The Squeaky Wheel Gets Extra Work

OK, take a deep breath… I’m going to try to dive back into this whole blogging thing again. Somewhere out there, someone has proven an inverse relationship between the desires to talk and to write. I truly enjoy public speaking, and thinking on my feet; but writing is a completely different game.

I digress. What I wanted to write about was what I have recently discovered as a side-effect of wanting a different world to live in – you find yourself allocated to a whole pile of volunteer projects. It’s not like I expected to get away with no work. But I had no idea what a lightning rod it would be to stand up in public and declare, “Something has to change!” As it turns out, there’s no shortage of world-changing projects on hand, waiting for the opportunity to pounce on the unsuspecting idealist. Yes, there's a black hole of volunteer hours out there.

Cases in point – in the couple of months since I last posted, I have:

1. Joined the CEED Centre – a local non-profit dedicated to, well, a whole bunch of things. But most of the work centers around growing better communities through community gardens. Check out their website here: CEED Centre.

2. Volunteered to be the Ridge Meadows Transit Riders Advisory Committee (TRAC) coordinator. This is where I get to vent all my pent-up ideas for better transit; and listen to the whole city do the same. It’s an experiment in Internet-based community/corporation cooperation. The idea is to create a forum for transit passengers, drivers, and management to communicate in an open and constructive fashion. It’s crazy, but it just might work.

Check it out at: Ridge-Meadows Transit Riders Advisory Committe. Better yet, join, and tell me what you think works and what doesn't. I hope you like the website, too, 'cause I built it.

3. Applied to a position on the Maple Ridge Economic Advisory Commission. I really hope that this one goes through. I had my interview last week, and I expect to hear back soon one way or another. This is a volunteer position to draft up recommendations on the best ways to make the city’s economy thrive. A place on this commission should help me strike the balance between an idealistic utopian vision of urbanism, and the food-on-plate realities which people actually live under.

Anyway, I hope to still keep blogging in the midst of all this craziness. I did say at the beginning of this blog that I was going on an adventure. As with most adventures, it seems to be more about slogging through, and less about enjoying the view. But perhaps years from now, I'll look back at this blog and smile a bit. I hope you enjoy tagging along with me!