Thang Nguyen 555

Earth cyclical and man-made Climate Change contribute to unbreathable air. For folks with asthma like myself, oh oh. The pill, please.

This year (2023) is slated to be the hottest since temperature change first got recorded in 1979.

That year, I was with an ABC News crew as an intern, covering the Three-Miles-Island incident. We went as we were when the news broke i.e. one set of clothes. The reporter got himself a special coat underlining. Voila! One day Navy-blue, the next, beige inside turned outside.

1979. The beginning of hot temperatures being recorded. We begin to see folks not only turn their coat lining inside out, they dropped formal wear altogether (see any expansion of Brooks Brothers lately? Not since Covid lockdown and the semi-permanent nature of work-from-home).

To me, Canada has always been a freezing country. Until now. This summer. Between Canadian forest fires and the Saharan dust storm, N America sees a perfect storm. If it’s 99 degrees, we feel the relief. Just to say, everything, weather included, is relative (depends on your base line).

The FDA stamped its approval on a new Alzheimer’s drug…”giving people 5 months of slow down in disease progression and ‘meaningful’ interaction with families”. We stand at the fork on the road. New milestone in finding and treating this awful disease and new dilemma we find ourselves in: no turning back since the cat is out of the bag. Decades of accumulating knowledge (temperature rising, for instance), names of grandchildren, of inventors, of justice and injustice, all down the tube. Poof! Forgetfulness. No memory equals no existence.

Who are you? Who am I? Why are we here at all! What good does it do, to live like a vegetable after a lifetime of consuming resources (Earth’s, even scorch Earth): food, clothing, shelter, education and recreation. All for nothing. Just a strange face staring back each morning. Do we matter at all!

It would be interesting what our final thoughts are. Many have their Last Will and Testament. The majority just refuse to face reality (of birth and burial).

In True Crime, Clint Eastwood depicted an unjust Execution, only to – by will, luck and drama- have it stopped, not at the last minute, but minutes already into the process of killing an innocent man. The injections had already flown into the falsely accused veins…One – vial of poison – down, two to go. Then Bang! the phone rang.

Of course this happens only in movies, all wrapped up on a happy note, with “Joseph, Mary and Baby ” together doing Christmas shopping. No memory of hard times, hard life and hardened hearts.

How are we to respond to injustice, unless it hit home. Until it’s us who are wrongly accused, processed through a system of booked, incarcerated and limited visitations and exhausted appeals.

May you live through this Dust Storm and come out with clarity. And find a life that is much brighter, a purpose much more crystalized and a love unconditional. With or without dust. We will have to make sure dust only stay out there, not get in our eyes, and cloud our sight and judgement.

I am gonna have to take that asthma pill today. Just to breathe and think in 100-degree temperature. May God save the Canadian forest and while at it, save the Queen, Oops, the King.