Zeitgeist

Over the last week or two, it seems as though everything I've felt compelled to discuss has turned up a day or two later as a major issue in the news. First, it was water. I found myself thinking about the way water moves between the three countries in North America, wrote about it and then an article popped up - Canada legislated against water exports.

A similar situation occurred with the tar sands - thought about it, wrote about it and the next day a bank quite close to my house was fire-bombed, apparently to draw attention to how dirty the tar sands are, the next day, a group of environmentalists went to the media and launched an organized protest against the proposed pipeline set to bring the finished product of tar sand mining and processing from Alberta to Texas. (A project I think would be ill advised on all sides, at best.)

I don't believe in anything spooky or supernatural. I think that anything that happens to me in my life is completely normal and probably happens to everybody else the only difference being; I write it down.

Given that these are not issues that suddenly spring into being and given that there must be some indication in the common discourse, I do wonder what tips a mind like mine off to what some people call "the zeitgeist."

I have not been part of the social stream in Ottawa for quite a while now. Out of choice, I've been spending most of my time alone. There are a number of reasons for this, some fall into the personal category that must be put aside for the benefit of others but for the most part, my decision to withdraw from social life in Ottawa comes from my own, personal preferences at the moment.

For the years I was with Jesse, forced socializing was a common occurrence. We spent time with his family, with his friends - constantly. As the relationship wore on it became increasingly difficult for me to spend time with my friends, he didn't like them and we always had other obligations to his family. By the time we were finished with the obligatory socializing, I was done - too wrung out by being "on" all the time to give any more of myself to anyone. The experience was both isolating and exhausting. I never had a minute to myself - now I do.

I'm not a hermit, I get out to go to events, I speak to people in public, in the elevator, at work and in my building. I am not anti-social but I don't enjoy the questions about why I've been out of circulation, don't enjoy the small talk that goes with that re-entry and my political views about Canada, being what they are, I don't engage in the rah rah hockey stuff that passes for social mores around here. I don't want to get defensive about it - we all go through phases. This one's mine.

Anyway, I mention that because at this point in my life, I read the Canadian news when I have to. I listen to the CBC maybe three times a week. For the most part, I read the New York Times, the Atlantic, The New Yorker and I listen to NPR. Most of my time is spent writing. I stay current with issues that concern my writing and have finally reached the point where I'm allowing myself to let the rest go. Canada isn't going to fix itself to suit me, getting worked up over it doesn't help anyone.

Regardless of the relative isolation from Canadian affairs I have managed to be somehow right in the midst of the zeitgeist. How is that possible? I'm not eagerly lapping up Canadian current affairs - are these things I feel compelled to address just so obviously critical to this very minute that everyone else seems to need to address them too? Are we all on some collective thinking track where certain subjects rise and fall at predetermined times like subjects in an elementary schoolroom?

Do we all actually function like variable cells in one single organism? What makes the zeitgeist?