Trespassing in the land of cars

Wisdom is everywhere here in the northern prairie.

Jack’s Drive-In has been in the little town of Spruce Grove since the 60s. Behind us, a spry man reassures us that the food is as great as it used to be. In his 80s, the former mayor of Spruce Grove was waiting enthusiastically for his Sundae and ice cream (‘Helps keep the peace at home with my wife’). A radiology technician in his days, he moved to Alberta from Montreal.

Alberta is not like in Ontario or London. Here it’s about how hard you work, not who you know.

He liked Germany but found the French rude. He wanted to go to London for the weekend, but his French wife didn’t have enough ice cream that day, so they visited Paris.

I found that wisdom can be found in the most unexpected of places: the walk from the suburbs to downtown. I may be one of the few people in the world who would walk in the land of cars of a North American city.

14km in 3.5 hours.

The walk started with a beautiful creek.

And then I saw that being a pedestrian is not as fun as when you’re driving.

But I got to see political propaganda, alongside a bunch of squirrels who were trying to protect their dead friend from the scavenger crow trying to get some lunch. It reminded me of the political game.

The first striking thing is the hundreds of “No trespassing” signs. They seem to be obsessed with that over here. It’s odd, particularly as I’ve been reading about the way in which the native people of North America thought about property. Territory was not a fixed area divided by straight lines. Their territory was dynamic, changing with the migration of wildlife, expanding and contracting in cycles that resembled our seasons. When Europeans tried to strike deals with them in Alaska and Canada, Native Americans found the idea that land was ‘owned’ and ‘sold’ quite strange.

With the cars going by me, I was crossing a highway bridge when I felt like I’m going at a different pace to the rest of the world around me. Everyone around was going at high speed while also sealed off from the world that they were traversing. I was right in it, feeling the breeze and slowly making my way.

Given my recent creative endeavours, I took this moment of wisdom to remind myself that I should be going at my own pace.

Edmonton is surrounded by the Anthony Henday highway. A native of Isle of Wight, England, the convicted smuggler was one of the first Europeans to explore the unchartered western Canada. His journals detail the journeys that he took for the Hudson’s Bay Company, starting in 1750. While his exact trajectory is unclear, his tales spoke of travelling 2,900 kilometres with the Cree in canoes and encountering the Cree’s enemies: Blackfoot and Archithinue.

That was one way to encounter novelty back in the day. It makes me reflect on how much novelty and risk-taking I sprinkle in my life.

Crossing the circle highway, I was mulling over Henday’s travels and how we think about property. People around me ‘marked their territory’ in different ways.

My destination was Stratchona - a neighbourhood named after the Hudson’s Bay Company Governor, Lord Stratchona. Full of brick buildings, its architectural richness differs to most of Edmonton.

My day culminated with a great Vietnamese Pho and a walk through mild rain. A great way to consolidate the prairie wisdom.

Be mindful of the pace that you’re going at,

Twobob