Never Quite There
The Premier’s Correspondance Branch is no longer in the Armoury Building! Well I guess I should not be surprised since the building was not earthquake sound. Then again the contents arriving at the Branch were not always earthquake sound either — metaphorically speaking of course, as most of it was scribed anger, except the two times we suffered anthrax scares.
I went on a bit of a nostalgic vacay last week as part of my birthday celebration. Much of my adult life was spent in the world of politics based in British Columbia’s capital city, Victoria. The Legislature is well over 150 years and the Armoury was an actual Armoury during World War One, so it might be slightly younger. It is still standing.
I am getting older too and I, too, am still standing, feeling fine and well, and ready for another turn around the sun. I am noticing, however, that I often wonder how the now deceased cave people would react to our world today. How would my grandparents and parents feel? So much has happened. So much is happening and so much more is about to happen. “They say” it is all in the name of progress. I say change and process are happening too quickly to the point where it seems humans will soon no longer need brains. Is that how we define progress? All we will need to do is breathe. It’s just so sad…
We tried to go to the Legislative Dining room for lunch. The security detail would not allow us entry. We needed reservations. They handed us a card with a QR code and phone number and told us to arrange reservations. We dialed the number and the number had a recorded message: “we are not accepting calls at this time. Try again later!” We walked away in dismay and ate elsewhere.
The driveway entrances to the parking areas around the legislature now have gigantic heavy metal computer operated red-lighted arms blocking entry from undocumented drivers. We watched the system in play. Once a driver gets clearance the arm rises to enable a driver to enter. It stays open quite long enabling other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists to enter without registration. We waited in anticipation of an elite squad of agents arriving to amass the guilty and lay charges. It didn’t happen. Nothing happened. We guess that glitch will be dealt with in phase B. This brings to mind the excuses that have been given since time in memorial whenever something doesn’t work: “we will learn from our mistakes” to which I always reply: “when do we get to the LEARNED part?”
As life unfolds, I do feel I have learned a lot. I have definitely experienced a lot, and a lot of those experiences have been “changes” to policies, systems, strategies, procedures, processing etc. A lot of ways of doing things used to fall short of logic; some continue to perplex me. I think everyone can come up with an example.
My recent example is the ticketing for Harbour Air. When ordering a ticket, you need to identify your gender. Apparently a female body and a male body has some impact on something related to the flight. I used to try to find out the logic and I’d get a response like “I don’t really know. It’s been a requirement for a while.” It’s still a requirement today!
Another peculiar Harbour Air story is this : When selecting your fare, the amount varies from Light fare of $49 to Comfort, to Value and then Flex at $280. Yet when it comes time to entering the plane, there are no assigned seats. It’s a free for all. This fare categorization has existed for over twenty-five years. However, anyone can sit anywhere regardless of gender or fare. Where’s the logic? No wonder artificial intelligence is gaining ground so quickly. Human brains are failing in basic decision making. Are we breathing too fast and not paying attention maybe? It’s quite sad.
I can come up with many earthly conundrums if I really set time aside but let me end with the penny! We don’t have pennies anymore. Autocorrecting doesn’t even recognize the word penny in its plural form. Nothing costs a penny so why are things still priced as though they have a penny value!
Our way of living and laughing has changed a lot over the decades, but there’s an expression in French that sums it up: the more things change, the more things stay the same! (Plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes)
And from planes to pennies, life goes on as we all wonder what’s next?
