Father, son, and their donkey

We all know the tale too well. People just like to voice their opinions. Worst still, they want more than just a listener, they want someone to take action and act on whatever they suggest.

The thing is: A thinks one thing, B something similar but with some variations, C can be something completely different. Most likely there are more than one answer to this question, somehow A, B, and C has set to call their version the ultimate truth, the truer than true.

Most of us are attached to our experience, we try and learn from what we did. Some repeatable results are science, some are not always repeatable, some are depending on other factors, some are derived from the subjects point of view, some are simply wrong. But as soon as we have our own version of the picture, we prescribe it on others. Even if we are not literally telling the next person about the loose step on the other side of the door, we anticipate its existence and believe the same thing will happen if we do not do something.

Being a victim once may lead us desiring to help the next person from repeating ourselves. Some schools of thinking may actually want others to face the challenge the same way they did - as if this is some form of fairness.

The untold ending of the tale: after losing their family donkey, the father and son stand at the side of the road preaching the passer-by not to listen or take any free suggestions or words from strangers. Some buy into their stories and some don't, either way they decide since the duo are more than perfect strangers to them, their words shalt not be listened.

Love

Today's the 30th wedding anniversary of Tom and Joyce. To celebrate this event, the couple invited friends and families to witness their marriage vow renewal ceremony. The event is no smaller than any wedding you normally see in town. All the guests are having a good time.

Tom and Joyce first met in their late teens. They got married in their twenties. Not long after, two kids were born. They moved to a new area, a bigger place, and enjoyed their family life.

Life was good and work was rewarding for Tom. Besides coming from a wealthy family, Tom played smart, worked hard, and became a manger of a mid-size business within years. Joyce stayed home and took care of the children.

Tom had affairs with 3 women at different point of time through work. Joyce knew the incidents but decided to keep quiet because of the family. Tide did not necessary turn into wave, before we know, the two kids are now adults and have moved away from home for years. Here we are cerebrating this landmark date with the couple.

Eight months later, they will run into a younger couple, and Tom will befriend the wife, Sophie. Sophie will smile at anything that Tom say and Tom will fall in love like he did with his three other lady friends. In another 3 months, Tom will move in with Sophie to a new downtown apartment. Shortly after, he will divorce Joyce.

From then on, Tom will share half of his belongings with his ex-wife and also paying an alimony to her each month. Although this divorce will cost our hero a fortune, but the idea of finding the true love of his life will make all his sacrifices worthwhile. Who needs an early retirement when you find fresh warm love.

Growing pain

Calgary used to be a good place to live in. The center of oil and gas industry in Canada, lower tax, small population, spacious, well, but extreme winter. This is the place you can actually find free lunch during stampede time - if you don't mind to stay in line for an hour. It was the best kept secret until recently, coincidentally, I blame it as an effect of the movie Brokeback mountain.

The population shot up from 650,000 to over 1 million over the past few years. Most of the new comers are from other provinces or immigrants. Calgary is now officially a 'city'. The truth is the infrastructure can not catch up with the fast growing population. Not enough roads, not enough houses, shortage of labor, living cost is rocket high.

I say Calgary now misses the convenient of a big city and lost the personal space for living in a town. My optimistic friend correct me by saying Calgary has more space for us than a big city and more convenient than living in a town. I am not sure if I can agree, but it is certainly not the same place I began with long time ago.