Thanksgiving is upon us. Autumn casts its golden hours upon the Canadian landscape. Crisp sunlight drifts through maple trees dressed in red and yellow leaves, dappling the ground. Families and friends gather to celebrate life’s blessings and contemplate the passing of another spring and summer.
But first there’s traffic, lots of traffic.
So, before the first orange cone is laid carefully on the asphalt blocking yet one more lane, and before the first shrill horn pierces the calm, and before the first child whose parents had implored them to go to the toilet before the drive to grandmother’s house, declares they have to pee, I’d like to make note of two driving-related things, for which I am so very grateful.
1. I’m not driving anywhere.
I’ve always been willing to travel long distances for Thanksgiving dinner. That’s because Thanksgiving is, in many ways, the perfect holiday. It’s just eating. There’s nothing religious about it and there are no presents exchanged. It’s just food. If you could combine Halloween with Thanksgiving, that would be the perfect holiday. I would love to sit at a table with my family and in-laws dressed as the undead, eating mashed potatoes. Thanks to these qualities and my extreme weakness for roast turkey and turkey-adjacent side dishes, I’ve spent a lot of time on Thanksgiving weekends “driving” on Highway 401 in some of the worst traffic congestion I’ve ever endured.
That’s the Thanksgiving nightmare. The price we pay. A drive between Toronto and Ottawa that should take five hours can take 10 hours on the Friday before Thanksgiving. There is so much volume that it can take one to two hours just to escape most major cities. Once you’re on the road, deserted construction zones mock you as countless vehicles merge into a single lane. If there is an accident, all bets are off. Traffic comes to a standstill. If you are travelling as a family, there’s the added components of fighting, having to go to the toilet and gross impatience (the children can also be problematic).
Then, once the feast is done, you get to do the whole trip over again on Monday armed with turkey sandwiches. This is the worst part of the Thanksgiving commute. You no longer have an enormous amount of food waiting for you at the end of the drive. My worst return journey involved five of us crammed into a Toyota Camry. It began with our eldest child vomiting out the car window on a side road just outside of Perth, Ont. and concluded with our youngest (who was one) screaming on and off for the last two hours. Somewhere around Pickering I asked my wife, “Are we dead? Is this hell?”
That’s why this year I’m not driving anywhere. I’m having it all delivered – turkey, groceries, wine – and that includes the dinner guests. And anything else we need will be within walking distance. To those who are braving the roads – I send thoughts and prayers.
2. The Eglinton Crosstown LRT will NOT be opening any time soon
In a blog post, Metrolinx announced the $5.5-billion light rail line (which was scheduled to open this fall) had been delayed. “We had expected the Eglinton Crosstown LRT to be fully built, thoroughly tested and in service this fall.” The statement said Crosslinx Transit Solutions, the construction consortium responsible for building the project, has fallen behind schedule.
Citizens are furious about the repeated delays and the economic cost.
I am, however, grateful because my new belief system – “Eglintonism” – can provide comfort to those who despair about that the fact the 25-stop midtown connection between east and west Toronto will never be finished. Developed by me, Eglintonism is anchored in Kierkegaard’s belief that life is a constant process of becoming. The Eglinton Crosstown line is the epitome of this assertion, as it is always “becoming” and never “ending” and currently delayed “indefinitely.”
Eglintonism combines Kierkegaard with the works of 17th century Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca, most specifically his 1629 masterpiece La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream) in which he writes, “What is life? A madness. What is life? An illusion, a shadow, a story and the greatest good is little enough; for all life is a dream and dreams themselves are only dreams.”
A madness. An illusion. A shadow. A dream. This sums up the Eglinton Crosstown line. It can never be completed, not because, as Toronto city councillor Mike Colle maintains, “This is the largest public transit construction project in North America, and we’ve got a bunch of incompetent people who are not telling the truth about it.” But because life may be a dream.
According to Metrolinx, “We are doing everything to hold Crosslinx Transit Solutions accountable and to redouble efforts to meet their commitments and complete the work quickly so we can welcome riders onto a complete, tested and fully operational Eglinton Crosstown LRT as soon as possible.”
But what if they don’t?
Eglintonism solves this conundrum by acknowledging that while all of life may be a dream, even in a dream meaning can be found. As the play’s hero Segismundo says, “Whether it be dream or truth, to do well is what matters. If it be truth, for truth’s sake. If not, then to gain friends for the time when we awaken.”
Don’t worry about the Eglinton Crosstown delays and the economic damage, just accept that all of existence may be a dream but remember you can find meaning in your actions, even if one day you may wake up. To do good, even in a dream, is good.
This Thanksgiving may you spend time counting your blessings, not the hours stuck in traffic.