Notes #77

Being Alone: A Choice!

More and more people are living alone! Society, in the past, has characterized single people by choice as somewhat broken or dysfunctional. Any marriage is better than no marriage was a decision made to appear normal, respectable, and happy (or at least appear to be so).

I believe that the need to be married or in a relationship to be happy and fulfilled is no longer fostered to the same degree it once was, and has been severely tested and altered by the young generation of today.

The longitudinal "California Nurses Study" found that the highest level of happiness is achieved by women living alone.  Singles can and do live fulfilling lives, enriched by satisfying work and the love of friends and family. Stacey Taylor

Other studies show that single men are the unhappiest group.

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Nothing spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness.
                                                                         Mark Twain
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The Indigenous Homeless

The research shows a troubling picture of the relationship between being Indigenous and experiencing homelessness, both visible and hidden (Alberton, Angell, Gorey, & Grenier, 2020). For instance, Indigenous people in Canada have a life expectancy that is 12 years lower than the national average because of health inequities (Kolahdooz, Nader, Yi, & Sharma, 2015), and there are disproportionately high rates of institutionalization particularly amongst Indigenous men (Feir & Akee, 2018). In Canada, Indigenous people are also 8 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to experience homelessness and represent up to 80% of the total population experiencing homelessness in large urban centers (Thistle & Smylie, 2020). Indigenous youth are over-represented among people experiencing homelessness (Dunn, 2019), and being Indigenous is significantly associated with being homeless at an earlier age, having a lifetime duration of homelessness longer than 3 years, and having post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependence, substance use issues, and infectious disease (Bingham, 2019a).

Does anybody know what percent of the Winnipeg homeless are Indigenous? Please use the link danrosin@mymts.net to respond and NOT Reply
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Pt. 2 Letter to Mr. Cameron (Britain's Chief Economic Advisor)

To follow up on last week's letter to Mr. Cameron, here are a few additional suggestions the author of that letter would make to get the economy on track.

Put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home. Then 
the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies, and walks. They'd 
also receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, 
wheelchairs, etc. They'd have constant video monitoring so if assistance was
needed they'd have immediate help. Bedding would be washed twice weekly, and all clothing would be washed and ironed as needed. There would be a guard to check on them every 20 minutes and staff to bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose. They
would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool, and
education. On request, simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJs, and legal aid would be

free. There would be private, secure rooms for all, with an outdoor exercise yard, with gardens for anyone who felt the need to exercise. Each senior could have a PC, a TV, a radio, and daily phone calls. There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and all guards would have a code of conduct that would have to be strictly adhered to.

The criminals would get cold food and be left alone and unsupervised 
day and night. Lights off at 8 pm, and showers once a week; live in a tiny
room and pay £600.00 per week without any hope of ever getting out.
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Golfers in Heaven
Three golfers are standing at the gates of heaven and St. Peter asked them if they ever cheated while playing golf with their wives. The first man said "All the time", so St. Peter gave him a motorcycle and admitted him to heaven.

The second man said "I cheated a couple of times" so St. Peter gave him a mid-sized car and let him into heaven. The third man said, "For 40 years I only ever played golf with my wife, most of the time she beat me but I never cheated." So St. Peter gave him a Rolls-Royce and admitted him to heaven.

A week later the three men met at an intersection in heaven and the third man was sitting in his car crying. The other men asked why he was crying since he had such a nice car. The third man said, "I just saw my wife and she was driving a skateboard."
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Reader Contribution

Hi Dan, as you know, I am an aviation enthusiast. It has been a life-long passion of mine. As a boy, I spent many hours watching airplanes come and go from the observation deck of the former Winnipeg International Airport terminal. For the first few years, it was open so you could feel the wind, hear the sounds of the engines and even catch a whiff of jet fuel. It was quite a sensory experience. Later, the deck was enclosed but still an excellent viewing location. I continued to visit a few times a year as an adult. For me, spending a few hours on the observation deck - maybe with a coffee or bite to eat - was calming, even cathartic. I forgot about everything else, at least for a while. Although I wasn't necessarily aware of it, this form of leisure activity connected to something about which I was passionate and helped me through some difficult times. For that and other reasons, I miss the old terminal building. The replacement opened about ten years ago has no dedicated observation deck for the non-flying public. True, there are many excellent outdoor plane-spotting areas around the airport. But, for me at least, it's not the same experience. There was something special about the viewing space itself. I wonder if others share similar experiences - it doesn't have to be an airport observation deck but any sort of space away from home that serves as a place of calm and self-reflection.              David   

David, please consider sharing more-perhaps some of those historic aviation stories you have collected over the years.
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Have a great week, celebrate the weather, and try not to think about the Jets.