Jottings West, Day 0

Atikokan Ontario

Tomorrow is the day I leave my professional cocoon, and, with scarce second thought over the modern benefits so omnipotently provided, venture west into the wider world, with but a notebook and laptop to remind me of what I have left behind. The westward road trip begins in an atypical place, far off from those Toronto towers driving people to travel to see true greenery, in a town that even the moderately curious Ontario MPP may have trouble recognizing. 

I have spent the last 6 weeks working as a reporter in the town of Atikokan Ontario, where I will likely return in September of this year, if I don’t fall too far down a literal or metaphorical rabbit hole while off in the bush. It is funny and quite sad in this case how a town so small can inwardly feel so large, like the child's conception of their family's 2 bedroom home as a castle, where every shelf and corner receives fixation, every stain or crack a fictional narrative, each with a place within the rich image of their home. Atikokan, a town whose character and personality I have gotten to know quite well, whose people I have looked at deep into eyes depth and developed meaningful connections with, and an experience that I now leave behind. 

{The Voyageur, a symbol and mascot of Atikokan}

“Callous, the world!”, cries Marx, as he dips his pen and stares into the candle light. “The Bourgeois have no conscience or care for historical progression or the working man!”. During my time at the University of Waterloo, I had a Professor of History who I intellectually adored. Exceedingly paranoid and excitable, he would ensure the lecture hall door was sealed shut before beginning on one of his brilliant orations that challenged a variety of establishmentarian notions. Staring me right in the eyes, he spoke 6 words I will never forget: “Nobody has a monopoly on evil”. Marx could not conceive of evil within the workingman, instead choosing to portray him as the boring protagonist, having no emotionally complex and morally ambiguous back story, fighting an eternal, semi-religious battle over industrial organization. Callous, I feel personally, leaving a place I could conceivably call home, with but a kayak and prol-coded car as Capital. 

But tomorrow presents a new opportunity, and begins a new era in the life of this reporter, and indeed, for this website. Over the next 15 days, I will be travelling through Northwestern Ontario, followed by the south lands of the four western provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, before heading north to the final destination: Prince George, BC. It is a trip that will take me in many places, geographically across several eco-zones, and intellectually across several plains of perspective. It is a trip that you, too, dear reader, could be a part of. Each day, I will be posting a short jotting such as this; if there is a place, topic or happening in areas nearby my general route that you believe I should give attention, simply make a comment or contact me. These are lands I am experientially ignorant of, my only knowledge deriving from books and internet tid-bits. Ignorance, however, is not bliss, but undying motivation to explore. 

So, come and Follow the Tracks.