Alberta, Canada, became the best two-week rejuvenation and
restoration venue or us in some time.
Just to be out of the 24/7 U.S news cycle meant the promise of a
newfound mental balance for Janice and myself. And a welcome refuge of sanity
and sensibility. The 2 week getaway was
actually organized some months earlier, around the time we got back from
Boulder. True, no blog posts would appear on Brane Space for 2 weeks but in
truth there hadn’t been that many daily reads of existing posts (maybe 20-24)
the past few months with only a few exceptions but none reaching 100.
Weighing the cost-benefits (i.e. in mental health) of more blogging
(to get more clicks) vs. just kicking back in Alberta and enjoying its great
outdoors – the latter won. The United
flight out of Denver International on the 18th was short (1h 55 m)
and delightful as we flew over the heart of the Rockies into western Canada. Janice – as per our earlier trips (2017, 2018) used a wheel
chair because of her spinal stenosis – which expedited our transit through TSA
pre-check and then Canadian customs on landing at Calgary.
Oddly, the longest part of the trip was the 90 minute wait to get a
rental car at the Calgary airport.
Apparently, according to the Budget Rental car agents, too many people
opted to keep their rentals a bit longer thereby creating a supply problem at
the issuing end. So nearly 10 of us had to patiently wait until the cars came
in, were cleaned and readied for the next driver.
But by 5:15 we had a terrific car (2023 Nissan Murano) with an AI –directed navigation system and all we needed to head for Canmore. Less than an hour and a half later we drove into the underground parking of The Malcolm hotel-
By Thursday, Sept. 21 we set out at 11:05 for the Cathedral
Mountain Lodge, our next holiday stop.
This trip (104 km) lasted just under 80 minutes and took us right into
some of Alberta’s most remote mountainous regions – ending up at a totally
rustic cabin. The cabin was small (about 12’ by 18’) but comfortable and
featured a wood-burning stove with logs all pre-cut. One only had to venture
outside to get a whiff of the smoke from multiple such stoves. As far as food, we only needed to travel as
far as the main lodge to get dinner every night at 6:30 p.m. and breakfast at
8:00 a.m. Nothing fancy here, just good,
solid stick to the ribs vittles.
While at the Cathedral Lodge we drove 5km out to see the enchanting Emerald Lake where we ambled amongst the bucolic setting and along the jutting wood bridge taking lots of photos. This was before finding a picnic bench to eat our light lunch (apples, and BBQ chips). Later on we drove to Takakkaw Falls, some 15 km further along on the Yoho Valley Road in Banff National Park. (For which we had to purchase two senior passes before we could enter the National Park- that we did in Canmore)
Of course, merely because one arrives in a fantastic natural setting doesn't mean one can let one's guard down - say from grizzly bears - where one killed two people in the same Banff National Park, e.g.
Grizzly killed after 2 people found dead in bear attack at Canadian park, officials say
The peaceful lodge itself offered a quiet, contemplative
environment free of the political cacophony in the U.S. and latest GOP House
crazies’ antics, with the shutdown. To
that point there was no television-cable access, period. It may surprise many
to grasp this is a healthy aspect.
Consider: According to a Global Information Industry report (as long ago
as 2008), Americans consumed information for about 1.3 trillion hours, an
average of almost 12 hours per day.
Consumption then totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words,
corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 GB for an average person on an average
day.
Now, 15 years later, one can infer all those stats are
significantly higher. Is this positive? Is it constructive? No, absolutely not. This is given all the
fragmentation and accompanying polarization which is also fragmenting
minds. Especially since Donald Trump
ascended to the political and media stage in 2015. His emergence alone balkanized the media
field even more, including social media – spawning a host of authoritarian and
regressive websites where covert planning could lead to such outrages as the
2021 insurrection.
Forget also a proper processing of events – far less any critical
thinking – given the situation bears more similarity to trying to ingest a mass
data dump than anything else. Hence, little to no empowerment, insight or
thought mastery but instead endless distraction, consumption of lies and
propaganda – leading to numerous outbursts o extremism such as the threats to
election officials by the MAGA maggots.
One wonders what opposite effect “pulling the plug” might have had on the millions of denizens that fell for Trump’s lies. Indeed, one can imagine it would not have led author David Ulin to have made such a statement – as recently as February, 2018, to the effect:
“We are more divided and divisive.
We live inside the psychodrama of disruptive
would-be king. I am writing this in
February, 2018, in a nation that feels to me as if it is coming apart at the
seams.”
And that was basically, 3 years before the Trump-incited
insurrection, and more than 5 ½ years before Trump called for the execution of
Gen.Mark Milley for “treason”. This was
because in December, 2020 with Trump off the rails and still with access to the
nuclear codes, Milley sought to calm Chinese fears that missiles might be
launched. So Gen. Milley rightly
protected this nation and the world from a confirmed madman.
But despite Trump’s execrable threat, not a peep about it in the
mainstream press. This is what author Ulin means by the “commonwealth of
information unmoored from reality.” And if that is so, how can citizens – who
depend on the media’s consistent and reliable information – not become unmoored
from reality? Fortunately, none of these
concerns intruded on us while on our two week vacay in Alberta. None of it intruded until the GOP House
scheduled its shutdown to hold the nation hostage. Showing the extent to which
they are allied with the orange Traitor who Noam Chomsky has called “the worst
criminal in human history.”
No, Trump hasn’t butchered 6 million….yet. But he’s set the stage for mass butchery by
infecting the minds of the most susceptible to his lies – the MAGA extremists-
with his sullen seeds of violence.
Former Bush advisor Matthew Dowd has estimated at least one third of the
country may be infected by his anti-democracy mind virus and the need now is to
halt the spread to the ever
-distractable swing voters.
Thankfully, Trump and his debasing conduct were only a distant blur while hiking along the trails near Canmore’s river and in the woods near the Cathedral Lodge.
In the former case the majestic views of the ‘Three Sisters’ mountains wiped out any pestering thoughts of a pestilence like Donald Trump. It was a blessing and respite we wished for all our fellow citizens.
At least, when we returned yesterday evening we were pleased to see the positive news that the insane effort at a government shutdown was halted. Now, we need to see if sanity is preserved through Nov. 17 - the next crisis date for the Chaos Caucus.
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