telephone

Much like the old children's party game, I'm not convinced that I'll relate any message with its veracity intact--in fact, if I'm to get all postmodern about it, I know I won't, because I can't possibly.  I'll dispense with the philosophizing, since I've never studied philosophy and don't come by it naturally.  It all seems too theoretical and abstract, not concrete and practical.  Still, phone calls about events back home this week have certainly got me thinking. 

One of my uncles suffered a heart attack.  One of my aunts was beginning a trip to see her daughter and newborn granddaughter when she suffered what they think was a stroke, and so wound up taking a trip to the hospital instead.  The wife of a man who grew up in my hometown was killed in a highway motorcycle accident; the word is it was the first time she was riding that particular bike--a present from her parents for her 30th birthday.  Also, the six-month-old grandson of my uncle's second wife passed away.

I must remember that it's not just negative news.  There are positives:  A cousin is taking a well-deserved and long-awaited European vacation with her family.  Another cousin is getting married in an intimate backyard ceremony.  An uncle's granddaughter in B.C. graduated from high school looking like a princess bride (so I was told).  An uncle and aunt and their daughter and son-in-law enjoyed their road trip to the USA.  My parents' neighbors returned safe and sound from a visit to Mexico.

Since I live out here and not there, what I hear seems kinda surreal--in an almost alternate or parallel universe sort of way.  After five years in a suburb of 84,000, where at most a dozen people--excluding the Starbucks baristas--recognize me by sight (and maybe only half that by name), it's very strange to remember the interconnectedness of a rural community.  I feel estranged, distanced, removed.  It's akin to experiencing the remoteness of a drive along northern Ontario's Hwy #11, where at times even telephone poles are absent from the horizon.

And that's the kind of week it's been.