Sandi Bouchard

Dogma Picking

THUNDER BAY – Editorial - A few weekends back, I had the opportunity to escape to camp for a spirit-rejuvenating 24 hours. The result – 12 entries that leapt onto the pages of my notebook as Creator dictated. I call this collection, “Heaven and Other Places – Stories from Camp” and I hope you enjoy them.

Trapped …

Like many, for years the word “trap” invoked for me visions and thoughts of the bush. A bear trap, a rabbit snare, traps for beaver and the like but no more. As I sit, tranquilized by the sound of the water rushing by in the nearby river, as I watch my partner gather brush and build our fire, I cannot help to shiver at the trap that the city truly is.

Effective, it attracts prey from near and far. “Join me,” it sings. “Join me on the insanity treadmill for here you can have riches and glory, opportunities and challenges you have never even imagined. Join me.”

Soon you learn you can’t exist there, can’t live there, can’t feed your family there without money. It doesn’t matter how proficient your fishing, hunting or gardening skills. You need money for a license and bylaws and health agencies dictate what is safe to eat or grow but no worries, for they ensure a grocery or convenience store is always close at hand. Just don’t forget … bring your money.

Money. Yes, you will need money and they will determine the dollar value of your effort. No education? Sad. You will earn little for the back you must break. Or you could become educated. Years and years of your life they will take. No worries. There will be no need to think. Just memorize, regurgitate and repeat. Master the mantra of the robot. You will need it to get that job, to earn that money.

The training is intense, the dogma reinforced over and over again and soon you will chant, “Need a job to survive” in unison with the rest.

There’s a second line to that chant, but it escapes me now, left behind in the city trap. We are having fish tonight, from an unpolluted lake. Berries are within reach, free to anyone who cares to bend and pick them and tonight at the fire, we will speak of passion and love, spirituality and hope.

It is our mantra after all, the dogma of the free.

I love you!

Sandi