Keith's Odyssey to Planet Fitness: Community vs the world

Saturday, March 21, 2026

Community vs the world

I got asked the other day why I'm willing to put (what they see as) so much time into my community association.

There's macro and micro reasons why, and they sort of tie together. At least I think they do.

I've said for years that reading the world news is like wading through a river of shit with people making splashes by throwing rocks into it. It keeps getting worse, primarily because too many world leaders are idiots pandering to their deluded bases. Trump is only the most obvious and malignant example, but there are others trying hard.

One of them is much closer to home than I would like. She is a failed politician that was trying to build her radio audience, and somehow got voted into power. She is well along the conservative road of destroying public institutions by withholding funding, then claiming they don't work, and selling it off to a private enterprise buddy for pennies on the dollar.

Public education is just one of the examples. In case you missed it, not one one thin dime of taxpayer money should go to private schools. The public school Catholic Board should be abolished and the schools merged with the rest of the public system. Public schools should be atheist; religious education should happen at home. If people want to send their kids to a private school, they should pay the whole freight, and then the kids go to the public school exams for access to higher education. All the money that is currently going to 'charter' (read private) schools should go back to the public system where it belongs, so they can properly serve all children. Parents and teachers shouldn't have to be buying supplies for basic education.

I took a vacation from Facebook for a while. The recent return is wading in that river of shit again. The actual news is bad enough, the AI generated misinformation is worse, and the posts that tell actual lies to stir outrage are worst of all. But other than not looking at it, there isn't much I can do about that river.

But what I can do is help make my community a better place to live. The community association is one way of doing that. We put on events that people enjoy coming to. They can hang out with their friends and neighbours, and meet new people in a safe and fun environment. We run a volunteer pantry to help with food insecurity. We rent out facilities for a wide variety of programs, for a variety of ages ranging from elderly to toddlers. We maintain outdoor facilities like ice rinks in winter, a small skateboard park, basketball, tennis and pickleball courts during the summer. We advocate to the city and province about issues of concern to our residents.

Those residents aren't some mythical "other". They are the people living down the street or around the corner or a short walk away. We share our roads, paths, and sidewalks with them. We see them shopping in our in our local stores, or having coffee or lunch in one of the restaurants. Their kids are in one of the 3 schools in our neighbourhood or maybe go to one of several day care facilities here. Some are wealthy and some are struggling to make ends meet. Some are really old, some are newborns, and every age in between. Going to school, working, looking for work, retired, volunteering. Buying a home, or selling one, or renting. Riding the bus or driving to get to where they need to go. All of us, doing our thing in a shared space. Don't you think it's better to share space with happy people?

What I do, what our amazing staff and volunteers do, makes a real and appreciable difference to where we live. I've said many times that my lens for looking at proposals is, "Does this make our community a better place to live?"

A simple example from last night. One of the people who rent a room had to push their event back an hour. That wasn't a problem since the room was empty for the revised time. The problem was the key fob would only open the door till 6pm, and they were there at 7. I zoomed over and let them in. A dance class could go on with their practice. Happy kids.

A couple recent sunset photos for you.