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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Ad hoc planning, Pay It Forward, feeding the hungry, taking on the media and more

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Well, Christmas is upon us and everyone's getting into a frenzy about not having things done on time. All of us talk about doing things early each year and being all organized and that, but few of us actually carry out those wishes. Instead, we put Christmas off 'til the last minute just like pretty well everything else in our lives. It's just the way people are. I remember talking to a friend of mine who had become a vice president at a large multi national company about proper planning versus last minute panicking. He said every large company holds endless meetings planning for the future and developing strategic plans and that sort of thing. Then, everything just sort of happens and usually the plan goes out the window and it's crisis management mode from start to finish. It's just the way of the world, so don't feel so bad this Christmas when you leave everything to the last minute. You're just being human.

Heaven knows I wish we could all get along on the planet and not be so cruel to each other. I saw that they captured Saddam Hussein on the weekend and I guess that's good. But when I hear them talk about using "harsh" interrogation methods to get information from him, I couldn't help but wince. I abhor violence in all its forms – it literally makes my skin crawl when people hurt each other in any way. And while I admit that Saddam is likely a truly evil fellow who deserves some type of horrific death, I still can't convince myself it's in any way right. I mean, violence begets violence and it never stops. It would be too strange if ever there was an act of violence committed against someone, and the victim just turned around and forgave his assailant. In fact, maybe it would be good if the victim showered the assailant with gifts. I know it sounds goofy – really goofy. But somewhere, some place along the line, we've got to forgive evil and wickedness and try to make the reverse happen. Because if violence begets violence maybe goodness would beget goodness – could that happen? It makes me think of Chatham-Kent resident Maureen Geddes and her Pay It Forward project. That's really what Maureen wants. If someone does a kindness to you, pass it on – pay it forward. It's a wonderful concept, but we need to get George Bush and Paul Martin and the rest of the world leaders to try doing it. But first, the cycle of violence has to be broken – and who will do it? It needs to be the most powerful that commits the first kindness – the one to break the cycle – it's the only way it can happen. Think about it. And get involved in Pay It Forward – maybe we can make a difference.

You know, I ended up watching a little snippet of the Oprah show on TV the other day and a couple of things struck me. First, the sheer opulence of the whole thing. It was a Christmas thing and it was Oprah's favourite 350 things or something like that. Well, she goes from gift to gift and the audience oohs and awes and then in come people dressed like elves carrying all this junk for the studio audience – just heaping the junk on them. And they're all cheering and swooning over the gifts and it's just such a lovefest. I made the comment to someone after seeing this that Oprah could better spend her money feeding some of the world's poor. At which point, I was severely reprimanded and told that Oprah supports a lot of charities and does a lot of good in the world. Really, I answered, and what's her annual income, how much does she donate and how much does she seem to need to live. My argument was that she keeps away more than her fair share, as do all wealthy people. I often hear how philanthropic Bill Gates is. Yea, right! The guy's still got a personal worth of what? $40 billion? $60 billion? How much money does someone need to live the good life. People like Oprah and Bill Gates and Conrad Black and Tiger Woods could solve the AIDS epidemic in Africa, feed the world's hungry and, generally, save the world if they weren't such a greedy, pernicious lot. The lot of them remind me of the Scrooge McDuck cartoons I saw as a kid. There was old Scrooge McDuck hiding away in his huge vault with a tiny adding machine counting money, counting money, counting money...... I don't get it and I never will. Food for thought.

Really, though, I'm hoping that you all are really doing what you can to help with your own little corner of the world. That's what I'm doing with cktimes. In fact, in the new year, you can look for me to become more aggressive in my discussions of the manistream media. I think the modern media is destroying this planet story by story. It is the Ministry of Propaganda for the Evil Empire that currently dominates our planet. We need to concentrate on the good in life and our media needs to help us to see the good in ourselves, not always the bad.

Anyway, pretty well out of time for another week. I hope you're getting ready for getting together with friends and family and resting up for next year. I know I'm looking forward to a bit of a break. 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.