By The Way I See It

So many things we take for granted

Jun 4, 2018 | 6:39 AM

KAMLOOPS — The rain picks up as we pass Williams Lake. We had left behind a sunny Quesnel after a return trip to Barkerville, which we first got to see three years ago. A lot has happened since. 

On our way up on Friday we got to see the land affected by fires. Close to Savona, the remains of one of this year’s close encounters are evident by the blackened dirt and stains of tale-telling protective red.

As we drive on, last year’s devastation is a painful sight to acknowledge, heavier and more macabre due to the size of the massive fires that swept through so much of this area of the province. On both sides of the highway near Cache Creek there are charred trees still standing, dark ghosts telling a story no one wants repeated. The same eerie landscape appears as we drive to and past Williams Lake.

It’s sobering to know that we are only as safe as we are prepared, and even that cannot be enough as no matter how prepared, some of our fate is at the mercy of recalcitrant elements. So many people lost so much. Insurance helps some with the financial part, yet there are losses that cannot ever be recovered. Peace of mind to start with. That this year’s fires have been mostly human-caused is reason for deep reflection. Taking things for granted becomes a sin many have good reasons to not be able to forgive for a long time.

We reach Quesnel in late afternoon. The rivers are running big and fast. We eat ice cream as we stroll along the river trail, reading the many signs that punctuate the history of the place. There is one about the ghost of a local Indigenous man who died under mysterious circumstances; his ghost was seen for many years just around the base of the hill dominating the other side of the river. A few steps away, lost burial grounds are now recognized through a poignant wooden construction. That knowledge makes us step lighter and with reverence. So many stories and in them much suffering that has become but layers on which today’s communities, big and small, are built.

Boogie The Bridge

Boogie The Bridge Event Information

Apr 19, 2024

Question of the Week

Is 'Canada's Tournament Capital' an accurate description of Kamloops?

13h ago

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Vulnerability

13h ago

For no particular reason, my thoughts go back to the very spot when, a day later in Barkerville, a well-spoken lady of the past (one of the actors that make Barkerville true-to-life) asks us matter-of-factly if we are overlanders. It may seem amusing to hear someone ask that question now, but the travel stories from back in the day (think 1860s) are anything but. The ‘mere’ 81 kilometers from Quesnel, about an hour or so by car, would’ve taken four days for the average foot-borne gold seeker if the weather was good and no particular challenges occurred. Two months or thereabouts from New Westminster. I cannot even picture it.

As we peek through many of the old homes and businesses that make up this unique gold rush destination, my mind is restless with the one thought: how much we take for granted nowadays. We use more resources than logically needed to build way too large living spaces which we then need to heat and maintain using way too much of our finite resources (an argument for smaller homes and renewable resources.) Back then, people were relying a lot on creativity, community, and limited ready-to-use resources. Truly, we are spoiled. It hurts to think that in a couple of hundred years from now, most of what’s to be seen by our descendants will be an endless array of useless plastics. Choked by convenience and carelessness indeed.

At the saloon where we stop for lunch the boys get apple juices without any ice. Ice was as utilitarian as can be back in the day, and food was to be preserved at all costs. Nowadays, we have fridges, highly efficient at keeping our food fresh for long enough, yet food waste is a huge problem. Food for thought?

Later in the afternoon, the lady who was making a quilt by hand told of the convenience of the sewing machines which she could not enjoy like other well-to-do ladies in Barkerville did at the time. By the end of the summer, she said, she might have the quilt ready, pending chores and such. That developed countries, Canada included, are building such a textile wasteland because of consumerism is downright shameful. The time when every patch was precious is not too far behind.

In the Methodist Church, the young guy dressed as a judge, white wig and all, delivers a powerful statement of how the law operated back then. Judge Begbie, he explains (yes, a very controversial figure for many reasons) was quick to anger, more so when the jury was too lenient in their decisions. His voice booming, the young ‘judge’ stirred up reminders of the recent lenient sentencing of Jason Gourlay in Kamloops, who took the life of young Jennifer Gatey and then tried to evade law by erasing the evidence.

Human life is the one thing that should never be taken for granted. A society that does not have a reliable justice system is not a sustainable one. The resulting void of trust benefits no one and perpetuates carelessness and criminal behaviour.

A family trip to Barkerville was so much more than just that in the end. Once again, I returned home convinced that we are better when we learn from history, and when we use that knowledge and the vast amount we have accumulated over the years through colossal wrongs included, to add, if nothing more, but dignity and gratefulness to our present life. To take nothing for granted would be the rightful consequence of that.