Quality of Life

     The talk in Canada measures the "quality of life" by how many cars, houses, stuff and how much money people  make.  Quality of Life would be better measured by Happiness.  As I once discovered in the Slums of Guatemala City. There I found Quality of Life, in the home of a Grandmother, daughter, eight children living in a dirt floor makeshift three small room rented house made of mud bricks..  They received me as a special guest, from the North Pole.  They smiled and laughed when I answered their enquiries about snow and Canada.  They cared about each other and  they worked for survival everyday. To me, what existed in that house was "Quality of Life" . These people did have a small transistor radio given to them which they played only a little each day, batteries cost money, money was hard to get.   A few  household pots and pans, a table and chairs built from used boards and turned into beds when the kids went to sleep. Two side rooms, big enough for a couple of mats for sleeping,  One light bulb in middle of the main room where we ate a special meal that they prepared.  It was a feast.  A few framed pictures of special people on the wall.  Unknowingly,I was introduced as a famous writer from Canada, one of my passport pictures also went up on the wall.  It was a humbling experience as was my visit to Guatemala's landfill.

      For most Canadians, chasing the improved Quality of Life, are incarcerating themselves in debt while servicing the Quality of Life of Landlords. This  is definitely a system of slavery.  Yet even under a slave state, a slave's life might be more enjoyed than a slave owner.  

     Certainly the Quality of our air, water, food, has dropped in the last 60 years.  In Canada we are seeing many medical problems now that were rare 60 years ago, before we had so many medicines. Herbicides and Pesticides were also rare.  We did not have many Nuclear Power Plants, cars, pollution or 80,000 different Chemicals.  There is no question that the quality of our  "life support system" has suffered as we have been "seeking a materialistic quality of life". Our Quality of Life must relate to the health and well being of both our social and natural environment.  For 60 years our Quality of Life has actually been dropping. Anti Depressants, and Drug Store Addicts Abound.  Alcohol and pot are also used as anti depressants.  

     Spring is Coming, Grow a garden this year, good medicine in more ways than one, get a little bit free and release all your slaves.  Happy New Year.