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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Digging deep for Haiti; All day Kindergarten; and a little dumbing down…..

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The situation in the island nation of Haiti is truly tragic. I get tears in my eyes watching the scenes of nightmarish horror unfolding on the evening news. To imagine that these people were already among the poorest in the world, and then to be rocked by this type of natural disaster. Wow! And there’s no question that the world is rallying to Haiti’s cry for help. Aid is flowing into the country, trying to alleviate some of the suffering and we will somehow get over the worst of it because that’s what we do. We help our fellow humans when there’s a crisis. We get involved and we help out. But why don’t we do it on a larger, more organized scale the rest of the time? Between 25,000 and 30,000 children die each day of preventable causes on this planet. Over 1/3 of the world’s population go to bed hungry each night. The earth is a grim place for many, many people….and although there are people who try to help out – and improvements are slowly being made – they are happening ‘way too slowly. We need to react every day to poverty, hunger, disease and violence the way we’re currently reacting to the crisis in Haiti. We need to realize that each and every bit of life on the planet is precious. If there are people in the world without food, we need to move mountains to get it to them,,,,It’s too bad we can’t fight the war on poverty with the same enthusiasm and money that we’re fighting the war on terror. Because I think the two are fairly closely linked. Let’s dig deep for Haiti people….let’s make some lives better.

Well, so we’re going to have all-day Kindergarten in Ontario……get our kids started on the path to formal learning a little bit earlier. Normally, this is something I wouldn’t be in favour of. Little kids get forced into life ‘way too soon these days and they’re expected to grow up ‘way too quickly as well. But with both parents out working in most families, we certainly need a system that looks after people from cradle to grave these days. Ask me what I really think, and I’ll tell you that one of the parents should be staying home with children at least until they reach school age – which used to be five. I mean, I think that children and their parents need to be close, close, close and I think that when one of the parents get to stay home, it makes for a much more stable environment for children to be raised in. And although I’m not a sociologist, I would bet this pays dividends down the road. But, as usual, nobody’s listening to me. So, as the speed of life on the planet seems to go faster and faster, and we all need more of the green stuff, there seems little alternative to both parents working. And I guess that means children are going to be placed in institutions from a very early age. And if we want all of our kids to get a fair start on a level playing field, we might as well put them in school. I really don’t think it’s a good thing in my heart, but I’ll accept it as a necessary evil to the way the world is going. I started school when I was four because my birthday is in December. And I can still sort of remember how uncertain I felt about school as a tyke. It’s a tough call….but I think now we need universal, free day care and we need to start to treat our Early Child Educators more like teachers. After all, they teach our children the real stuff of life….while we’re at work.

Watched a simply terrific movie on the weekend….Julie and Julia, with Meryl Streep about famed cooking guru Julia Childs. It was just a really good, feel good sort of movie that my wife and I truly enjoyed. And it got us talking about how few great movies are really made these days. Haven’t seen Avatar, and it may perhaps qualify as a “great” movie – at least based on box office. I told my wife I just don’t think they make many movies of the brilliant vintage these days. But she reminded me that I’m out of the pop culture loop in the here and now by virtue of getting to be an old guy and there could be a million great movies out there. I conceded that this could indeed be the case and was vanquished. But I was secretly thinking that I doubt it. It’s like architecture. Take a look at the magnificent structures that were built back in the middle ages – they are breathtakingly beautiful, the big castles and wonderful huge mansions and country estates. Today, we mostly build boxes. Take a look at the streetscape in most large cities today, and it is one box-like structure after another. Even really rich people don’t build houses and buildings like they did in the old days. Look at the churches. Wow! No, my point is that the general level of creativity on the planet, whether in architecture or art or movies, has been on the general decline for quite some time. Of course, that’s just my opinion – and we all know what that’s worth……

Out of time for another week…..thanks for reading Notes and checking out cktimes……provoking a few serious thoughts among the good news…..take care and remember….”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”




John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.