The Challenge

A couple of weeks ago I was on a flight from Toronto, Ontario back to my current city of residence, Calgary, Alberta. The beginning of the flight had a me a little bit stressed as all I wanted to do was watch the hockey play-off game that was on.

The purpose of the trip was to take an outdoor education course of sorts, in which I had just spent a few days hiking and canoeing in Ontario cottage-country. I'd missed most of these hockey games and had relied on friends texting me updates through the games to keep me up to date on the scores. So, this plane ride was going to be the first game I'd be able to catch, and thus I was quite excited about getting TV on the monitor in front of me.

Once the plane took off, I searched the channels for the CBC, expecting to find HNIC just about to begin. Alright, no CBC for the time being. No big deal, I think, I am sure it is just a momentary loss of the station and things would come back soon. I decide to open up my book and read for a bit, as I still had time until things would really get going in the game.

A couple of minutes later, I hear a gentleman behind me ask the stewardess when she would be able to get the CBC back on. He commented that there was a really important game on, one he was counting on being able to watch through the 4+ hours we'd be flying for. The stewardess informed him (and myself as I was eavesdropping) that they would not be able to get the CBC broadcast on the plane.

Anxiety! Wow, I thought, what do you mean? Can you not simply reset the satellite tv and all will come on as normal? Nope, apparently not. If CBC does not come on, it just does not come on. Oh! I start to wonder and hope: Maybe it will kick in halfway through the game. I am ok with that. Ok all is good. I will just read my book a bit. I am sure this is simply a short term issue.

The book in hand for me that evening was "The Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession with Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and our Health- And A Vision for Change" by Annie Leonard. The boring plane ride and this book inspired a challenge in myself, something I've had on my mind for the past few weeks as I ponder, what would it be like to consider shifting to a simpler lifestyle?