Frogger Game of Life

            Last night, while driving home in the pouring rain, I saw a brownish-yellow leaf on the road, highlighted by my headlights. As the car drew nearer, the leaf seemed to be lifted by the wind and carried in two arcs to the side of the road. In fact, it looked almost like it was hopping.

            The idea was still forming in my mind that it may have been a frog (or toad) when I saw another one. This one was sitting on the edge of the road and I was able to distinguish that, yes, this was some type of amphibian, and it confirmed my suspicions about the previous ones I’d seen.

            Having identified the first two frogs, I was then able to spot more – and there were a lot along this particular stretch of road, all trying to get to the other side. Luckily I was able to avoid hitting them, but it did get me thinking about the situation.

            Had it not been for the specific lighting provided by the combination of the rain and the headlights, I never would have seen those frogs. And while some of them expertly dodged the car, Frogger style, there were others that I actively steered around – those ones would certainly have ended up squished and I never would have known. Perhaps they ended up flat anyway, courtesy of another car with a driver who didn’t notice their presence, or perhaps one who did notice and simply didn’t care.

            It struck me as a perfect metaphor for the relationship between humans and the natural world. For centuries we’ve blundered around, shaping the world to fit our needs. Sometimes, some of us notice that we’re causing harm and we do what we can to stop it. Others of us never even notice the harm, or refuse to believe harm is being caused. Some people are aware of the harm and just don’t care.

            The greatest threat to the frogs are the people who don’t even know they’re there. We could, of course, tell them that the frogs are there, but we humans are a skeptical lot. We like to see things with our own eyes. What we really need to do is provide the correct lighting conditions so people can see the frogs for themselves. Then it’s up to them what kind of person they want to be.

            Personally, in life’s great game of Frogger, I want to be the type of person who helps get the frog safely across the road.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Rush Hour

            On my way home from a convention today, I found myself being passed on the highway by every other vehicle. Not just the occasional ones that is normal for me – usually there’s a mix of some passing me, me passing a few, and most going the same speed as me – but all the other vehicles. I wasn’t driving slower than usual, but I did realize this was rush hour. And I started to wonder why it was that everyone was in such a hurry that they would risk speeding tickets (and not small ones, either).

I figure that part of the reason is that most people don’t know how useless speeding actually is. If I look back to times I was in a particular hurry, I found that at the fastest speed I was willing to drive (admittedly not all that much over the speed limit – what can I say? My parents owned a driving school when I was growing up) I managed to shave a whole five minutes off a drive of more than an hour. That’s really not worth the trouble.

But then, I realized, it was unlikely that these people were all on a schedule to get somewhere. Not in the evening. They were most likely going home. So many people, rushing to get home – risking speeding tickets and, judging by the speed, the potential to lose their licences to get home.

            And I realized that what was most important to them was the feeling of getting home as fast as possible – the feeling that they had stolen a few more moments to spend time with their family, work on personal projects, play video games, or do whatever it was they want to do with their lives.

            So many people feel like they don’t have enough time in their lives – and let’s face it: they don’t. There are some extraordinary people out there who can balance professional and personal lives and be perfectly happy, but I don’t think the average person can. Otherwise, why would so many people daily risk the severe consequences of driving dangerously just to scrape a few more moments of time to themselves?

            It seems that I have added yet another reason to my belief that the average work weekshould be cut in half (with the economy adjusted to accommodate it). Not only would it improve mental health, make people happier overall, and increase the number of jobs for the workforce, but it would make people safer drivers because they wouldn’t feel like they had to rush around to have enough time to spend on what they want to do.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

2016

            I feel like the end of 2016 was a combination of “Woah, it’s over already?” and “Finally, it’s over!” On a global scale, the year has been quite the circus with rather a lot of tragedy – but hey, why talk about that? We’re going into the new year with plenty of hope and motivation to make it better than the last.

            For myself, I find that 2016 was measured in my wife’s achievements. Any time someone asked me what was happening in my life, my response went something like this:

            Well, you know. I’ve been writing – I’m quite happy with my latest book and I have very high hopes for it. And I’ve made some chainmaille, that too. Oh, but Colleen...!

            Colleen got her driver’s licence. She finished her coach training and started her own business! She’s got clients! She’s going off to talk at events. Colleen’s working hard to build her business while still working with me on Ringcrafts and helping me edit, isn’t she amazing!? Oh, and we just hired this marketing company and....

            Yes, this was definitely Colleen’s year. It’s been thrilling to take a backseat (‘cause she can drive now so I don’t have to) and watch her rocket towards her dream, helping others all along the way.

            Overall, I feel like 2016 was a transitional year, laying a lot of groundwork for the future. Now it’s time for us to step out into 2017 and see what we can achieve during this trip around the sun.

            Happy New Year!

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Who Are They And Where Do They Go?

            I never really notice just how many people there are in the world until I take the time to pay attention to how many cars are on the road at any given time of the day. How does it tell me more than seeing a group of people? Because it points out how many people there are who don’t fit into an “ordinary” routine.

            To clarify, by “ordinary” I mean the typical 9-5 job that most people are assumed to have, although I've realized that assumption is very flawed. Being self-employed, I am often running my errands at the oddest of times. And no matter when I'm driving, the road is always filled with cars.

            It got me wondering – who are all these people? Where are they going and where are they coming from? Why aren't they at their 9-5 job at 2 in the afternoon?

            Naturally, it makes sense for some of the people to be there. Some are running errands for work, some (such as delivery and taxi drivers) are working, some are unemployed or self-employed with less strict schedules. Some work night shifts, others work evening shifts, so that time of day is the right time for them to be out and about.

            But there are so many! It is mind-boggling, at least to me, that the roads can be filled all day long. How can there possibly be so many people with so many places to go that there is always so much traffic?

            Sadly, it is one of the things I doubt I’ll ever know.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.