bite the
hand that feeds them. Short of Jesus, or extraterrestials, appearing in
the sky and smiting them with a laser beam, nothing is going to change
the US plan.
Then we have the recent hanging of Saddam. Is this
best we can do, an eye for an eye? Do we really learn anything from
killing tyrants. Had Saddam lived we could have plied him with truth
serums and found out first hand how he came to be president of Iraq,
where he got his weaponry from, who financed him, why they turned
against him in the end. With him dead we learn nothing. In the end, his
execution is the "Mother of all Cover Ups". I'll bet George Bush is
relieved!
Here in Canada, things are not a lot better. We’re
caught up in party politics that have subverted our democracy. We’re so
stuck in it we actually believe we have no choice but to vote for one
party or another. Chances are we’re just going to put new clothes on
the emperor, and send him back to the front. My advice is this, vote
independent! Yes folks, vote for someone who is not aligned with any of
the parties, even if its the local Rhino, pot smoking, yahoo! Send a
loonie to the loonie bin I say, and send a message to the parties while
your at it. Break the stranglehold the industrial lobbyists have
over our parliamentary system by electing people who are not part of
it. Join the “sick and tired of being sick and tired of the same old
gang” movement.
Failing that, just vote. Approximately 47 per cent
of the population does not vote! Who does vote? The rich vote, the
upper middle class vote, and the seniors vote! The poor do not vote,
the artistic do not vote, the lower working classes do not vote. If the
poor, the artistic, and the working class would simply show up at the
polls and take part in democracy, it would change a lot. And for those
of you who don’t believe your vote can make a difference, that’s just
what the right wing industrialists want you to believe. As long as you
don’t vote, they get their way. The moment you start voting is the
moment they are going to have to lend their ears to your concerns. Just
vote people, just vote. Its what democracy is all about.
As for me personally, as you can probably tell, I
continue to be a troubled human being. This year has done nothing to
change that. But despite the trouble, I remain forever hopeful. I am
not someone who believes all the doom and gloom scenarios. I don’t
believe this life is about knuckling under and going along on the hell
in a handbasket ride. I do believe its about taking responsibility in
our own lives and in the life of the world. Its never too late to
change. Its never too late to find a new direction. Its never too late
to try.
I remain estranged from my family, depsite my best
efforts to the contrary. But its not really about family. Family are
not as important as friends. You and I don’t get to choose our family,
but we do get to choose our friends. I don’t have many friends, and I’m
not so good at making friends, but the few friends I do have are
more important to me than my family ever was, because its my friends
who are joining me on this path, not my family. My family are my
friends. My friends are my family.
As you can imagine, with all my cycling and world
travelling, I’m probably in the best shape of my life. I’m healthy in
ways I was never healthy before. If I have any regrets it is that I
never got to it earlier. Don’t be a fool like me and wait until you’re
too old to do it, do it now. Get on a bike, get up off the couch, go
chase down a dream no matter how useless it seems. And don’t let
failure get you down. You never have to accept failure if you keep on
trying. Its the trying that’s important, not the result of your trying.
Go and Do. Go and Be. Live!
Please take some time to wander through my web
pages, and if you get a moment, drop me a line. My
email address is: willbilly@netidea.com. I’ll be glad to hear from you.
Have a good year, one and all. Take care of
yourselves, and your friends.
My Best to You,
Will
So Folks, that's all the news there is for now. But stay tuned, you
never know, nor does Will, what will happen next.
