Category: Pieces to Peter's Puzzling World
We vacationed in the region of British Columbia called the west Kootenays. Geographically, it’s part of the Columbia River system, and is across the border from eastern Washington and northern Idaho.
The Kootenays are a series of steep, narrow and winding north-south valleys, scooped and scoured out of granite mountains, westerly reaches of the Rockies by ancient glaciers. The valleys have long fjord-like lakes—you can see across them, but not from one end to the other; the mountains rise sharp and timbered, and the higher peaks have year-around ice-caps.
By the time this column goes on-line at Audacity, we hope to be in Vancouver, B.C. for a few days, and then over in eastern British Columbia for a week or so. It’s always restful to step outside the box and look in from outside. Perspective is nice.
The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we’re driving up to see our friends, Carolyn and Bob—and their daughter, Thea— in Anacortes, Washington. Monday or Tuesday, we’ll drive to Vancouver. We’re going to goof off. It’s time for a break from the routine, not a fracture!
I am, for reasons I’ll try to explain, anti-authoritarian. You know the bumper sticker, “Question Authority.” Authority offers systems: think, act, dress, eat, live, this way: everything will be OK if you do.
My family offered one authority: follow our directions and you will turn out good. If you don’t, look out!
Thinking back on my mother is kind of like…my family is history is like a wood-pile I once sorted and stacked up. It’s fallen down over the last dozen years. Writing about Mom is an attempt at trying to stack it back up. Every time I turn over a piece of wood, I wonder what I’ll find under it: maybe just more wood, maybe spiders. Writing this is an adventure. There’s always old unfinished business — everywhere.
For years, my most unforgettable moments were ones where I made errors — blunders, screw-ups, super embarrassing moments.
Actions that provoked major shame attacks, either then or later. Sort of like going out in public with my fly open, or getting into a particularly stupid argument with someone I really cared about.
