day 1:
Heading halfway across the country today [June 30] with my daughter Alison , who has just returned from New Zealand, on a quest to connect with my other daughter Kristin at Lake Louise - after a couple of months in Vancouver and points west. Left at 6:00 am. Best momentwas driving through Saskatchewan, heading West, on Highway 1 and looking over to the eastbound lanes where the RCMP had set up a bale of hay on the shoulder of the highway, then hidden their cruiser car behind it - they were just poking their heads out a wee bit with their radar gun. Neither of us could stop laughing. Only in Saskatchewan would folk assume that no one would notice a big bale of hay suddenly sitting on the shoulder of the road.
day 2: crossing canada on canada day
What could be better: leaving Lake Louise just after dawn, driving through the rockies as the fog begins to burn off, sun blazing through at the tops of mountains, driving down through ranch country, picking up a case of nanton water, and then heading across the prairies. . .
Driving across this country makes one appreciate not only its beauty but its sheer volume, the volume of possibilities. It also leads one to think about the politics of the place, and the politics of our neighbours who will be celebrating their national holiday in a few days, how a nation that once stood so passionately for human rights and democracy, now readily accepts their leadership's position that one group of people, Muslims mostly, have no human rights. Not even the rights of POWs. Basic rights exist by virtue of simply being human , therefore those in the camps are not human. We've seen it before. Jews are vermin. Tutsi cockroaches. It is characteristic of evil to deny the essential humanity of people. Why is the American church so silent on this? More frightening, they have become supporters . Yet we know this too - Hitler’s anti-semitism had its roots in the church. What will it be like on July 4 for the apparent minority who question all of this?
Nothing but blue sky and a few puffy white clouds, slightly rolling hills, as we enter Saskatchewan. The remarkable sound of my daughters reconnecting. In villages and towns folk are having picnics. There’ll be fireworks tonight. It’s so beautiful out here.
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