Ontario 2: Power of Community

Today marks day three of visiting my hometown. This whole experience has been truly wonderful. I'm always so nervous to come here because it symbolizes the past for me, and I'm terrified of the past. But so far this has been good, catching up with people, visiting the beach, seeing the change. Here are some more highlights.

Yesterday, I found out that I had no cavities. After that, My dad drove me up the shore a ways to go buy a slackline. I'm afraid that my parents may be in some sort of biker gang. Every motorcycle we passed, my Dad would flash some sort of gang signage and the majority of bikers would sign back. This concerns me a little. Besides that, the day was beautiful and I got a line set up.

Last night, I met up with my friend Brandon and we headed down to the beach to set up the line and wait for the Canada Day fireworks to begin. There, we met up with more people I hadn't seen in a while and we all hung out, slacklined, played guitar and watched the fireworks together. Me and my friend Izzy played a song we played all the time last year called Na Na which consists of 4 chords I play over an over, Izzy making up lyrics, and both of us singing na na every so often. There's a recorded version of it and apparently it got really popular here. It was weird to hear people sing along with words both Izzy and I do not know, but it was really fun and something I miss from here dearly.

Today I saw a girl I knew, Mandy, from way back when I started going to youth group. She was downtown serving food and I was curious so I asked what was going on. Mandy explained that it was a project called food not bombs. The basic idea goes like this: Mandy goes around to local businesses and collects food that they are about to throw away. She then uses said food to cook vegetarian meals like soup, salads, ect. then serves them for free downtown. The idea is to promote wastelessness and to bring the community together. I had some soup and got to chat with Mandy about the different trips she's done lately and about what's going on in her life as of late. It was a great communal experience. Make sure you check out there site here.

After wards, I went to It's All Good, the only place to get fair trade coffee in Port Elgin, in hopes of finding a place to curl up with some coffee, read a book, and maybe see some people wander in. When I first arrived, I noticed my friend Chantelle in the line. I don't think I've seen here since she left for her year long exchange to Croatia 2 years ago. It was good to catch up and discuss our different travelling adventures. Various other people who I knew came in and we caught up, I also got the oppurtunity to talk with a guy who grew up in Ireland. I love the community coffee brings together.

These are just a few more highlights from my journey home. Tomorrow includes a bachelor party and all the shinanagans that come with. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, I would like to draw attention to something that came from that podcast I linked in my last entry. I have myspace account for my music (here if you wanted to know). It's really just a place that I can refer some of my friends to some stuff I've recorded over the years. Nothing serious really. Anyways, I was sent a message recently from myspace music inviting me to enter a contest where I would play at Rock the Vote. The following is qouted from the message: "Want to open for Rock the Vote's concert kicking off the 2008 Democratic and Republican Convention activities? Want to help shape the election? If so, take part in the MySpace IMPACT and Rock the Vote DemROCKracy band competition!"

Anyways, I guess I just like what Claiborne said in that interview. He said, (and I'm paraphrasing,) that it is important to vote, but really, we vote everyday in what we do.

I just found that to be an interesting thought. If you haven't yet, make sure to listen to that interview.