It's not flat, unless it's flat.

Gravitas, as a sense of grounding with reality.

This past weekend, I enjoyed a wonderful three-day backcountry ski and hut trip in the open, wild mountains near Lake O'Hara. It was a pleasant few days with friends, away from it all.

Before departure on Day 1, as we left our comfortable beds at the Truffle Pig Inn in Field, BC, we were kindly reminded by a sign:

ITS NOT FLAT UNLESS ITS FLAT.

That message could not be better reinforced than by a 12 km gentle climbing ski trail, up to the Elizabeth Parket Hut. With temperatures hovering just below freezing, the alternating application of skins, then violet ski wax and back to skins, was absolutely necessary when I faced anything remotely inclined up. On slick skis and with a heavy backpack, you quickly sense - you know deeply through your body - when you’re not in flatland.

Having returned home to work, to civilization, and to society, I took a modicum of time to consider my responsibility as a voting Canadian citizen—my homework for the week.

On politics and our particular House of Cards

The fall of any house of cards can be blamed on:

1. The nature and quality of the epistemic building blocks (cards).

2. The design and layout of those cards (A-frame steeples on slippery surfaces without foundations)

3. The environment & terrain (unstable, ever-changing and at the whim of complexity & chaos)

Both left and right hands are necessary in building our House of Cards. However, when the house of cards falls to the ground, both hands are prone to finger-pointing, blaming the other side, regardless of their actual guilt in the affair. Nor is either side typically willing to let the other off the hook for the windy weather or the steep terrain they find themselves in.

As a citizen, when given the opportunity, my difficult task is to determine and elect those who are more interested in building, repairing, and maintaining the structure of society than playing the blame game. As a fan and player of designer board games, I can assure you there are way better games to play than the blame game.

Psst… It’s not flat.

The further I am from an honest, reality-seeking relevance test, the less comfortable and more anxious I feel. Anxiety isn’t a bad thing - it’s the sense that alerts you to something being off-balance, tilted, unstable. It’s an invitation to ready yourself, to get akimbo; to adopt a more balanced position, stance, orientation to the world.

So when it comes to making a trust-bearing decision, I'm personally grounded, rooted in and inclined towards a "sense of gravity" with reality, or gravitas.

That is how I set about making a weighty decision this election week.

I hope to see you in a voting line, neighbour. I’ll likely greet you with a hug.