Happy Thanksgiving eh.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING CANADA!

Yes - us folks here in the Great White North are enjoying a long Holiday Weekend. So - the question is asked - "What are you thankful for?" Holy crap - how on earth do you create a list like that!?

The wife, the kid, the lunatic dog, Hurricane Rona, Geek buddy Jim, parents, in-laws, family, Knight Rider, a really kewl gmail address, - yes, the list is long. But - each year you have to sort of nail down something that you can grab hold of and run with, right?

Scrubbie readers may recall Scrubbie being roped into going with the kid on his school trip the other week. Yes - the one where I got really soaking wet and had to endure the wild bunch that is his class of Grade 7's. Well... while hangin' out there and snapping a few pics - I was watching the gang all have a bit of playtime after lunch. The whole class was outside, throwing frisbee's (whoops - that's a trademark. shoulda' said "flying discs"), throwing footballs, running around playing TAG etc etc etc. You know what it's like when a pack of punks are turned loose in a field for 20 minutes. Then, we played this survival game. The kids are given cards that describe them as a squirrel or a bird or some other kinda creature in the forest. Each animal is a herbivore, carnivore or omnivore and the point is that for 45 minutes in a forest, the kids all run around being their respective class of species - trying to survive. Predators running after prey. Prey hiding from predators. You get the idea, right? The point of the game is to teach the kids what sort of 'behaviours' animals might use to ensure they survive. Gettin food, water, working with others or better being on your own, etc.

Long winded eh?

So - while I, as the SUPER POWERFUL parent supervisor, was charged with simply walking through the forest ensuring children were'nt killing themselves, and while I was strolling getting rained on, stepping through mud puddles 25 feet deep and battling mosquitoes that were all screaming "BUFFET" when they saw me coming - I had a few moments to consider something.

I was watching these children running amok and couldn't help a rather bizarre thought pop into my head.

I was thinking that somewhere on the planet earth, at the exact same moment in time that I was in, there was another group of children running amok in a forest or some other arena. They were all about the same age - say 11, 12, 13 years of age. But... that group of kids were carrying semi-automatic weapons. And rather than playing a game of survival in the forest where the penalty for being just a little too noisy was losing a popsicle stick that represented your life - their stakes are just a little higher.

Ya - I'm thankful.