Be mindful of your environment

In my last post, Joe (a fellow blogger) commented that he tries to always be aware of what is going on around him. One_last_kiss says that people do sometimes get a little self absorbed and don't think to look where they are going. Taffy noted the presence of several disabled persons in the restaurant at the time, as mentioned, and that they seemed to be more aware.
I think all three of them have hit the nail on the head with those comments. It is all about being aware of your surroundings. Sometimes we get a little consumed by our thoughts, and that's when we miss that one critical thing we should have been looking out for, like that deer on the side of the road.
I'm as guilty of this as the next person. Sometimes I get so busy doing something, I'm not always sure just where my cane is pointed as I lean on something. Or I will be working at the computer, and totally forget the coffee I poured myself half an hour ago. Don't even get me started on my ability to ignore reality when there is a book involved!
I'm sure that you have all seen the Star Wars movie, in which Luke goes to train with Yoda, the Jedi master. Do you remember the scene where he is trying to explain how Luke can use the Force to move his ship from the lake? "Feel the Force around you." Sure, that might be fiction, but there is that grain of truth, that we can accomplish more if we pay attention to the world around us.
Every discipline I've ever heard of says that we must always be aware of what is going on about us, because all things are interconnected. Action is followed by reaction, even at the quantum level. (If you want to get all scientific about it.) Buddhists say that all things are connected, and how we treat the world around us is how we will be treated by it. The monks revere life to the extent that they sweep insects from their paths.
We don't all have to go to that extreme. Maybe just turn down the mp3 player a little bit. Maybe take the time to look around at the people going past you once in a while. The best advice of all, don't forget to look a child in the eyes when they speak to you. They are people too, and sometimes we overlook what they have to add.

Accessiblity issues

I was going to write about something else today, but it came off as whining, and I promised that this blog was not going to be a forum for my personal problems. Besides, it was getting too hard to write about what I was thinking without getting into the personal lives of others. That is a major blogging no-no.
Instead, I think I want to address the issue of accessibility.
Yesterday, my wife and I went out to do a little shopping. I have a disability that makes it necessary for me to use the scooters that the store provides. That the larger stores even have them is a good thing, and shows that they are thinking. The problem lies in the way people think when they see a person in one of them.
One of the biggest obstacles to getting around in a large store is the other customers. If you are in a wheelchair or scooter, it's like they don't even see you. People will walk directly into the path of a person in a chair, even just to stop and look at items they don't intend to purchase. Or they will stand there, chatting forever, even after you have politely asked them if you can get by.
Are disabled persons invisible when they get below eye level? The average shopper can spot a quarter on the floor, but not a person?
The other problem yesterday is that not every part of the store was accessible to the scooter. The restaurant had rather tight quarters, and trying to stay out of the way put me in a position that made getting out again very difficult. It didn't help that there were no less than four persons with disabilities in there at the time. It created quite a commotion, let me tell you.
I think from now on, I'll skip the scooter. If I can't take my walker, I'll use a smaller chair and just let my wife push a cart. At some point in the future, that won't be an option, but I'll put up with being overlooked if it avoids the embarrassment that I had yesterday.

How about that weather?

Okay, that title sounds like a really lame joke. It's been ages since we saw real snowfall at the first of December.
I had to go out and clear the car off this morning, so that the plow crew could get in and clear the parking lot. Not that it will stay clear long. It's still falling, and is expected to fall for the next three days.
I didn't realize just how bad of shape I am in. I had a hard enough time just getting to the car, never mind getting it cleared off. Then there was the ice to deal with. Half an hour later, the car was cleared and moved, and a fair bit of gasoline used up. At one time, cleaning off a car was no big. Now, it's enough to wear me out. Two cups of coffee worn out.
Which leaves me very worried about my mother-in-law. Cathy isn't there to dig her out when this is all over. I really have to get over there and clear off the "Mary-mobile" when this is all done.
If I ever have the money for a home of my own, there will definitely be a garage. At least for one vehicle. I just do not have it in me to clean up after an ice rain anymore.
I hope everyone has had the sense to stay home today. If you have to be somewhere, give yourself some extra time, keep a decent following distance, and for heaven's sake, PUT DOWN THAT CELL PHONE!

A slower pace

Yesterday, I ended with a line about cities that never sleep. I think I want to discuss that for a moment.
With the discovery of ways to keep things moving after dark, it seems like society has decided that things have to go on twenty-four hours per day. Just because we can be up all night long, we should. We demand the constant availability of good and services. Naturally, that means at least a part of the population is required to work the night shift.
Human beings evolved as diurnal, or daytime, dwellers. It is only in the last three hundred years or so that we have tried to make ourselves over. Trying to make such a dramatic change in so short a time cannot be good.
There have been some recent studies that suggest higher cancer rates occur in those who work late shifts. Disturbing the proper circadian rhythm of humans has been shown to cause a number of health problems. Insomnia, mood swings and just general fatigue are the most common. It's even been seen in astronauts, in an environment where there are no proper day/night cues.
Do we really need fast food at three in the morning? If it were not for people having to work the graveyard shift, there wouldn't be such a demand. If we just slowed down a little, and were ready to give up a little bit of convenience, maybe we could slow down the decline in our health.
I'm not suggesting we adopt the patterns of the Amish. They chose that technology-free life for their own reasons. No, I propose that we step back a little bit from the late night life. We produce enough during the day. If you want a night shift, you should ask for volunteers to do those jobs. Some people are able to adapt better than others.
Rotating shifts are another pet peeve of mine. No sooner does your system adjust to your hours, than you have to change yet again. Reaction times slow, sleep is disturbed and accidents happen.
Time to slow down a little bit folks. We evolved to work in the sun and sleep at night. Let's all get the rest we need. If we have to work at night (and there are some jobs that MUST be done at all hours) those shifts should be scheduled to last for at least one month on, one month off, giving the people working time to adjust to the change.
For the sake of your health, maybe give up the glow of neon lights.

Townscapes

While putting up the model village under the Christmas tree, I get to thinking about the way that people lived in days gone by. The model houses all have a very old European style and look to them. I generally lay them out in a pattern similar to a German village square.

If you look carefully, you can get a sense of what I mean.

What I have been thinking about is how we have lost the sense of the community center. Here in Canada, villages grew around the church, the town hall, or most often, the railway station. There was always a geographical center to any town. Modern communities don't have that anymore. Now we have subdivisions with sprinklings of malls and convenience stores.

Sometimes, I think it would be wonderful to have the opportunity to have the chance to build a town from scratch. I would build with a combination of traditional building designs, with all of the techniques and materials we have today. It would be as if I took an old village and just moved it to a site that had convenient, hidden services.

My model for the services is, of all places, Disney World in Florida. Everything comes in underground, via tunnels. Electric vehicles transport everything. All of the critical systems can be checked visually and worked on with ease. The trash is even emptied from the bins into carts in the tunnels. All of those necessary, but not really attractive things can be taken care of without spoiling the scenery.

As I have said before, I don't think the house of the future will differ that much from the homes of the past. There have been modern fads, but it is the tried and true that remains. Given all of the space that we have in this country, I don't see why we need to pile up on each other in huge cities that take up valuable land that could be used for food and energy production. City life has its' place, but I think that we can get by with smaller cities, say two hundred thousand people or so. In an age when I can write this opinion and have it criticized by hundreds from my own living room, why should we have to be all in the same square kilometre?

I eagerly await the remarks of those who are dazzled by cities that never sleep. And therein lies another blog.