A few weeks back we had the biggest full moon seen from earth in 18 years. This is what it looked like from Ottawa behind Parliament Hill. My photoshoping is quick and sloppy, but it’ll do for you guys.

Ottawa Update 37

Let’s kick this Update off with a real funny story. At some point not so long ago, I’d say Septemberish, I figured I’d try to set myself a challenge. Thinking that since in was in J-school, since I had a little spare time to play with, since I see myself as a pretty creative mofo and since I need some kind of personal goals to get anything done I told myself that I would post an Update here for you kids to read every Sunday night for a year no mater what. Funny eh?

Welcome back folks. I realize that I’ve been gone a while, but like the prodigal son I’ve returned with my tail between my legs, my money spent and my pride in tatters. I guess you haven’t seen much of me lately because I’ve been kinda busy, kinda uninspired, kinda lazy and kinda hoping that these things would just write themselves. The results of all those kindas was exactly what you’ve seen over the past month. A whole lot of Buddha...which isn’t such a bad thing.

There are a few milestones that I’ve hit since we last spoke. All of which I’m sure are of marginal interest to anyone but me, but I’ll tell you about them anyways. It was 10 years ago, March 22, 2001, that I got on a plane and hit the road looking for “something more”. Unfortunately, I never found the “more “ I wanted, but I’ve had a damn good ride doing it.

The second anniversary I’m celebrating is that it was one year ago, April 9, 2010, that I came back to Canada. The last year has been interesting, certainly not boring, but a mix of emotions. And while life is pretty sweet for me these days and I know that I’m working towards something, I do miss my old Japo life.

Which brings me to my final milestone. It has been just over a month since the earthquake/tsunami/radioactivity hit Japan. I can only recently watch the footage without breaking down in tears, but I still find what’s going on there gut wrenching in a way that few other news stories have ever been for me.

The people in Japan are the probably the kindest, most generous and happiest people I’ve ever met. In seven years of living there, there was not so much as a bad word said to me by any of them, despite all the terrible things I had to say about them, and all they ever did was go out of their way to ensure that I was well taken care of and happy. There are far, far too many reason to tell you about now, but I adore that place.

As a result, what’s happening there the destruction and the long road they have ahead is heartbreaking to think about. So when I see it on the news I feel such a deep sadness, but I also watch with the knowledge that things will get better. And because of that I also finally realize that I’m getting old. Not physically, I’ve known that for a long time, but emotionally.

Seeing this disaster makes you feel something. It has to. A few years ago it would make me feel angry and find someone to blame, I’d somehow blame it all on the Japanese government. These days this, and other such tragedies, makes me feel sad, but I’m old enough to know that these things happen and they are all part of the big wheel of life. The Japanese survived earthquakes and tsunamis and World War II, and built a better nation afterwards they are a tough people and they’ll do it again.

And on that note I’ll say sayonara and take care, talk to you next week,

Dan.