4 - Sunday, October — — in my conscious life. ['m one of those people who doesn’: ceally know how to separate his own destiny from that of his species ~ or, for that mat- ter — his neighborhood, province or country. Rational people insist that there is no connection between the mighty swarm and the lowly in- dividual. Yet | know in my bones, just as you in yours, that each of us is somehow caught up in a broader current. This current includes such ob- vious candidates for destiny- sharing as immediate family and closest friends, colleagues, com- rades and co-conspirators. Find me the person who thinks his or her own fate is completely in- dependent of the fates of his or her immediate family and closest friends, etc., and | will show you a person blinded by egotism. Yet 1, for one, hate the group impulse per se. It seems to me to be an abrogation of intellectual responsibility. One of the things that strikes me as suspicious and, in fact, in- criminating about the group im- pulse is its historical track record. Every time a group forms, it seems to do so by defining an op- posing group, thus giving its own members a negative kind of original collective identity. Thus, after millennia, instead of a better world, we actually have a world mor¢ bitterly divided than ever. . I would fike to think that there is a greater identity to be discovered in the simple act of accepting ALL groups as beings essentially part of ONE group, meaning your basic life team. Nutty as this sounds, I do believe that when I] am talking to you, it is really a matter of YOU talking to YOU, that the ‘I’? which is “*me’’ is actually a part of the same ultimate pool of consciousaess. in other words, the great endear- ment isn’t: “I love you!’’ It is: (4 AM YOU!" Weird, eh? Well, there you go! You read it here first. In other words, I don’t believe in the myth of separateness. | find most behavior to be a kind of a shared acting out, a dance, theatre. Okay. So... It is a beach south of Parksville on Vancouver Island, the last EVER THE AFFORDABLE AUDIO SECURITY SYSTEM THAT ELIMINATES FALSE ALARMS Omni Guard Alarms @ COMPANY OWNED AND OPERATED 24 HOUR MONITORING BURGLAR @FIRE © MEDICAL @ COMMERCIAL LICENSED AND BONDED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 298-7055 26, 1986 - North Shore News Bob Hunter WE WENT over to Vancouver Island the weekend before the election and spent a couple of days under an autumn haze that allowed the sun to break through, demurely, by mid-afternoon two days in a row — and this in the LATE part of October — and it dawned on me that 1 felt more secure, more optimistic and more at peace than ever before rae i special Notice NORTH SHORE Annouces Extended CREDIT UNION _ Saturday Hours © strictly personal « In response to the wishes of “our membership we have extended our Saturday hours of operation. New Branch Hours —: softly-lit weekend before the pro- vincial election. *Lonsdale *Davie An orange full moon comes up Monday-Thursday 10-5.00 Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:30 over the nearly-invisible squirrel- giaay 9 10-6 oO ana . ¢ so4 oD grey gauze of the Coast Mountain alurday 30-3: aturday 303.0 Range. *Marine Drive *North Burnaby You know how you sometimes tAonday-Thursday 10-5:00 Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:30 get a radical buzz out of nature? Friday 10-6 00 Friday 10-6:00 Well, this is one of those times. Saturday 9:30-3:00 Saturaay 9:30-3:00 J have built a fire for my family *Park Royal Village out of driftwood and twigs fallen : . from arbutus and maple on the hill Monday-Wednesday 10-5:00 Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:30 Thutsday-Friday 10-6:00 Friday 10-6:00 above. We squat around the throb- Saturday 9:30-4:00 Saturday 9.30-3.00 bing, flickering blaze on the edge of a vast cidal flat, first cobbled *Lynn Valley Dolarton rock, then tremendous sheets of va- Tuesday-Thursday 10-5:30 Tuesday-Thursday 40-5:30 cant silver beach, fading away in- Friday 10-6:00 Friday 10-6:00 to the diaphanous blucness. Saturday 9:30-3:00 Saturday 9:30-3:00 Our hearts beat quicker than *Whistler Alberni usual, even though we are doing Tuesday-Saturday 10:30-4:30 Monday-Thursday 10-5:00 nothing but huddling together Friday 10-5:30 around a primitive heat source. AB we ates a sense of timelessness GSES +24 nour cash machines at these locations one of the dawns of time. We ti ber 3,.1986 might yet be cave people at one of time’s ends. We get to experience it all, for a few hours, under an orange moon near Parksville. It was the weekend after tic ‘failed’? Reagan-Gorbachev sum- mit in {celand. Contrary to official media gloom, 1 had the feeling everything was on track for a dramatic reduction in nuclear arms, and therefore an increase in planetary safety. 1 already find myself daring to | think again about such questions as the meaning of life, having basical- ly shelved any new metaphysical stuff for the last couple of decades on the premise that survival came first, philosophical crap later. That is, | mused, But I didn’t think. You know? In the miraculously late autumn of 1986, with the Soviets and Americans nearer than ever to a major breakthrough on nukes, an orange full moon shimmering across the bay near Parksville, silver light on wet cold barnacled stones, my children and wife star- ing, hypnotized, at the flame- sheeted dancer on the sand, shadows thrown back against the roots of arbutus in the cliff, all I know is that it felt somehow, at some gut-within-gut level, better than ever! I think we're gonna make it! How's THAT for unscientific journalism? iT THE & on all your decorating needs CARPET Crossley Karastan, King Edward 40% Saxony plush, 6 colours 18.99yd. Premier Touch, super heavy Antron plush, 16 decorator colours 9.99ya. All Rot! Ends & Remnants 30 to 70% Off Mannington Never Wax Floors Stock only 0 to 70% off Armstrong Candide 18.99 yd. Thousands of yds. of short rolls & remnants up to 0 while quantities last,/0% off HEAR A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS AT 3 AM? IF IT'S AN INTRUDER YOU ARE NOT ALONE Omni Guard 1S LISTENING, PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY [CERAMICS & MARBLE Ceramic, Mosaic & Marble Tile. Wide selection of designer Bes COlOUurs. Re Now up to 30% off on selected wail & floor tile. Free estimates. EDGEMONT North Vancouver (2 blocks behind the Avalon Hotel) WALLPAPER & DRAPERIES Quality Wallpaper, Fabrics & Blinds. Wide range of patterns, textures & finishes. _Up to 30% off CARPET and LINO 985-0011" UMITED 985-0114 We have extended our business hours: Friday 9-9, Sat. 9-5, ALERT @ INSYALLATION SERVICE @ RESIDENTIAL mrt 2.