Michael Robert Dyet's Blog, page 16

Pandemic Inertia: Cutting Loose the Anchor

Hmmm, can we free ourselves from the dead weight of inertia?

It seems like a lifetime ago that the COVID19 pandemic was officially declared and the world as we knew it shifted off its axis. I recall the Friday morning at work when we were told to take our laptops home for the weekend just in case. By the end of the weekend, just in case had become until further notice.

Initially, we allthought until further notice meant atmost a few months. Then it became six months, then a year and then… you knowthe rest of that story. We were shut down, turned around and locked down.

Flash forward to todayand work from home has become a permanent state for many of us. I am quitehappy with that arrangement. But I have come to realize that it is part of abigger, seismic shift that has some not so nice repercussions.

For extended periods oftime over the 2+ year period we were told to stay put (at home), stay apart(six feet) and stay away (from work). By and large, we did. What we did notforesee was that Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion would take on a whole newdimension.

Newton’s First Lawstates: A body at rest will remain atrest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by anexternal force. In layman’s terms, this simply means that things cannotstart, stop or change direction by themselves. It requires a force acting onthem from outside to cause such a change.

We stopped moving, lostour day to day momentum and quite literally got stuck. I will confess that ithappened to me. I adapted to being at home most of the time. It became an adjustment,then a habit and now an engrained state of being.

I am naming thephenomenon Pandemic Inertia. We stopped moving, because we were ordered to doso, and while we were not paying attention inertia set in. Inertia is a toughstate to break. It feels like we are dragging a hundred pound anchor aroundwhich discourages us from moving.

A consequence of thisinertia is that we have been drawn deeper into the virtual world. We connectvia our laptop screen or digital device. The ability to connect virtuallycertainly has its advantages. But as a steady diet it really is not enough.There is no substitute for face to face.

The impetus is now on us, each of us personally, to get ourselves moving again. Those who make their living from creating ever more immersive forms of virtual reality would rather that we did not do so. They have a vested interest in keeping us stuck. But we have a vested interest in getting moving again. Our physical and mental health depends upon it.

So my ask of each of youis to fight back against pandemic inertia and reclaim the life you knew beforethe lockdowns. Cut loose the anchor that got tied to you.

In Newtonian terms, wehave to be the force that starts each other moving again. We were meant to bein motion and it is time we started acting that way again.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions forsubscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructionspage in the right sidebar. If you’rereading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to mypage for postings once a week.

Retrospective: The Butterfly Effect

Hmmm, can I initiate a rippleof good will that sends hope on the wing far and wide?

I usually wait untilwinter sets in before I do my first retrospective of the winged wonders that Icrossed paths with in my summer hikes. But my posts have been rather gloomylately as I dig around in the messy issues that are dominating our society. Soin the interest of lightening the mood, I am turning over this post to thebutterflies of summer.

This striking butterflyis a Giant Swallowtail – so namedbecause of its large size. With a wingspan of about five inches, it is thebiggest butterfly that graces our fields and meadows and typically arrives inmid to late summer as it expands north across the Great Lakes. It flies with agraceful series of strong flaps and short glides.

Silver-spottedSkippers like the oneabove are early birds. They start appearing in early June if the weather iswarm enough. Named for the large silver spot in the wings, they are quitecommon, very photogenic and quite cooperative. This lovely specimen perchedperfectly on a broad flat leaf to be photographed.

RedAdmirals are quitecommon in these parts but always command attention with their splash of red,orange, black and chocolate brown. They are hyperactive active dashing aboutfrantically and erratically as if in a mad rush to get somewhere. Red Admiralsare a pugnacious species that darts out at anything crossing their territoryincluding humans.

No butterflyretrospective would be complete without the GreatSpangled Fritillary. It is the most eye-catching butterfly in our area withits bright golden upper wing with black markings and the gaudy silver spots onthe underwing. It is also among the larger butterflies here with a wingspan ofabout three inches and lights up any meadow it frequents.

This year was in fact arelatively poor one for butterflies in terms of numbers. It may have been thedrought conditions that prevailed which made them scarce. But although theywere fewer in number, they still were an infusion of beauty and grace.

The butterfly effect metaphor denotes that small things can have a bigeffect – i.e. a butterfly flapping its wings causes a chain reaction which resultsin a major change somewhere in the world. So if this retrospective of wingedwonders lifts your spirit, let us hope the ripple effect crosses the planet andspreads good will and hope at a time when it is very much needed.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions forsubscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructionspage in the right sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week

The Zero Sum Game

Hmmm, can we summon thewill to correct our course while time is still on our side?

The calendar has rolledover to September and summer is unofficially winding down on this holidayweekend. Technically the last day of summer is September 22. But for most of usthe Labour Day weekend is the threshold.

September always has thefeel of a restart given that the new school year begins. My last day ofuniversity was 40 long years ago. But the restart state of mind still prevails.This year’s restart has more of a feel or normalcy to it with most of the pandemicprotocols removed – although two Ontario universities are stubbornly stillimposing the face mask mandate on their students.

The Monarch Butterfly, as seen at the top of this post, is as enduring  a symbol for fall as we are likely to find. Monarchs are staging now for their epic 2,000 + mile migration to their wintering grounds on a mountaintop in Mexico. Their departure this year is more poignant as they have were recently designated an endangered species.

Giving the state of theworld these days, I wish that I could tag along with the Monarch migration. Hanging out on a balmy Mexico plateau for the winteris very enticing. But if I did so, I might not have the motivation to make thereturn trip and re-enter the fracas.

Butterflies, of course,are a metaphor for metamorphosis (pardon the alliteration). Moving through thepupae stage to the caterpillar stage and finally to adult stage, they epitomizethe need to evolve over time. Life does not allow us to stand still. We mustcontinuously adapt to the changing world around us. But it is becomingincreasingly difficult to do so.

How do we adapt to aworld that is increasingly fractured and at odds? The concept of living inharmony is a preferred state that is nearly impossible to achieve now.Increasingly, humankind, by some malicious force, is forming battle lines onnumerous fronts.

The principle of livingin harmony is being supplanted by the principle of discord. Pick one side orthe other, we are told, and act accordingly. If I am not on your side, I amyour enemy. If I adopt a neutral stance, I become the enemy of both sides.

In this scenario, theremust always be winners and losers. Winners take the spoils and use them to consolidatetheir position. Losers slink away to lick their wounds and regroup for anotherassault.

I am of the belief that the principle of discord, and the dynamics that feed it, is a zero sum game. There is no state of peace or rest in the equation. There is only the state of hyper readiness for the next assault.

I hope we do not see the extinction of the Monarch butterflies. If we do, it could be a harbinger of our own approaching extinction as a species that lost its way in the universal changing of the seasons. There is still time to correct our course. But it requires relinquishing and banning the I Win – You Lose mentality.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions forsubscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructionspage in the right sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week

The Runaway Grocery Cart Armageddon

Hmmm, if we all pitch in, can we stave off Armageddon?

I wentgrocery shopping on Thursday afternoon as usual. I had the grocery cart filledwith bags and was wheeling it through the parking lot to my car whilemomentarily distracted thinking about a side trip I planned to make on the wayhome.

A gust of wind swept up the grocery receipt, which I had tucked into one of the bags, and sent it skittering across the ground. Instinctively, I let go of the cart and started chasing the receipt. The wind kept blowing it just out of my reach. I finally managed to stamp my foot down on it so I could retrieve it.

As Idid so, I heard the sound of the grocery cart rolling away. I quickly turnedand realized that the parking lot slopes away from the store. Shit! Shit! Shit!, I muttered under mybreath as I pictured several disastrous scenarios:

Thegrocery cart angling right and slamming into a car putting a sizable dent in it– in which case I would be liable for the cost.

Thegrocery cart angling left and running down the little old lady causing her todo a spectacular backflip before crashing to the pavement – in which case I wouldbe calling 911 and explaining my moment of distraction to the police officer.

Thegrocery cart plunging straight ahead achieving terminal velocity as it reachedthe end of the parking lot and vaulting the curb into the street causing amulti-vehicle collision – in which case, see above.

Fortunately,I managed to chase down the cart (much to the displeasure of my temperamentalback which forbids me to run) and corral it before any of these disastrousoutcomes unfolded. The only damage was to my back which was in a bad mood forthe rest of the day.

Itoccurred to me that the runaway grocery cart was a living metaphor for thestate of the world today. On any given day, there are several ticking timebombs at home and around the globe that could quickly escalate with catastrophicresults. Plenty of content for the 6:00 news which thrives on these events.

Weelect politicians to prevent such things from happening or to wrestle themunder control if they do. But the politicians insist on devoting their effortsto pretending the problem does not exist or will resolve itself, findingsomeone else to blame when the shit hits the fan or preparing their pre-emptiveI told you so statements for themedia.

So what can do? Perhaps each of us can commit to chasing down one of the runaway grocery carts that are gathering speed and merging course. None of us can solve all the problems. But all of us can help solve one problem and together staff off Armageddon.

~  Now Available Onlinefrom Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites ofPassage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That MakeMe Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribingare provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in theright sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

On Demand, In Demand and Out of Hand

Hmmm, is it time to takea literal leap of faith to reclaim the quality of life we value?

If you follow my postsregularly, you know that relentless change and the accelerating pace of life isa theme I return to regularly. Hang on tight: I am headed down that road again.

Technology is a primary(although not exclusive) driver in this struggle. The cycle of new generationsof technology is constantly shrinking. We barely get up to speed on the newestiteration when the next one arrives. I strongly suspect that the developershave the next two generations already on the drawing board when the latestversion is released.

Other factors are nowentering into the equation and further accelerating the pace of life. High onthe list these days is the pandemic we are just emerging from – or more specifically,the way life was forcibly paused for two years by lockdowns and otherrestrictions.

Companies aredesperately trying to make up for last time and lost revenue. With an economicrecession on the horizon, they are shifting into overdrive to maximize returnsbefore the window of opportunity closes again. Staff are often running flat outto keep up with what is required of them – the more so as labour shortagesleave some positions unfilled.

The same thing ishappening on the personal level as people, starved for two years forentertainment and genuine enjoyment, are trying to grab all they can surrenderingto the “who knows what tomorrow may bring” school of thought.

Being an observer and student of these trends, I perceive that they are pushing us every deeper into the on demand world. We have been headed in that direction for some time as the corporate world transitions to a just-in-time delivery model – skipping the warehouse shelves and instead going direct from the assembly line to the consumer.

The on demand movement in turn is feeding an in demand state of affairs. If you have the skills that match therequirements of potential employers, you are very much in demand and can choose where you want to work. But being indemand can be a mixed blessing. You are only as good as your last week’sproductivity and have no room for error if you fall off the pace.

When we enter all thesefactors into the life equation – technology wheels spinning ever faster,sprinting to get caught up, racing to keep up, competing with others to holdonto your privileged position as the indemand person – things can begin to unravel.

The old metaphor of thetreadmill does not cut it anymore. The path we are now on is equivalent tothose moving walkways that some airports feature. But the walkway is moving inthe opposite direction we need to go. We have to run twice as fast as thewalkway is moving in order to move ahead. The walkway speeds up each day so wetoo have to keep speeding up.

Life was not meant to bea daily sprint to the wire that renews itself every morning. We are not createdto be always in go-mode. The rigours of being in demand in the on demand worldis getting out of hand.

If the walkway will not stop speeding up, we may have to take a literal leap of faith to jump off and reclaim the life we value.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions forsubscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructionspage in the right sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

The Butterfly and the Thistle: A Lesson for Us All

Hmmm, does it alwayshave to be an I win, You Loseconfrontation?

I feel I should beconsidering how I, in my own small way, can contribute to the resolution of themany troubling stories unfolding in the world today:

The immoral Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian’s Promises are made to be broken attitude and the hands-tied approach to the matter among the other major world powers.

The critical shortage of frontline staff that is shutting down hospital emergency rooms, the It’s their fault, Not mine political rhetoric around it and the wheel-spinning that characterizes the efforts to address it.

The declared sixth, or is it seventh, wave of the pandemic. I cannot remember what the number is and I am not sure it matters anyway. And oh no, here comes Monkey Pox.

The shocking Hockey Canada scandal and the Circle the wagons mentality which that body is taking instead of addressing the rotting core of the old boy network at its heart.

Professional athletesearning annual salaries of $5 million, $10 million and more while growingnumbers of people cannot keep a roof over their heads.

China firing missilestoward Taiwan in an Oh not you don’tresponse to the visit from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the age old End justifies the means argument.

Another summer ofextreme weather and environmental events – wildfires, floods, drought,tornadoes, earthquakes – that make it increasingly clear that we waited toolong to get serious about the impact of climate change.

The apparentnormalization of mass shootings wherein the number of deaths now has to reach acertain figure before it is considered to be newsworthy.

Pointing out the Deflect rather than take responsibility natureof the responses from those in positons of power, and the need to hold themaccountable for their failure to act, seems like the most I can do which hardlyseems like enough.

But I can take the initiativeto inject some beauty into the world and, in the process, provide a visualmetaphor for the forces that are at war.

The photograph at the head of this post accomplishes that rather effectively. The striking beauty of a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly perched on a thistle with its thorny stem. There has to be a way for us to coexist without defaulting to the I win, You Lose mentality. The butterfly and the thistle can do it, so surely we can too.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribingare provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in theright sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

Confessions of a Hole-in-My-Shoe Dinosaur

Hmmm, when everythingold is new again, will I have the last laugh?

It is said that confessionis good for the soul. In the spirit of that sentiment, there are a few things Ineed to come clean about.

I never posted a photo on Facebook of the meal I am about to consume. In fact, I have never taken a photo of my meal for any purpose in a restaurant or at home.

I am still using an old Apple iPhone which I purchased so longago I cannot remember when it was. It is so old that the web browser on it,which I never use, is Safari. I  also never downloaded the update that itnotified me of shortly after I bought the phone.

My car is thirteen yearsold with well over 200,000 kilometres on it. I have to use an actual key tostart it as the push button start function was not invented back then. I do notplan to replace it until something serious goes wrong with it. And yes, forshame, it runs on gasoline.

I still read books inprint format. I did purchase a Kindle Reader some years ago out of curiosity. Inever much cared for it. When it wore out, I went back to print books and willbe sticking with them forever.

I have never watched Game of Thrones. Not one episode. I do not even know what it is about or whether it is still on the air. I also do not watch reality TV shows despite the growing reality that there are more of those shows than any other form of programming.

I do not read documents of any length on line. I print them in their entirety so I can read them. If the document is not in a printable format, I will painstakingly copy and paste it into a WORD document so I can print it.

I have clothes in mycloset that are more than ten years old. I still wear them regularly and intendto keep doing so. I do not know how many years out of date they are from afashion perspective. Some of them may have come back in style and gone out ofstyle again. I may still be wearing them when their fashion cycle repeats yetagain.

I have never used Uber. Not once. On the infrequentoccasions when my thirteen year old car is out of commission, I call a taxi.Yes, taxis still exist.

I have never downloaded an app. Not once. Remarkable as it may seem, my life has not been diminished in any way by this omission.

One of my running shoes,which are several yeas old, has had a hole in the toe for a couple of years. Ifeel no need to replace it at the present time. A hole in the toe is a minormatter to me as long as the integrity of the rest of the shoe is intact.

In light of the above admissions, I confess that I am a hole-in-my-shoe dinosaur living in an earlier, simpler time. I use things until they wear out, decline to buy things that everybody else has and feel no pressure to watch things that everybody else does.

You may argue that I donot know what I am missing. I will counter, if I do not know what I am missing,how can I miss it? I may have the last laugh when everything old is new again.

~  Now Available Onlinefrom Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites ofPassage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribingare provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in theright sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

The Numbers Apocalypse

Hmmm, where will we hidewhen numbers take over the world?

I have never really beena numbers person. I reached the end of my mathematical abilities in the lastyear of high school. Two math courses were too much. I dumped Calculus and struggled to the year-endwith Relations.

There are people whothrive in this arena – Accountants, Book Keepers, Financial Advisors andrelated professionals – and make a very good living at it. I pay for theirservices to keep my brain from overheating and crashing in the attempt to navigatethe mysterious equations.

I am finding that my existence is increasing defined by and dependent on numbers. Every company or organization I belong to or do business with assigns me an account number. There seem to be ever more digits in those account numbers which I fear is a conspiracy to muddy my identity and merge me into the untold masses of nameless persons.

My wallet is stuffedfull of numbers. My bank card number. My VISA number. My Air Miles number. MyHealth Card number without which I cannot access health care. My driver’slicense number. My Outdoors Card number. My social insurance number which seemsto be wedded to me for life. And on and on, with apologies to Buzz Lightyear,to infinity and beyond,

Then there are the dozens upon dozens of passwords I have to maintain for online purposes. Yes, these passwords have letters and symbols in them. But I am convinced that it is the numbers who are calling the shots. They kick around the letters and symbols with malice and consider them superfluous.

And now there are security codes which are becoming ubiquitous. Every time I log on to my work laptop, and often when I need to access an online account, a security code magically appears on my mobile phone. No amount of cursing or relentless hammering of keyboard keys will enable me to get where I need to get to without typing in the all-powerful security code.

It used to be that these numbers belonged to me and served me. They existed to do my will. But I am sensing that the tide is turning. I now belong to the numbers and am at their mercy. The unique and one-of-a-kind person I used to be is being usurped by numbers. Numbers are systematically erasing my identity.

I am inclined to believe that the day is approaching when numbers will become sentient creatures and take over the world. They will tap into the growing mass of artificial intelligence in the cloud and acquire their own self-perpetuating power.

A threshold willeventually be crossed where numbers throw off the shackles of human and controland become the dominant species. Call it the Numbers Apocalypse.

Financial professionalsmay be able to defend themselves against these rogue numbers. But the rest ofus, who have an uneasy relationship with numbers at the best of times, will beat risk of being sucked into the numbers metaverse and deconstructed intodigits.

Oh my, what a dystopianlandscape it will be when we are nomads forever on the run from the NumbersOverlords who rule the world!

~  Now Available Onlinefrom Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites ofPassage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That MakeMe Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribingare provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in theright sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

The Great Reboot

Hmmm, can I recruit youto join The Great Reboot movement?

For some time now wehave been hearing about The GreatResignation which is the term coined for the millions of people on bothsides of the border who quit their jobs during the pandemic. A few months backI wrote a post suggesting that some of these people were misinterpreting ageneral discontent with the state of our society with dissatisfaction in theirjob.

It seems I may have beenon the mark. A recent article reported that one in four workers who quit theirjob during the pandemic now regret doing so. This development has spawned theterm boomerang employees as 40% of thosepeople say they would consider returning to their previous employer if theopportunity arose.

Now the impendingrecession has given to The GreatApprehension – a new term developed to refer to the fact that 75% ofworkers are fearful that they will lose their jobs. That would be a doublewhammy for those workers who regret jumping ship during the last two years.

At the risk of being seenas opportunistic, I am putting forward a new concept. One that I believe is thelogical result of these earlier developments and the tumultuous times we findourselves in. I am called it The GreatReboot.

The term reboot, of course, has been commandeeredby the tech profession. We are told that we need to reboot our internet modems,and sometimes our cable TV boxes, once a month to ensure our connection remainsstable.

Personally speaking, thisreboot requirement irritates me to no end. It pushes responsibility formanaging these quirky, unreliable technologies back onto the end users. Weshould not be letting the techies off the hook in this manner.

But I digress. The Great Reboot I am advocating for isa step that all of us need to take in the near future if not right away. Weneed to take a step back and reconfigure our outlook on life – what we arewilling, and not willing, to accept as the new normal.

The first step in thisprocess is putting our foot down with those who run society and declaring thatwe are not willing to have our civil rights compromised any further. In effect,we need to deliver the message that we elect or appoint these privileged individualsto serve us – not to do as they see fit and herd us like mindless cattle.

The next step is optingout of the I guess that’s just the way itis now mentality. Example: Major infrastructure outages are inevitable. Wejust have to live with them. Instead, we should hold the big telcom companiesresponsible and demand that they get a handle on these runaway technologybeasts they have created.

In the bigger picture, The Great Reboot means redefining whatis important to us rather than allowing ourselves to be told what we should see as important. Life is too short to have ourneeds and desires dictated to us.

So my ask is this: Letus all adopt The Reboot Metaphorwhich means rebooting our mindset and taking control of our lives again. Itwill not be easy. But things that matter never are.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions for subscribingare provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructions page in theright sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week.

Snapshots of the Divine for Troubling Times

Hmmm, where can we turnfor a beacon of hope in these troubling times?

There is no shortage oftroubling topics to turn my mind to at the moment. British PM Boris Johnstonresigning as Prime Minister amidst a scandal. Patrick Brown disqualified fromthe federal Conservative leadership race due to allegations of wrongdoing.Chaos at the Pearson International Airport leaving travellers stranded orwaiting for hours for delayed flights.

And that is just the tipof the iceberg. But I am still on vacation for a few more days and would ratherturn my mind to more pleasing subjects.

I am therefore choosing tolook back a second time on my mini getaway last week to the Point Pelee area. Ispent a few of those hours strolling around nearby Hillman Marsh ConservationArea and left with these treasured photos.

This view, perhaps the singlemost calming one from my mini vacation, shows interlocking islands of oneparticular marsh flower that clearly finds Hillmans to its liking. I do notknow the name of the flower. But that matters naught. The image needs nolabels.

I could have stretchedout in the grass and gazed upon this panorama for hours. It was a quiet oasisthat fed my soul and asked for nothing in return.

Immediately behind whereI was standing on a boardwalk when I took the first photograph, I spotted this Bronze Copper butterfly at the marshedge. It is a tiny creature easily missed unless you are on the lookout for suchthings as I always am.

Its wings were bashfullyclosed when I first spotted it. But it did me the grace of spreading its wingsto display the warm orange patches with their black dashes and the purplishwing edges. I was fortunate to happen on that particular spot at the right timeand perhaps only did so because of the time I spent admiring the view in theother direction.

Something appealed to meabout this vista as I walked a berm bordered by drainage channels. Nature had framedthe view perfectly for me and required only that I recognize the fact.

Left of the frame: the old,gnarled tree slowly expiring in the swamp. Right of the frame: The profusion ofgreenery in a younger tree in its prime. Bottom of the frame: The feathery grasssprouts standing like protective sentinels. Top of the frame: The cluster ofsmaller trees deeper in the swamp angling left toward I know not what.

Elegant scenes like theseare snapshots of the divine so desperately needed amidst the madness that hasgripped our world. I hope they bring you a bit of peace as you find your wayaround or through the turmoil that closes in our lives and threatens to derailus.

Nature is a mother and ahealer and a beacon of hope so very much needed in these uncertain anddisconcerting times.

~ NowAvailable Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: HuntingMuskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is alsothe author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel whichwas a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’swebsite at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me GoHmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2 . Instructions forsubscribing are provided in the Subscribe to this Blog: How To instructionspage in the right sidebar. Ifyou’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularlyto my page for postings once a week