Stratford

Today's blog is short for I am back in my unexamined indifference or the attempt of it. Of course that is a lie- the unexamined indifference.  Tired worries resurrected. Toil resumed.

We've been back in the US for two days and I'm ready to go to Ontario.  This is serious stuff for it's a six hour drive but always worth it.  I can't explain why I feel so comfortable in Canada perhaps it's just being away, not cooking, doing chores, and being entertained with no strings.

We'll check out what plays are available- I know Midsummer Night's Dream and Macbeth are being performed. Some may say, but you've seen both of those a dozen times (probably more) done in a dozen different ways. Why would you travel to see Shakespeare- simply it's live theatre and in live theatre the audience participates, each performance new and never before nor after to be repeated. Art in the making, flowing, live with a working knowledge of the text, so familiar that one is able to hear without listening, to see without looking, to enjoy.  Being in Canada and seeing plays reminds me of sex- it's always different, always wonderful. One feels as one did the first time one truly made love, not necessarily sex but the act with meaning.  

We've recuperated, feel strong and are willing to take a new adventure. I'm a fool but traveling and being in a new place feels good, particularly at Strattford where we nestle into a hotel room, walk to a play, eat cheaply at Tim Horton's (Canada's Wendys), go to  spa,  pool, peruse stores and breathe. 

Two days home and tired of driving.  Simple chores, going to grocery store, getting a haircut are unsettling. Traffic obscene in every sense. Tired of the same small cares, the rounds.  At first, being home seems so wonderful after the bustle of travel, a new bed every night, hauling body and baggage.  Then it relaxes into tedium, an unglamorous set rut.  While away, all faces are new, local tragedies unimportant, politics no more important than a  glass of orange or grapefruit juice. Whatever whim satisfies against an unimposing back drop.  Floating away, flying away, going away all vehicles of insouciant disconnect.  Gladly adopting every new city

without commitment. The cities themselves whores to the traveler's desire, forgotten or remembered but not real, surface only. No musts!

And in my Dreams

and in my dreams such shapes may rise

that shake the soul with much surprise.

I dreamed I was going back to teaching last night though I was not on the faculty list. Everything had changed. Curiously enough, Bill Poulos was with me and we went to Boonsboro High School.

The department chair was a black man named Joseph (make any connection you like) and the English curriculum had been radically revised. I was lugging a machine around with me as we were leaving and was stopped and asked to return it. I didn't know what the machine was for, so as I returned it I was told it was a reading machine. Sheets of paper with holes in them were passed in front of a beam of light and the text was projected as the words were pronounced. The machine was a cross between a light-brite and the SRA machines so popular in the sixties and seventies. I was also carrying a text that was being taught- a book I'd never heard of but promised to read. I recall that the text was thoroughly politically correct but being the compulsive reader I am, I fully intended to read it. I recall that the title seemed childish and the cover an abstract design of purple and green.

As Bill and I traveled back(wards in time) he left me at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Ponca Street. He was driving a Thunderbird and parked it right at the bus stop there. I tried to tell him that he couldn't do that- the car will be towed. But he responded that he was flying out of the country and was suddenly gone.

Make what you will of a dream- Freud suggests that the words- Mr. Joseph, Thunderbird, Eastern, purple, green- are the telling details- that the visual images are not necessarily key but that sounds and their relation to reality are more important- the reading machine (me) is important. The flight to another country takes on an interesting aspect. Every reader will infuse meaning according to the importance the words and sounds elicit.

To sleep, to dream, ah there's the rub

and in that sleep

what dreams may come.

Out, out brief candle

Man is but a poor player

that struts and frets his hour upon this stage

and then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot

full of sound and fury

signifying nothing. *

paraphrase and quote from Macbeth

Poor reader, I beg your pardon for the indulgence I ask. There are no pictures merely the phantom forms that came into my mind. Tense too is important as is syntax.

Traveling is a Fool's Paradise

Thoreau began an essay with this topic sentence and then proceeded to elaboarate on the why- the usual stupid stuff: You can't escape your problems or yourself, you carry your worries, when you get back your shortcomings are still there: blah, blah, blah. Well, if Travel is a Fool's Paradise- then I am a fool-for this trip was paradise.

Thoreau is often quoted for his transcendental, ecological, passive resistance views. I never bothered to read much of what he wrote- it was ho-hum for some in the sixties, and now that we are in our 60's- he's still being quoted and he is still rather "like so what".

Travel cleansed my soul. The views, mountains, rivers, accommodations did remarkable things to me- I called it our Woodstock, something never to be repeated. The people were lovely, generous, considerate and became a unit. Something none of us shall ever forget or be able to recapture.

But back to Henry David- obviously he didn't travel much. If I remember correctly, mostly he stayed in his home town and staged his tax protest by living in Emerson's back yard, camping out. Had he seen the Bow River, Athabasca Falls, the Columbia Ice Fields, the dining room at the Empress Hotel, or the Banff Castle- it would have done him much good. But then again he didn't live in our time where an escape from the cities provides a much needed cleansing of the soul. We forgot our trouble, left the worries behind and lived in the moment with and for each other.

I'm glad I got to know these people- like Woodstock Nation, we came together, cared for each other. And a wonderful thing happened to me- I found that I enjoyed helping the folks who needed assistance. I looked out for those who needed a little attention and discovered that that was why I became a teacher- something in me has always tended to be sympathetic to those whom I can help, love, and learn from. Serving is its own reward; virtue is the essence of the eternal in us, something many never discover.

On our last day in Calgary I discovered I might want to go to Stratford, Ontario to see what is supposed to be an excellent production of the The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe (Mid-summer Night's Dream). Then in October we'll go to Orlando, followed by a 45th class reunion in Dundalk in November and the wedding in December. Whew- we'd better get some rest.

Banff to Calgary

Today we ate at a castle (Banff Springs Hotel) and the food on the buffet could have fed a starving country.  Rooms range from 400 per night to several thousand for the premier suite. What a place to spend a honeymoon, if money were no object. The castle is outside of Banff and believe it or not, the meal was free.  Holiday Vacations arranged it because of the early difficulties we had during the trip.   We got a meal fit for a king or queen.  Although Banff is a total tourist town, it is very lovely.  Some of the houses range into the 10 million dollar range.  The owner of the New York NHL Team has a house there.  The thing is you can own the house for 40 years but never own the land because it is a national park.  To live there you must work there. Today is the end of our tour. Eating at the castle, training through the Rockies, riding the ferry are just a few of the more memorable things. What really is touching is the friendships that have developed and the cordiality among us.  We laughed together, looked out for each other.  Our farewell dinner in Calgary tonight was a tear jerker.  To think that this grand adventure has to end tomorrow makes all of us sad though none of us is sorry to have taken the trip.  Many people said they'd been on Alaskan cruises and those cruises did not have the spectacular scenery, the incredible hotels, and the food...oh was it good.  The only disappointing meal was at Lake Louise but the scenery erased any negativity.  The trip was everything we hoped for and so much more.  We visited Olympic Village, site of the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary. Remember Eddie the Eagle- who still holds the record for the slowest downhill race in Olympic history? And then there was the Jamaican Bob-sled team.  After Banff and the Rockies, Calgary is ho-hum, flat. Or maybe it is melancholy that we are at the end of the tour.  Tomorrow we see if flying Northwestern is better than United- I hope so. It couldn't be worse.  

Columbia Ice Field

In the afternoon we visited the Columbia Ice Field. It was 45 degrees with a cutting wind. Specially designed vehicles transport visitors to the glacier.  There are 6 of these vehicles in the world- the Canadians have 5.  The U.S. has one in Antarctica.  The vehicles cost 750K in 2000, now they'd be a million and a half.  The huge tires cost $6000 each.  What pictures of the ice field and the glacier can't capture is the true depth of the ice. We were standing on a mile of ice.  The glaciers protruding like tongues off the mountains may be 250 feet deep and hundreds of thousands of years old.  We each had a drink of water from the glacier- the best water we've ever had.  At the staging post for the ice terrain vehicles there were chipmunks...the little creatures raided the trash and occasionally boarded the vehicle for a ride to the ice field.  Vast, deep ice such as it is here is difficult to comprehend.

Some of the mountains we photographed were 12,000 feet. At the glacier it was merely 10,000.

In winter temperatures drop to minus 50, 50 below zero and with wind chills at 70 below. Exposed skin will freeze in less than a minute.  To stand on this makes one realized how insignificant man truly is.

Lake Louise

Lake Louise is named for the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  Her middle name is also fitting: Alberta.  Nothing I can say will ever fully describe Lake Louise.  Another gem set among the snow-capped mountains. Mom and I managed to have several pictures taken which didn't ruin the serene, breath-taking lake.  This is one place we'd always wanted to visit. Angelique Gonzalez's mother, who accompanied her on the trip, said that she had been all over the world and never understood why so many Americans and Canadians never traveled over seas- but why travel to another continent when we have these wonders in our own back yard?  She said Lake Louise was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.  

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake , made from a glacier, is an aqua gem set in ice fields.  Even a photo cannot show its beauty.  The elk was having breakfast, chewing blithely until he turned his back to us and essentially mooned us.  He was one cool customer. 

Monday, Monday August 17

Monday, Monday- can't trust that day. It turned out to be memorable but not in a good way. At about 5 a.m. I took a cab to the local hospital for an all-night headache, neck cramp.  It costs a bundle but I should be compensated since we had travel health insurance.  After that the day opened itself up.  Victoria is a beautiful city with some of the most beautiful women in the world.

Diversity, flowers everywhere, street performers along the harbor.  The architecture speaks of the great wealth of Canada.  We had lunch at the Empress Hotel which had stores that carried items such as one would never believe. The totem polls, the Native American art over-awed me. I wanted to buy one or two of the pieces- but prices ranged from $17 K and. The clothing stores with She She purses...and the vast range of people from all parts of the globe.  The weather seemed cool but warmed...they actually grow orange in BC.  Winters are mild, hardly any snow- very few days when one needs heat or air conditioning. Luckily we dodged the hot weather which now dogs the East,  Tomorrow we'll be in Vancouver. There is a display of great Dutch masters- Vemeer and Rembrant are featured.  This is a real treat.  We're off to supper.

Later that day, a insignificant incident became cosmic.  While at the dump, I saw a new born vole (black back-gray belly) struggling to walk, its legs too weak to propel it.  The vole rolled onto its back as its legs could not support it, belly up in the hot sun. Of course that was death for the vole who had probably crawled away from its mother's teets or away from the cover the mother had found.  I thought a moment whether I ought to step on it. It was perhaps 2 inches long. Instead I left it to die as it rightfully should.  Why this bothered me I can't say.  After all this was a garbage dump and I'd seen many rats galumphing before which only brought out an instinctive repulsion for rodents. I'd been trying to rid our yard of pesky chipmunks. Why such compassion for this vole, who by this time has died.  I can't say, except to express my gratitude for never having had to kill another person for in this fragile little rodent, I saw life, struggling, riggling to survive and I felt love for life, even a doomed vole's tiny being.

Today is the day before the day. I  had a full six hours of sleep, a luxury as things have been going and especially since I had no dreams I could remember.  A mountain of small chores awaits us, everything from going to the dump to buying motion sensors for the outside fixtures.  They now have motion sensors that screw into a socket and then a bulb screws into the motion sensor.  It seems most of the neighborhood is on vacation for at night it is dark, dark, dark here.  The quiet is audible- sounds odd but it's true.  The crickets have begun their evening lamentations, a sound that makes me think of the creaking of the earth on its orbit through the seasons.  The fireflies are gone but other creatures are stirring in anticipation of summer's end.  

Speaking of summer's end- teachers went back to work here yesterday.  Aren't we happy to be retired.  Why so early I was asked?  A simple answer is to give students more time in class before the annual assessments.  It's the remnants of George Bush's No Child Left Behind, an unfunded mandate which has improved education in places where education was already excellent before NCLB.  In retrospect it was a good idea, but unfunded it promoted education in school systems that were already providing a good to excellent free public education. Washington County, Montgomery County, and Hartford County have achieved the goals of NCLB.  

We're looking forward to meeting Canadians, hearing their views, sharing ours, though a traveler to urban Canada will see a different Canada than one who visits the heartland.  It's probably the same as here in the States.

This morning's local paper ran an article about two signs protesters were carrying at the local

town hall. I'm not going to repeat what the signs supposedly said but it is alarming and totally

unacceptable.  In fact the supposed signs were so ignorant, so volatile, and evil, it wouldn't surprise me if the national media doesn't pick up on them.  True, the President didn't win in our county nor in the two other western counties but the sentiments allegedly expressed make me sick and are not representative of the vast majority here.  Those are not my emotions and feelings about Mr. Obama.  But even worse were the ugly things said about his wife and children. I cannot abide by anyone saying such wicked things- in fact I can't even allow the words that are reported to have been on the signs to cross my mind.

We're looking forward to seeing and reading news across the border.  One must wonder what others think about the US-and that is what we must remember: we are the US- everyone of us.  If you pray, pray for US; if you don't, hope that we do not allow our differences to divide us.