So I am sitting in Emerg at the Sarnia General Hospital.
Earlier last week while I was jogging on the tread mill the base of my foot started to twitch and make an uncomfortable vibration through out my body. This feeling continued slightly through out the weekend and I never thought much of it.

This morning I woke up and I started having trouble walking up the stairs. Curious, I decided to imitate the motion of walking up the stairs and placing all of my pressure to the heel of my left foot; I fell over. Since then the pain has tripled, my leg has lost all feeling and gone numb, my foot is twitching, my lower back cant be moved and I am beginning to go numb in my left arm.

I explored google and looked up things related to this: ie – siatic nerve and sciatica.
I don’t like the look of it. Every reliever points to time off my feet, no exercise and physical therapy.

Furious that this thing will decommission me, I called all of my nurse friends, (5 helpful females who all suggested a trip to the hospital would be necessary.

(On a side note, I find it amazing that I have a library of skilled nurses to pick the brains of).

So, I have been here 40 minutes and being the nerd that I am and knowing that I would be here forever, I brought my laptop.

On the weekend I had some time to kill and I was going through some of my old Basketball footage. I thought I would share with you one of my memorable baskets.

After a night out on the town in Fort McMurray I went back to a buddy’s house and I left around 3AM. I called for a taxi and stood in the lobby. To my surprise I found two men sleeping by the door. My jaw hit the ground. As sheltered as this sounds, I have never seen a homeless person at that time in the morning. I see homeless people only ever in the big city while it’s busy and the city is alive but I have never seen a homeless person when a city is asleep. Watching those two sleep at the same time that I usually sleep really shook me up. I only imagine homeless people when they are awake and working the street but never when they sleep and look almost at peace.

Sunday I spent in my hotel room wondering what had happened to those two that got them to the spot they were at and why I was exposed to it. I thought about their lack of money and there inability to make money. I thought maybe they preferred sleeping like that or even worse – that they deserved it. When I came to the conclusion of them deserving it, I almost puked; I was literally sick to my stomach. At that point it hit me that I am a selfish person and the only charity I care about is the charity of Ron Smith

How did I get his way?

It has occurred to me that we are our own charity cases. Accumulating debt has somehow made us believe that what we are able to give in regards to charity can only happen after we have taken care of our needs and the majority (if not all) of our wants.
By being in debt, we can look at others who are in a bad way and be apathetic. Our excuse “I’d love to help (insert poor bastards name or honest charity here) but I have debt coming out the wazoo!”

It’s hard to ever imagine giving a good portion of our money to a cause out side of our personal gain because we are programmed to believe that we need to be getting ahead. We blindly believe that we are in a race with everyone to gain things. Giving to charity might make you look like a good and generous person but you are surely a fool in the race for consumption.

When we view our life on a scale for consumption, charity doesn’t make any sense. “Why would I give someone else my hard earned money so he can have more and I have less?” It’s a dangerous slop but unfortunately it is our culture.

I convinced myself last month that I am in difficult time’s money wise so instead of giving up personal wants and desires, I did the logical thing and stopped tithing to my church. Its one thing to say your going to commit to a charity but when the rubber hits the road and your standard of living is at risk – my charities take the back seat, quite sad.

Charity has become such an accessory; so meaningless. I think we as a society got this way because we all believe that giving to the poor should be unnecessary and we should focus our efforts to making a society where poverty and homelessness don’t exist. And they are right; I suppose I ought to believe that we can (someday) establish a society where people don’t go without. But if anyone thinks that as a consequence, we can stop giving to charity in the meantime, we are sadly mistaken.

I’m going to drop a crazy thought for a minute. This is something I believe in totally but I don’t have the brass to actually partake in it.

What if we viewed charity as a necessity to pay into? We viewed charity as important as we do paying our monthly loans? If we thought about charity the same way we did about debt I think our communities would be in a lot better shape. What if we thought “getting ahead” meant to better the lives of those around us? What if we actually put ourselves out when it came to charity? I don’t just mean giving to charities either, that would be foolish.

Imagine a conversation that went like this. “Sorry pal, I can’t come out for drinks tonight because I just gave my last 50 to a neighbor that is really in need.” “I can’t make it out tonight because I am working overtime so I can give more to my local charity.” Could you imagine the impact on the world if we ALL lived like this? If we actually fathomed going without so that others could go with?

I don’t suppose you can argue on how much to give. I would say that if you live as lavish as those who make the same as you then you give to little. If our charity doesn’t hamper or pinch us at all then I would say we give too little.

People descending from the sixteenhundreds and below had classes. Rich and poor were the main distinguished class. In places like Africa you could identify a person of a rich class by owning a significant amount of objects, land of servants. But what if you saw this person apart from his belongings?
Another way to distinguish a man’s wealth was by his weight.

Being over weight said to the people observing him was that he is wealthy because he ate well and very regularly. Being over weight was then considered sexy because power was sexy and people with wealth had power.

In the late eighties an aspiring rapper by the name of Sir Mix-a lot wrote a song called “Baby got back.” He explained to the people listening what he thought sexy was on a woman’s body – that being larger than the national standard of sexy.

Today, everyone is up in arms about Tara Banks and her apparent weight gain. She defends the weight gain saying things like “There is nothing wrong with being fat” and many people support her comments. A lot of people are even saying that being fat is sexy.

I am not writing a post about my thoughts on if fat is sexy or not, there is a time a place for that. What I want to shed some light on is why, all of a sudden, being fat is being seen as sexy?

Now I will admit that what the magazine covers present as sexy is a little over the top and not even those models shown can keep up that figure. But on the other side of the spectrum, can we honestly say that people who are over weight are now becoming the new national standard of sexy?

Is being fat seen as being sexy because we, as a population actually find meatier people attractive or is it that we, as a population are all becoming too lazy to get fit and now settle and say we are attracted to a larger proportion?

Once again, please don’t assume that I am writing about what I presume to be sexy.

People will argue that over weight people cant help it, that some are born big boned. And to that I will agree but what about the rest of us? I find it hard to believe that a large amount of the population is just big boned.

In a society where we have everything instantly or at least want it that way; being fit and thin – it now appears to be something that can’t be instantly achieved. Because of this lack of achievement, has being fit become a thing of the past? Is being fit and slim now becoming less attractive because fewer people can achieve and maintain it?

For someone like myself that has always struggled with weight gain; I can say that when I see a fit person I admire there commitment to eating properly, exercising regularly and staying committed to a healthy life style.

Today’s foods with barley any nutritional value and mass quantity of it has made it almost impossible for the regular Joe to maintain a decent sized waste line. But we shouldn’t mistake being fat as sexy because we are too lazy to stay fit.

There is this train of thought today that there are two apposing sides that don’t like each other and are opposite. These sides of powers, or forces, or “gods” – the good one and the bad one – are quite different from each other and are never in agreement. They didn’t create each other and have always just existed. One side thinks the other bad and themselves good, yet, when you are opposite of each other, one must be good and the other bad.

What do I mean when I call one of the powers good? Am I saying that I prefer one over the other – like pepsi to coke – or am I saying that one is in the wrong and the other in the right? And if a power is right, would it then not become the force that is “good?”

If I chose one side over the other just because I prefer to or because I am most accustom to it, I can’t really say that the word “good” has any value, it’s just what I prefer. But the word “Good” does have value and meaning.

If this is true, that good exists then there must be a third thing; some law or standard that governs what good is for something can’t be good if it has nothing to measure against it, just as bad cannot exist if it isn’t rejecting a standard of goodness.

Follow?

Example: I was watching the hockey game tonight. A player leveled another player with a hard check and everyone was up in arms. The commentators were quarreling over if the hit was a good legit one or a bad illegal one. Well, how would they even be able to argue over the legitimacy of the hit if a third power wasn’t in play to say what a legitimate hit is in the first place?

At the intermission, one of the analysts pulled out the rule book, stating clearly what is and isn’t a legit hit and the disagreement was settled.

Gotta love Hockey night in Canada.

My flight to Calgary was great. The man sitting next to me was a sod expert. Seriously, he provided sod for all the professional sport teams in Toronto and owned companies all over the world. He was off to New Zealand for a sod conference and was so excited to see all of the new types of grass and seed to purchase. We discussed politics, laws, religion and most importantly of all – sod.

The in-flight movie was The Queen. Being English myself, I overly enjoyed it.

Landing in Calgary I headed over the Avis to pick up my rental. My good pal Ryan Chapman had preordered a rental for me that I was to pick up. I was handed keys to a Lincoln and set on my way. Walking aimlessly in the parking-lot I hit the alarm button to locate my ride. To my surprise, a MASSIVE Lincoln Navigator started erupting.

I strolled up, unlocked the door and a foot step emerged out of the side of the SUV. This ride had everything; 23 inch rims, leather interior, you name it – it had it. I picked up Jordan Parker and his cousin Phil and we headed into town to have lunch with Chaps.

Chaps works in downtown Calgary so we went to our usual spot – Earls. They have amazing food served by the most attractive people from either sex, even the cooks are attractive. I am surprised no one has ever cried about the discrimination of “ugly” people.

When Chaps finished work we all headed to a pub on the water and had a few socials with the guys from Suncor. After socializing we headed on our weekend trip to Fernie, BC.

Chaps and his two friends (Drew Turner and Tyler) hopped in the back of the Navigator and off we went.

Chaps and Drew got themselves excited for a night on the town

and I excited myself for sleep. After a full day of flying and then driving to Fernie I was exhausted; I curled up in this Ikea bed contraption and looked forward to the next day of skiing.

Fernie is a MASSIVE mountain and people travel from all over the world to ride it. I thought I would try skiing this time (if you will recall last time I snow-boarded and I plummeted 800 feet on my rear to my almost death).

Chaps and his pals had big ideas for the day and I was content with not taking part. They spent the day 6000 feet above me and I hopped on the bunny slopes. Not knowing how to ski I thought I would take everyone’s advice and get lessons. Unfortunately I missed sign up and couldn’t partake. Luckily thought there were people in line with me who were rookies and willing to assist.

Kristen, Amy and I spent the day cruising down the bunny slopes and on our rears (them not so much). By the end of the day our confidence was up and we proceeded down a blue hill. The hill humbled us pretty quick.

I don’t know how to describe it but on this day I felt really….. Canadian. After an exhausting day on the slopes I perched myself near a warm fire in the mountain pub, watched some hockey and enjoyed a cold, crisp Canadian beer. We sat around the table and talked about all sorts. It turns out my new friends that were quite educated and carried themselves in a good fashion.

The evening was spent on the town which, to be honest, was pretty weak. Chaps always likes to pretend it’s my birthday when ever we travel to unknown locations which usually gets the night jump started (people like to celebrate strangers birthdays). It’s pretty hard to get the night going when it’s just guys. Seriously, all men.

Sunday was more of the same; we hit the slopes, Chaps and his pals ascended into the clouds and I perfected my bob and weave approach on the bunnies. We ventured to a really cool restaurant/skate shop/ski, snowboard/skate park/internet café all in one. It was wild.