Ideeahs

Longing for the smothering, encompassing warmth Yearning for the closeness of your loved ones. In fair weather or in tempest. Wrapped in silk and feather or laying on roots. In a foreign land or a well lived-in town. The feeling is always the same. Safe, knowing, calming, whole. This, that, is home. Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!

Another story idea from taking the bus.  This is one that first came to me more than a year ago when I started blogging and that I had forgotten until this month, my first month back on the daily commute. About three-quarters of the way through my commute the bus I ride stops at a Skytrain station (Vancouver's subway/metro equivalent).  In the mornings this is a pretty busy place as people rush from a bus to a train or vice versa - coffee mug, phone, mp3, backpack, umbrella in hand. This week I saw a forgotten spectacle and it raised the same ideas and emotions in me as it had a year prior.  Standing at the front of the Skytrain entrance are two women - the same two as last year by the way.  One is dressed in an orange apron.  The other wears a green one.  They are competitors looking for customers.  Looking to give a freebie to the passing and rushing commuters.  Looking to give them something else to carry. If you take public transit in Vancouver you will have noticed that there

As some of you know I went to Japan last autumn.  I fell in love with the place.  One of the many things that impressed me was the cleanliness of the country - its countryside and its cities.  It pleased me to see that thirty-four million people could live in Tokyo and keep it so clean.  I respect this immensely and it gives me hope.  Clearly it is possible to live in a clean city.  But how on earth do you change people's behaviour.  How do you nudge them? The ideeah for this entry came to me over two days.  On the first I again noticed how much garbage covered our streets.  Walking to work after getting off the bus I decided to count the number of cigarette butts I could spot.  The distance covered, according to Google Earth, was 650 metres.  Over that distance I noticed 233 butts.  I did not slow down to count all the butts at street corners.  At times I could not count fast enough.  There were many, therefore, that I missed.  My count was 233.  If you assume a sidewalk is about