I have not, nor will I ever jump out of a plane of my own volition. Nevertheless, I imagine the sensation of getting ready to jump is very much like the feeling I have right now. (My, that really sounds like I’m about to give some kind of grand revelation. Slight spoiler: I’m not.) The wide, blue sky that I’m staring into right now is chapter one of my next book.

I’ve done as much preparation as I can manage right now. Sure, there are other things I could do to get ready, but I’m getting restless, and I think that’s a good sign that it’s time to launch myself at the story.

And dwelling on other possible preparatory steps would be giving more credence to the delusion that there is an established methodology that I have to strictly follow. Oh, I’m not arguing against readiness or doing your homework, but most of the time art is more a collection of rituals and superstitions than a science. You learn, with practice, which routines encourage your creative process, and which ones have almost no return on time and effort invested.  then you reach into your juju bag, pull out a handful of spells and charms, and throw them into the cauldron. Hopefully something good bubbles up.

But enough of this second, intruding metaphor, and back to the airplane and our nervous jumper. That brave and slightly foolish adventurer is at the yawning open door, and the only choice left is jump or quit.  So he steps forward into the air. Though he’s pretty sure that the jump will go according to plan, and he’ll end up safe on the ground, there’s still fear. That’s the same fear I have right now: that I’ll jump into chapter one and halfway down my parachute will detach and flutter away, sending me hurtling to the literary earth as a bad art dirt torpedo.

I know that I’ll learn a whole lot from the experience, even if it goes terribly. And despite the cold feet, I’m going to jump, but I really hope I don’t end up landing in a field full of cow patties

(Mundane translation:I have a cold affecting my ears and throat, and it is making thinking and thinking-dependant tasks difficult to complete)

On behest of my chum Roy, I’m going to talk about voting systems. If you get bored, blame him. There is a voting simulation being run right now at http://www.threeontariovotes.ca/home.php and it gives you three different voting systems to try out: First Past The Post, Alternative Vote, and Proportional representation.

We use First Past The Post as our electoral process right now. The first candidate in each area to get the most votes on election day gets the seat.

In Alternative Voting, you would rank the candidates in order of preference. If a candidate is the first choice of more than 50% of the voters, they win. If no one has 50% right away, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is dropped, and votes that had the dropped candidate as the number one choice are now given to the candidate the voter ranked second. They repeat that process until one candidate has a majority.

In a Proportional Representation system, you vote for a party, and the party fills the seats they win with people from their pool of candidates. You don’t get to directly vote for a person.

I like the alternative voting because the elected candidate has a majority of votes, even if it took a round or two to get there. I don’t like proportional representation because I want to vote specifically for the person who will represent me in the parliament. I know that in our current political climate, elected members are discouraged from voicing any opinion that differs from their party, and that lessens the efficacy of the representatives, but I believe that this could be changed.

The interesting thing that I’m realizing about our current system is how much of an incentive it provides for political campaigns to pursue voter alienation as a strategy. When you only need to get more votes than the next closest guy, turning voters off of the electoral process works in your favour, especially if your platform is divisive and emotional. Instead of trying to convince moderate voters that your platform has merit, you can focus on the much easier task of weakening your opponents support with smear tactics and cheap fear-mongering.

In our current election here in Ontario, you can see each major party engaging in this right now. With a week to go, none of them are completely focused on discourse and debate. The PCs have been using alienation tactics from the start, and the Liberals are close behind. Not even the “noble” NDP are above chasing moderate voters out of the voting booth. If we had a voting system that depended on not only getting more votes than the next guy, but in getting enough votes to have a majority, the power of divisive campaigning would be greatly reduced. They would all have to spend some time convincing the voters that, even if they weren’t their first choice, they’d do a good enough job to be ranked second. This would hurt the PCs/Conservatives the most, since they only thrive in an environment with a low voter turnout and open hostility between the Liberals and the NDP.

 

 

There are real, long-term benefits that a child will receive from spending their formative years being cared for exclusively by their parents and close family members instead of being put into daycare as soon as possible. I know that it’s a very difficult choice to make, giving up the increased income and putting your financial goals on hold for a couple of years. But it is worth it.

The time spent at home with your child is great for them, but there’s also a huge payoff for you, the parent. My time with Max has been the most challenging period in my life, in the best sense of the word.  Moving at his pace, I’ve had ample time to really contemplate how I see myself and the world. It’s a level of introspection that I’ve never encountered before, and I’m grateful to have been given the chance.  Being a full-time caregiver has taught me lessons in patience, communication, forgiveness, and above everything else, compassion. I understand now how challenging life is for all of us, as we try to discover and fulfill our potential despite the obstacles in our way. I can see how tenuous our emotional composure really is, but I can also see how determined we are to keep moving forward, even through an emotional meltdown. And as I begin to understand these aspects of humanity, I’m learning how to live with, and embrace,  my own peculiarities.

Our societal standard now is that mom and dad are both back at work within 6 months to a year of their child being born, and its hard to swim upstream against the trend. And, unfortunately, there are too many parents who don’t even have the luxury of considering a decrease in income, people who are barely managing to survive at their current income levels. I wish that every parent could have the opportunity to experience the joy and the monumental challenge of being the primary caregiver during their child’s first few years.

I’m not one to blithely encourage people to do anything that could have serious, life-changing consequences. If I were to take up mountain climbing, I would not tell casual acquaintances “it’s totally worth it. Just go do it!”. I’d give long, complicated instructions and warnings before recommending any serious endeavor. So, before you dash off and have kids because of the awesome way I’ve described the experience, take a little time and think about all of ramifications. If it is at all possible, spend a couple of years before you have a child to build up a parental war chest that will cover the income change when the little one arrives. And dads, you need that time at home too. There is a universe of emotional learning that you will experience when you nurture your tiny wonderful child, and it will make you a better person.