I heard once that anything worth doing never comes easy. I’ve spent several sad moments in the past week pondering this little saying. I am disappointed, angry, sad, upset, (enter appropriate adjective here) when I received the news.
I should add a small warning here. I’m going to do a bit of soapbox standing. I will take your time to ramble on about something I feel is very important. You have full right to think it is unimportant. If you want a rambling on your important topics, let me know. I’ll see what I can do for you in another article.
A survey of Albertans ranked Health Care, Public Education, Environment and Infrastructure as areas of concerns. I interpret this as saying that we value personal well-being, personal growth and development, and a good place to live in that will be around for a long time. As I’m writing this the new leader of the Progressive Conservative party is not known. The election will define, in some way, how our province is going to go about achieving these goals. Everyone I talk to about the election seems to be excited. Our budget surplus promises that almost anything can be accomplished. Considering that there is a wild economy where houses, industries and entertainment options can not be built fast enough, it seems we have solved our problems.
I was reminded this week that it is an illusion. The news story about a couple nearly freezing to death becuase they lived in a tent did not bring it to my attention. It wasn’t the fact that a homeless person died on the streets of Edmonton when the wind-chill reached -45 degrees. It was a phone call from Fr. Mike that the retreats I had planned for over fifty students were cancelled. The camp that I had visited on five trips could not raise enough funds to pay the staff through the winter. They fell far short of the goal of upgrading their facilities.
I’m sadden because this one camp had brought so much learning and growth. And it was not just to the people I took. It also affected the lives of the hundreds of youths that visited from many schools from central Alberta. In a province where casinos argue over profits and billion dollar projects lasting decades are planned – a small camp where tears, laughter and faith mixed could not operate. I just hope I don’t find it too easy to let it go.
