there's another thursday, just around the corner, and i have a decision to make.  

 

it all started 20 years ago, over twenty years ago, when i met my friend kay at an aerobics class.  we were both young career women, living in vancouver, and our friendship evolved from exercise buddies to friends living in the same building quaffing copious amounts of pizza on thursday nights watching night court and the cosby show and family ties while the laundry spun.  now, 20 years later, kay runs marathons and triathlons and hikes up grouse mountain nearly every thursday night.

 

i'm not in bad shape - i cycle, and practice yoga, and i've hiked that mountain before, years ago, with kay and her friends.  so when i found myself in vancouver for a month, looking after a doggie and her condo which, coincidentally, offers an incredible view of that particular mountain, i decided to join kay and her friends and hike that mountain again.  

 

it's now sunday, and thursday is behind me .... and also ahead of me.  the thursday that's behind me offers a recollection of mountain climbing mind-thought that went something like this:  "what in the world am i doing.  i'm never going to make it.  are we half way yet?  don't these people ever stop for a rest?  i can't even see anything, except whatever my head light shines on.  there seem to be a few big trees alongside the path.  and a stream alongside, and a stream under my feet.  is that fog, or just my glasses steaming up?  this is crazy.  i'm never going to make it.  are we there yet?"  for a time my only thoughts were "one, two, one two, one two ..." - it was all i could do to put one foot ahead of the other, to pull my weary legs up to each new stair.  when we reached the sign that read "3/4 completed," and my friends said we're actually closer than that but it's a steep finish, i conjured up what was left of my energy and joined them in their political conversation.

 

politics, it turns out, is a great motivator when conquering mountains.  kay and rachelle were way ahead of us by this point, kindly rory and warren had agreed to stay with me and pull up the rear.  "striving for mediocrity," rory occasionally reminded me, is not a bad thing.  to be honest i was a bit afraid that i'd pass out and fall backwards, tumbling down the steep mountainside, and knowing they were there was somewhat of a comfort.  i listened, for a while, to their discussion of federal politics- rory (a long time federal liberal supporter) would have preferred bob rae as leader, he'd be better able to stand up to the conservatives than dion.  warren lived in ontario when rae was premier and wasn't all that impressed.  look at the big mess that rae was left with, rory suggested.  and then there was mike harris, what a disaster that was.  before long i couldn't stand it anymore and i conjured up enough strength to gasp my opinions between breaths, as i pushed my body to its limits striving for the top of that mountain.

 

by the time we reached the snow line i'd done my best to explain my non-party aligned understanding of the benefits of proportional representation, and my concern that participating in the current political arena requires lots of money and that quest for money makes parties elitist and turns them away from their original agendas and they lose some of their original supporters along the way and yeah, maybe the ndp were able to achieve participation in government but is it fair that the green party has 21% of the vote and still doesn't get a seat in government and can you imagine what a difference it would make if there were just that one voice at the table ...

 

the guys passed me, as we trudged through the snow, and practically sprinted to the summit.  by the time i reached the lodge bathrooms, the women were almost finished changing.  i was exhausted, relieved i'd made it, wondering where the beer might be ... they looked like they were ready for another hike up some other mountain.  as i pulled my dry clothes from my backpack and peeled off my sweat soaked garments, kay asked if i could do it any faster as there was a chair lift (our ride down the mountain) ready to depart.  this thursday routine includes dinner and, since these people have hiked this mountain thousands of time through the years, the idea of lingering, checking out whatever view might be available from the foggy summit, wasn't a consideration.    

 

i hurried and somehow ran/stumbled to the chair lift.  on the way down, as i was stuffing the soggy clothes i'd hurriedly gathered into my backpack, still feeling somewhat delirious from all the fresh air and altitude and adrenaline, the guys were commenting about the advantages of talking politics while climbing the mountain.  that angry energy is a perfect motivator for the effort, they laughed.  i was a bit concerned that the anger they spoke of was the result of my comments, which were rather more brash than they might have been in other circumstances where societal norms might not have pushed the words "oh screw the mainstream, we need radical change now" out of my mouth.  i suggested that next time we ought to bring a conservative - no, better yet, a republican along.  thankfully, for the sake of my 20+ year friendship, they laughed heartily.  

 

we do need radical change, now.  people are dying needlessly and horribly, on the streets, the results of a cruel economic system.  global warming is very real - species are going extinct, arctic ice is melting,environmental catastrophe is no joke.  bc's publically owned forests, including some of the last remaining old growth on the planet, are being clearcut and sold to private real estate developers who won't be building affordable housing.  in the 20 years since i lived as a young career woman in vancouver i've seen the world from the other side.  i live in poverty, i've seen homelessness, i've almost been on the streets myself.  i've witnessed the clearcuts, the destruction of the oldest living things on the planet.  i watched the horrors of new orleans - the flood, the racism, the privatization, the greed.  part of me wants to yell at my friends to wake up, and hurry, before it's too late.  but another part of me, the diplomatic part that understands that not everyone has seen and experienced what i've seen and experienced, that they don't really 'get' the reality of what's going on in the world they're not exposed to, that part of me is contented to just plant seeds.  maybe some quasi-influential members of the liberal party will consider the value of electoral reform from the perspective of those the system doesn't serve, maybe they won't.  but if all i did was yell and scream, as sometimes i feel like doing, i wouldn't have maintained my 20+ year friendship and i wouldn't have climbed that mountain and i wouldn't have had an opportunity to say those words to those people, or hear where they’re at.  

 

it's decidedly easier to surround myself with like-minded people who, like myself, realize that the current political system is patriarchal in nature, colonialist, founded on theft and murder.  from that foundation much innovation grows, much discussion of how the world might be and how we might get there.  most of my new friends are of that mind-set.  but now and then the world throws us a curve ball, an opportunity to share our thoughts with others whose philosophy grows from a different foundation.  

 

thursday is approaching.  i can see that mountain from the window of emmy-lou's condo, on this rare sunny day in vancouver.  yesterday's deluge of rain has left even more snow on its summit.  it's a massive conquest, an exhilarating experience.  will i be invited to strive for mediocrity on thursday next?  will i want to?