The Airport

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport.

General opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed.  I don't see that.


Seems to me that love is everywhere. Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister in "Love Actually"


At the end of August 2006 I went to visit one of my best friends in her home town.  I told her that she did not have to pick me up at the airport, she absolutely insisted. Who was I to argue with her?


It was the first time since November of the previous year that I had seen her, but her source as to why she came all the way to the airport: Love Actually and the opening monologue by "David", Hugh Grant's character.




The airport represents a magical place. Besides the obvious, how physics and technology work together to defy gravity, and how retailers can manage to charge

an arm and a leg for everyday basic items ($4 for a bottle of water that I can't even take on the plane anymore! Thank you airport restrictions) What really makes it so magical is at the Arrivals and Departures gates.




Arrivals is where reunions occur - people anxiously await for their family, friends and other loved ones to come back from a trip. Trips as short as a weekend can sometimes seem like an eternity for two people who are not used to being apart.


There's no better feeling in the world than seeing the person that you're meeting at the airport and getting that hug that has eluded the two of you for so long.  All the time and physical distance between you can disappear in a split second with that first hug.


A reunion at the Arrivals gate is enveloped with feelings of happiness and an air of suspense and excitement.  Each time the door opens, you wonder "Is it them yet? When will they get there?"

The happiest place on earth? The Arrivals gate, not Disneyland. Afterall, how often does someone go all the way out to the airport and pay a small fortune for parking to pick up someone they don't like.



But on the flip side, Departures has the sentiments opposite that at Arrivals. No one likes to say "Good bye", no matter how short a period.  And when it is for an indeterminate period... well that makes the "Good bye" that much harder.

But the good thing about the Departures gate: when the people close to your heart are only a plane ride away, get on it, and have them meet you at Arrivals.  The feeling you get when you see them again will outweigh the cost of the ticket...

RISE OF THE MACHINES

Not to cause a state of panic amongst everyone, but we are under the control of the machines. No, not Skynet from Terminator 2, the computer that sets an attack on itself to cause the nuclear missiles to launch, resulting in a nuclear holocaust on earth.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but we've become so reliant on these technologies, that they've actually made our lives that much more difficult.

A few weeks ago my Blackberry decided to stop working. I could scroll through all the different functions but I couldn't actually choose a function. So basically, I had a paperweight. A. Very. Expensive. Paperweight.

But, that was the least of my worries. That day was also the day I was let go from my place of employment. The first thing that a friend advised me to do was to let everyone in my network know that I hunting for work. Small problem. Everyone in my network was in my Blackberry. My non-working Blackberry.

Thankfully, I had a few key e-mail addresses memorized, but some of those friends and contacts were useless because their electronic address books were out of date.

We've become so reliant on technology, that it has actually taken us prisoner. No one knows anyone's phone number anymore. Why should they? Almost everyone has a cellphone or PDA where they store everyone's phone numbers.

And that's if you actually call anyone. Fifteen years ago, I had the phone numbers of the friends that I would call memorized. Now, not so much. I have their e-mail addresses memorized. Well, most of the address memorized. I can't always remember if they use their first name or just their first initial. So I constantly find myself scrolling through my Blackberry to look up their e-mail addresses. Once again, I'm at the mercy of the machines.

Even this, I'm criticizing society's reliance on machines on a machine. I need the computer to write this and spread the word on how machines are controlling our everyday lives. Oh, the irony!

Maybe, there really is a Skynet, and it is slowly conspiring to take over the world and destroy us all by making us reliant on smaller machines at first. I better go tell everyone I know. Now, where's my Blackberry...

HOW WE LIVE OUR LIVES

Jackie Robinson, the Hall of Fame baseball player, was most famous for breaking baseball's colour barrier, as the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. He is an American hero - he endured death threats and taunts from fans, and even threatened boycotts from opponents and his teammates. He could've quit, he could've fought back, but he did neither. Instead he went out and played the best baseball he could, and was rewarded with a spot in the Hall of Fame after his retirement, on top of all the accolades he received during his playing career.

Beyond his prowess on the baseball diamond, Robinson was a prolific quote. One of his most poignant ones was: A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

This past summer, I wrote about a young relative that died. Given the 3000 people that attended his funeral, and the wonderful things that were said about him, and the fact that we all miss him terribly, I'd say that he did have an impact on people. He died while serving in his country's armed forces, helping to defend against terrorist activities.

We're all here on borrowed time, and in some cases, like my cousin's, that time is very short. We're all given the same 24 hours in a day, and unlike money, you can't save that time for later, and you for sure don't get interest on it. So, we have to make the most of our time here.

The only way to quantify how a person has spent their time on earth is what Robinson said: how we impact others. We all have the ability to impact others, and hopefully, in a way that is for the good of society.

We can impact other people in a whole host of ways. The easiest way is to do volunteer work. Most of you are educated and able bodied and there's a lot of worthy causes out there that would appreciate a helping hand. Just by volunteering you'd be helping that organization accomplish what it sets out to do.

Volunteering is the most obvious way to have an impact on others. When you volunteer, you're directly impacting other people, even though you may not be able to see it right away.

But, as it turns out, most of us do have an impact on other people around us, sometimes even a greater one that is not as obvious for you to see, or even think. The best thing you can do is to tell the people who've had an impact on you that they have - let them know how much they mean to you. Afterall, you probably won't know until they show up at your funeral, and even then, you definitely can't tell them how much they've impacted you.

Dedicated to the people who have had a positive impact on me and have made me a better person, and in particular to my friends who are not with me in Toronto, but are in my heart. They know who they are...

THREE SIMPLE WORDS

That's all it took for me to find out that my cousin was dead. "He is dead" and then I closed my office door, and cried. A lot.

My cousin was 23 years old, and a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force. He was a 5-year veteran of the armed forces. This is the same kid that I once locked in my locker in Grade 7, when he was all of maybe 5 years old. At 23, he still looked like that same 5 year old, but was much taller, and would probably not fit in the locker. Not that I'd be willing to try stuffing a military man into a locker.

The last time a relative died, I was 8 years old. It was my grandparents on my father's side. I really didn't know them that well, seeing them very rarely because they lived in another country. Any tears I shed back then, was probably more a reflection of being 8 years old, then actually crying from the sadness of losing people in my life. This time, I could reflect on memories of my cousin - not only locking him in a locker, but once tying him up to a chair to calm him down, to the time we kept telling him that he was going to jail because he accidentally hit a kid in the neighborhood with a plastic ski pole.

Everything is worse. I find myself moving slower than I usually do, or at least it seems that way in my mind.

When I tell people my cousin died, one of the first things they ask "Were you close?". Somehow, I don't see how that matters. While we weren't as close as we were since he'd moved away to Israel, and there was a 7-year age difference between us, fact is, he was still family, and he wasn't some distant cousin that I'd only met once or twice in my life time at some sort of family function where you meet all sorts of people that you're told by your Mom they are related to you, and you have to take her word on it because she is your mother, but also because DNA tests are too costly and take way too long for the purposes of a family gathering.

Really, I find the whole thing surreal. He's gone at the young age of 23. For the last 5 years, I've worried about hearing the news that we just got on Monday. Now, I don't have to worry. I'd much rather have to worry for a few more years. Given the alternative, that's a much better luxury.

REACHING THE PINNACLE OF THE OPTIMUM

Last week, I achieved a milestone occasion - I reached the 75,000 mark in Shoppers Optimum points. That is the highest reward level - $150 worth of free merchandise.

Over my entire time as being a member of the Optimum club, I probably have managed to get well over 75,000 points. Previously, the highest reward level was reached at 40,000 points - $75 worth of merchandise and I've reached that level at least twice. But I'd always cashed out at 40,000 points. This time, I kept going until I hit the 75,000 mark. What a rush - when the receipt read "You can save up to $150".

But with great power, comes great responsibility. Now, I actually have to choose $150 worth of free merchandise. Well, really $176 worth of free merchandise, because I will off course maximize my Optimum points and redeem them on "Mall Day" when I can save 15% off.

So, now the hard part begins. If they let me redeem the points for gift cards, there'd be no issue - oh there's still choice: Chapters/Indigo; Blue Jays; iTunes; Shoppers Drug Mart... but to walk away with $150 worth of gift cards for Chapters/Indigo is an easy choice. Believe you me, I could spend $150 at Chapters/Indigo in a flash. But alas, it is not meant to be.

So, I'm back at square one. I could buy Armani Code (recommended by Men's Health as the best cologne to wear on a date) but that would still only take me to the half-way point.

I'll fully admit that I've been eyeing the new Gillette razor - Fusion and its 6 blade system (that's a whole 2 extra blades that I can use to cut myself with!), but can I really justify using my Optimum points on that when I've still got all the Mach 3 blades from the last time I redeemed Optimum points? Me thinks not!

If I was a woman, then $150 at Shoppers would be a cinch. In an informal poll (of 1) most girls I know spend at least $50 at Shoppers in a single purchase. I'd be willing to bet most of them carry around $150 worth of makeup and toiletries just in their purse.

So until I decide what to buy, I guess I'll have to continue to wander the aisles of Shoppers, and continue to rack up the points. By the time I finally figure out what to spend my 75,000 Optimum points on, I may actually have to worry about buying $300 worth of merchandise.

BYE! TAKE CARE! KEEP IN TOUCH!

The three most over-used under-sincere words in the English language are "Keep in touch."

Everyone says it when someone leaves someplace of regular attendance - school, a job, a religious group, sports team - basically anytime you leave someplace. I may have even said it to the barista at Starbucks the other day.

Everyone says it. But how many people really mean it? Probably not many. I just wrote a letter to a friend in another city and this friend commented how I was one of a select few people who still kept in touch.

The point was really hammered home when I ran into this guy that I had met sitting on the same volunteer committee back in 2004. Over lunch back in 2004, he told me that he and the chair of the committee, a woman named Patricia, were friends, and that she would take him to various fundraising events and so on. When I bumped into him last week he told me he hasn't seen her since they last sat on that charity committee. While we are all busy people with our own lives, I was still a little surprised.

But I suppose it is way too difficult to keep in touch with everyone that you meet. And those people that you do choose to keep in touch with, probably have had an impact on you in some sort of positive meaningful way. I know that those people with whom I keep in touch have...

THE REGULARITIES OF BEING A REGULAR

Last year, Jason, a friend of mine, came back from buying breakfast from Druxy's and was marveling to another friend and me that the guy making his breakfast sandwich gave him a bunch of extra toppings. At. No. Extra. Charge.

We congratulated Jason on his new found wealth, because anytime you get something for nothing it's a boon. This friend shook his head, and said that he did not like being a regular and would have to go to another Druxy's the next day to get his breakfast. My friend and I warned Jason not to be, well, stupid, because as he clearly found out being a regular has its benefits.

The next day Jason did go to a different Druxy's, and not only didn't get any free extra toppings, but thinks that they may have shortchanged him on the condiments. There was nothing more to say to Jason than "We told you so." Lesson learned, Jason went back to his regular Druxy's.

I've become a regular at this fantastic premium salad. The owner knows me. The manager knows me. I know their names. One of the guys who works behind the counter knows me - he's always asking how I'm doing. I'm so regular there, that the manager gave me his cell number to place my orders in case no one picks up the main line. Once, I even got them to toss in green apples into one of their chef designed salads. FREE DICED APPLE!!!

If you have a chance to become a regular, or a "Norm" was on Cheers, I commend you for taking it. It can sometimes lead to free stuff, and c'mon, who doesn't like free stuff?

FRINGE GROUPS AMONGST US

If the KKK threatened to boycott Ford because it advertised in a magazine such as Ebony, most people would be agahst if American corporations gave into such demands. The only difference between the KKK and the AFA is the colour of the sheets that they wear. So why is everyone quiet now?

The AFA is condemning corporations for trying to earn as much money as possible - by advertising their products where they best think would reach their target consumers - and by trying to treat all their employees with equality and dignity.

Unless companies like Ford and P&G are setting up gay bathhouses on company grounds, the pursuit of profits and equal treatment should not be even remotely considered endorsing a homosexual lifestyle.

It's about time that the public and large corporations called a spade a spade
and saw such groups like the AFA for what they really - a fringe group that is hiding behind a noble cause such as promition of family values as a means to promote hatred and discrimination.