Crazy Ass Planet

Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they’ve known for a great unknown beyond the horizon? Why climb this Mount Everest of formalities that makes you feel like a beggar? Why enter this jungle of foreignness where everything is new, strange and difficult?

The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.

- Yann Martell (Life of Pi) -

It’s been an ugly wet, cold day here today in Edmonton and a busy one. There have been busier days, and the rest of the week may hold those kinds of days, but today has been busy enough.

With the busy days, and other reasons, I’ve been avoiding this post … Partly because I thought it had to be some great, profound bit of writing (which it will never be) and partly because of various reasons that have held me back, which I won’t go into here. (They’re boring anyway.)

Well, the upshot is this. I’m moving from Edmonton, Alberta to Fredericton, New Brunswick. According to one distance locator tool I found online that’s means I’m moving 2,117 miles, or 3,408 kilometers, to the east.

Why? Well, the simple answer is because I can.

I could have been moving 510 miles west (that’s 821 kilometers) to Vancouver but I have chosen east. There are certain practical reasons for the eastern decision and I could rhyme them off (beginning with real estate prices) but the real reason is summed up in one word: slow.

I am so bloody sick and tired of the western Canadian economic boom, and the obsessive need to do everything faster, better, more glittering more, more, more … I think I’d have chosen to move anywhere to get away from it. There was a time when this was appealing to me. No more. I have no wish to live in world that requires you be wired on crystal meth or something to function.

Besides, although you don’t hear about it nearly enough, Atlantic Canada is gorgeous. And Fredericton, while being small compared to other places, quite small compared to some places, is dreamily beautiful.

I’ve a great fondness for small. And for slow. While there’s a definite place for stress and a quick pace in the world I believe that nothing worthwhile comes out of an obsession with it. How can you be creative when there’s no time to think? Where do the ideas come from?

I’m not going down east alone, though. My friend, Liz, is also making this move and for her it’s a big and exciting step. If all goes well, she’ll finally be doing what she’s wanted to do since I can’t remember when … run her own café, restaurant thing.

It’s exciting, and scary, from all perspectives. But that’s what I like about it. I’m not quite sure where the money’s going to come from. I’ve some ideas, but nothing’s certain.

Imagine that. Nothing’s certain. We’re moving across the country and nothing’s certain.

Sounds like an adventure to me.

Tags: Fredericton, New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada, Maritimes, Alberta, Edmonton

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