onefixedstar: (mystery)
onefixedstar ([personal profile] onefixedstar) wrote2004-09-30 06:31 am

The Island of Canada

Several of my friends have been experiencing very high levels of stress and rage whenever election news slips into our local papers or gets mentioned online. To combat this unfortunate situation, they've decided to construct a whole new worldview. In this worldview, Canada is an island. To the south of us is a large ocean, and then Mexico. The ocean is lovely and peaceful and nothing bad ever happens there. Relations with Mexico are friendly--witness our equitable application of the Canada-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CMFTA). Snowbirds love it there in winter; many of them spend the summers taking Spanish lessons at their local senior centres.

From time to time, we hear stories about somewhere else, but a few deep breaths and a reminder that to the south, there's only water, quickly relieve the tension. Occasionally I contemplate how difficult life must be for any highly-stressed merpeople, because I suspect that it's harder to escape the news when you're surrounded on all sides by ocean. Many of my friends, however, claim that merpeople are myth and fantasy, and there's nothing there but plants and waves and a few fish. It's an ongoing debate, but a very mild one. I think we might bring it up at the next social function to see what other people think. We might even be able to get a journal article out of it: "The lyre of Orpheus: An investigation into the belief in merpeople."

Have I mentioned that I'm a political news junkie? And that I can no longer discuss politics with anyone I see daily because they have all embraced the Ocean? It's painful.

[identity profile] reiber.livejournal.com 2004-09-30 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
They have it all wrong. It's not an ocean, it's a giant flield of glass from which all the radiation has dissipated over the last 50 years, with no adverse effects to us Canadians.