Relatively Crazy

The world is a crazy place and seems to be getting crazier by the minute. It's not that the crazy train hasn't been riding the rails for years, but similar to the new normal of our weather patterns, the crazies get wilder, more extreme and more unpredictable with each advancing day. It would not particularly surprise me if it was announced that North Korea allowed their citizens access to news on American airwaves just so Kim Jong-Un could point at the American President and say, "See? It's not me who's crazy. That guy gives crazy a whole new meaning!"

Even here in Kingston some people may think the crazies have touched down. We now have everything in place to construct the third crossing. To many out-of-towners, I'm sure when they are first exposed to our constant dialogue about the Third Crossing, they must imagine some sort of historical, religious or political event that has had a profound effect on the people of our city. Once it's found to be just a bridge construction, I am sure they would be a bit disappointed. This bridge construction is something that has been poked, prodded, studied, debated, written about, argued about, vilified, glorified, cursed and praised and now it's fact. More mental energy has been wasted on this project than almost any local issue I can remember.

As Billy Joel so aptly put it in his 1989 hit, "We Didn't Start the Fire", the crazies didn't start in today's world and I'm sure if he felt inclined, he could have started his song lyrics long before 1949, the year of his birth.  I'm sure our friend Oog, that loveable caveman, thought that his buddy was, to put in today's vernacular, totally cra-cra when he started to cook meat. Crazy is all relative, but I should point out that not all relatives are crazy.

Technology has certainly lent itself to the advances of crazy. I look at the behaviour of many people today and if one were to transplant that behaviour to 20 or 30 years ago people would be looking at them and at the same time doing the cuckoo bird salute, twirling their fingers beside their temples. A lot of people seem to shut out the world, sequestering themselves in their houses. Their only link to the outside world is a computer, tablet or phone screen. Even when they venture outside, the world is shut out. The wander the sidewalks with ear buds in their ears and eyes averted downward to phones, stumbling blindly into telephone poles, traffic or other people. Perhaps, if they activated their cameras on the phone, they could watch where they are going on their screens, then update their progress on Instagram.

The relativity of things, is not new, it existed long before Einstein developed his theory, we just didn't recognize it. But that is true of many things. In absolute terms time is, at least to our current knowledge, pretty linear. A year is a year no matter which way you look at it. Just the same as a decade is 10 years and a millennium is a 1,000 years. It doesn't speed up or slow down (within reason). But what happens during those periods vary. Advances in science, society and structures have grown by leaps and bounds.

I often befuddle myself, which I may point out before anyone else does, is a fairly easy task, when I think about music and its relativity. Today's kids, be they as young as 4 or 5 into even their 30's likely all recognize and perhaps even actively listen to music from the 1950's and 1960's; the Beatles, the Stones, Elvis, Buddy Holly or any number of artists. In some cases this is reaching back as much as 60 years in some cases, but the music does seem as fresh and as innovative as ever. If I were to apply this time line to myself when I was 18 and at the height of my musical awareness and music had its strongest influence over me and I reached back even 40 -50 years in musical history, this would like groovin' to the megaphone tunes of Al Jolson or Rudy Valee and the Connecticut Yankees. Social outcast, I likely would have been. It was hard enough to even acknowledge that you listened to the Beach Boys back in the '70's.

Perhaps this can be attributed to the music from those periods being so readily available online and in pop culture. Music is so much more accessible today as compared to my day. In those days if you wanted to listen to Al Jolson you had to pray that your grandfather still had some disks for the Victrola or bang it out on the parlour room piano if you had the sheet music.  

But just as crazy is relative and music is relative, so is the rest of life.  There are always two sides to every issue, just as there are two sides to every coin. There wouldn't be one without the other. Whether this is good or bad is a whole other debate, relatively speaking.  

Lotto Love

I never thought I was a particularly lucky guy. For a someone named Patrick and with Irish heritage, you would think my cup would be runneth over with fortuitous events and whiskey. But no, my cup is bereft on luck and has been empty of whiskey for many years now. My experience with any sort of lottery certainly seems to support this. My wife and I have purchased a dream home lottery ticket or two every year for 30 years now. Nada winnings. But we get to the enjoy the fact that all the money raised through this particular lottery stays in the community and does benefit many organizations and hospitals. But to be brutally honest, I would rather have the house.  

Fate, as it is wont to do, decided to accentuate the point by gifting my son and his wife who bought a ticket for the first time last year to promptly win a cash prize of $1,000. That was very nice for them and I wished them all the congratulations that a good father does, but to be again brutally honest, I would rather it had been me.

Lotteries are a big thing not only in this country, but also world-wide. Just recently someone in South Carolina won $1.6 Billion. That's Billion with a B. The obvious question is, who needs that much money, which is equivalent to the combined GDP of a few dozen countries? Well, I can honestly say, me. I mean it is only fair, right? There I am week after week, paying a voluntary tax to the Government of Ontario by buying a tickets to any number of draws. I am pinning my dreams on something that quite proudly declares that there is only a 1 in 36,000,000 chance of winning. Even on my most optimistic days, I acknowledge that to be pretty steep odds against me. I have always thought of this as a cheap form of entertainment, which it must be, as it is certainly not a well thought out plan for retirement.

My brother-in-law has played the same lottery numbers for every draw over the last 30 years. That's a lot of draws and a lot of serious dedication to playing the odds.  He is to the point that he is mortified if he would ever, ever miss a draw. He knows that as soon as he missed a draw, his numbers would come up.  This kind of handcuffs him to eternity. I am sure he is at the point that when he checks his numbers the morning after the draw, he exclaims to no one in particular, "Oh come on! 30 years! Just throw me bone, okay?" He too, likely has some choice words for Fate.

Some people do have all the luck, with lotteries that is.  There was a Winnipeg man who won a $2 Million lottery 5 months after winning $1.5 Million lottery.  Again, an example of Fate just having some fun with me. But on the other side of the coin, countless men and women who have won lotteries have reported that their lives were ruined from their winnings. Bankruptcies, dishonest people coming out of the woodwork, divorces and destroyed relationships abound amongst some lottery winners. Which also sounds disarmingly like the members of the  House of Commons. This certainly does put an exclamation mark of caution on an already cautionary tale. But it also makes a point that if you're a bit messed up when you have no money, you'll still be a bit messed up with money. But, I wouldn't let a lottery win change me. I'll still be that same slightly irritating know-it-all I've always been.

I have read many biographies over the recent years, covering the gamut of Hollywood stars, rock musicians, entrepreneurs and scientists. In most books that I have read involving scientists or entrepreneurs, they rarely have an instances where they would need to be in the right place and right time.  There is just too much slogging through the mundane aspects of the mechanics of science or the ups and downs of establishing a new industry or product. Their good fortune usually takes the form of an experiment or concept gone wrong  that results in an experiment or concept gone right out of pure luck.

With music and entertainment stars, almost all report that they were in the right place at the right time to catch whatever the wave was that propelled them to stardom.  Harrison Ford is an example of that. He was building bookshelves in George Lucas' house when Lucas noticed him and cast him in a small role in "American Graffiti".  We all know what that led to. Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash was just another guy singing harmonies on a street corner until he caught the attention of his idols, the Everly Brothers who were on tour in England. They liked his sound and eventually so did the rest of the world.

I don't think I have ever been in the right place at the right time for anything. Well, maybe on my wedding day and of course for the conception of our children, which for the record has had a pretty lucky outcome.

I think the big secret is having the feel of what places might just happen to be the right place to be. To be honest, I'm not even sure Kingston has a right place to be at the right time for fame and riches outside of a lottery win. But I am willing to give it a go if luck wants to shine a little love on me.