Inner peace is something of a rarity these days. It is a feeling without the adrenaline to interfere with the mind’s ability to comprehend sensible things. Like, for instance, why is that guy looking at my girlfriend that way? Should I react with my face or fist? Should I smile nicely and say, “Hey, it’s nature.” Or do I come out of my nirvana to wreak havoc with his hairdo and suave, debonair manner? Why do I tend to keep my peace instead of going crazy? Because I know from experience, that pulling out hair is easier on company than throwing tantrums and blows (though I admit I’m running out of hair to pull).
I do admit, however, that being cool year round and over a period of years, the nuclear reactor I call a mind tends to reach meltdown levels and I need to let out some steam before the pressure cooker boils over and turns me into a shamble of a man I used to look at in the mirror on a weekly basis (I am not narcissistic by nature for obvious reasons and do not need to spend so much time in the bathroom like many other pretty boys I know). This, I concur, is the proverbial wall that marathoners or triathlon participants literally cannot pass, once their Olympic bodies say, “I quit.” Sometimes, it is good to reflect back on one’s self and past. As a contortionist is able to do, look back over one’s past for work well done. Too often, one can be hard on one’s own self and psyche and try too hard to accomplish what many would call impossible. I think that in today’s society, most pressure is imagined and so construed to mimic the improbable scenario that, for example, to get out of bed and go to work in the morning. This insurmountable obstacle tends to carry the most weight on one’s shoulders when one is in their teens, and if not handled properly, can carry on for one’s entire life. Apparently, many people have this lethargic look at life and sadly, many choose to stay that way.
Well, it’s time to get full of beans and vinegar and get up and do something with your lives. Get out of bed and get an education and improve your chances of prosperity, because as a nation, we have the cherry on top of the sundae. We have the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and many others that are intended and designed to improve our lives to a calibre that exceeds the norm of Canadian living standards. But we do not apply them to their fullest extent. Many politicians might disagree with me, but the JBNQA is just paper in binding. What really is the force behind this is to implement our share through the youth and get them out of bed to rise to a new future.
I say, that with all we have, I cannot understand our mentality that we are impoverished to a point where we must depend on handouts on a regular basis. I say, let’s get down and get things done.
One day, we will have a surplus of funds and skilled people, and what will we do then? Until that day comes, we just have to keep on getting out of bed and trudging along to work and school and plug away at creating our future out of the Precambrian shield we call home. This takes time, and like the ones who paradoxically cannot get out of bed to do anything yet want everything immediately, it will take time to change the mentality of our people from a dependent nation to an independent nation with all the tools to make a nation. I suppose that when that day comes, my grandchildren will wheel me out the door and into the fading sunset that I once called James Bay, safe with the knowledge that it took me 25 years to move into those once brand new and shiny old age centres that are springing up in every community. There’s still life in these old bones, and I’d like to see some new bones getting into the action.
