I was born on a winter Friday morning in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, at the tail end of the ‘baby boom’, and the same day that then Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker announced the cancellation and deliberate total obliteration of the Avro Arrow, with no explanation or reason, why….

The dysfunction of humanity is awesome. The intelligence of humanity is equally awesome; out of the ashes of Avro came the phoenix of NASA, and I saw a man walk on the moon… at least, I believe I did… there are people in this world who believe differently.

Some days I feel like I live as just a witness to this endlessly revolving human state and it’s all I can do to balance my daily experiences and interpretations of so many screens and images, by listening closely to the meaning of words, and music. My days all require an endless series of challenging and repetitive effort, and I’ve found great joy in music, tech, and other people… but there are times I feel like I'm just very aware, of way too much, to then hold any firm beliefs beyond just one…

As a little kid in the 60’s, there were four safe entities for which I held an unquestioned belief; Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and the Religion I was born into. In those early days they all held the same weight, but as I grew older and kept recognizing logic problems in all of their story lines, I remember first questioning what I was actually “getting” from the religion, whereas the sweet results from the other three were always consistently obvious the next morning.

Eventually my parents scaled down these annual traditions, because I was “asking too many questions”… and though I held on to Santa for as long as I could, eventually my belief faded for all of them.

It was so easy to suspend my disbelief in that early innocent time; to be completely immersed in comic book super powers and the magic of shimmering lights in bright holiday colors with happy festive music. While all that early joy remains a warm memory of a very secure and happy childhood, in present day, that simple innocence has been changed over time.

There is still beauty in the lights and the snow, but there is no longer moderation or pre-tense in much of the rest; my “traditional” events that were once much simpler and brief, back in the day, feel permanently “hacked” by consumerism, where the original message and meaning has been changed to accommodate all those who believe differently, and it's now basically down to an annual costume change.

Regardless, the coolest thing about Santa that still remains for me, is that while 100% of any and all functional adults on this planet can peacefully agree that Santa is not real, the majority of all people will also agree to slow down and come together, to share and “believe” in something warm and intangible for at least one common day each year, which started during what used to be long very cold winters; if just to preserve and try to hold on to what is such a brief innocent time; when sweet little kids with clear bright eyes, are playing with their toys…

From our massive stockpiles of guns and war machines to our dependency on burning the earth’s previous dinosaurs; with all the plastic in the ocean and dust in the air, I see greed, entitlement and tragedies repeating in the daily news that clearly no magic entity with super powers has, or will ever change for us.

We need to believe, in Us; as a global species and consciously as equal human beings. Never before have so many known so much about everything you can think of. All over the world and in every single culture there are equally intelligent and equally dysfunctional people that are just like you or I. So much comes down to who taught you how to learn and what and who to believe back when you were just a little kid, passively taking in everyone and everything around you… As such; different people do different things differently, but we really are all the same at the end of the day; just a brief fragile life in constant need of balanced maintenance, in a world that often takes things to painful extremes and all life completely for granted… and so thus normalized; the public acceptance of painful extremes.

We must make some difficult rational changes; to learn to suspend what are often very primitive “traditional” beliefs that no longer stand up in today’s knowledge; to recognize and accept new ideas from the sum of what constant technical advancements are steadily revealing, and to intentionally look for ways to help and improve things for the people around you. So with each and every new day; communicate as clearly and honestly as you can, as an intelligent individual that is equally part of a global species, and less that of a religion, tribe or culture…
If not for us, then for your children’s children.
… It is what It is…