On Sunday, a snow storm passed through Toronto where we saw somewhere around 30 or 40 centimetres of snow dropped on the city. Two days later, the media is labelling the storm as a ‘disaster’. I laugh when I hear somebody call a snowstorm a “disaster”. Toronto is internationally renowned for its calling in the military to the rescue in 1999 after a large snow storm; a laughable incident that gained Mel Lastman notoriety for his overreaction.
It’s just a pile of snow people. I don’t understand how people can label it a ‘disaster’. Most people didn’t go to work that day, and there were very few cars on the roads. I offer no sympathy for the people who felt compelled to drive that day and got stuck in the snow. My cousin Geoff stayed the night on Saturday and drove home a few hours after the majority of the snow had already fallen. He knew the consequence of driving in the snow, but he decided to do it. If he would have called me and told me he’s stuck, I would have gladly helped him push his car out of the snow. But he’s not going to sulk or ask for any sympathy. They had talked about the storm for 3 days before it actually came, so it’s not like people should be surprised that it actually came.
As it turns out Geoff and his Volkswagen Jetta made it home in 30 minutes (a good time even in good weather). So I was shocked to read the newspaper 2 days later declaring the storm a disaster. Sure, there were a few car accidents. Some poor man did have a heart attack while shovelling his driveway which is very unfortunate, but to be honest people die of heart attacks every day for other reasons but you don’t normally hear about it because it can’t be directly attributed to the snow.
My buddy George and I are on training this week and that has been a frequent topic about how we live in a culture of fear and we spend half our lives worrying about everything and then we barely have time to live our lives.
I think it’s about time we as a people loosen up a bit.