Glenn Kubish

Happy end of the week, friends! In review, three things that I noticed I noticed made me happy or grateful this week. Here's this week's podcast: 1. Tree of life I knew in my cranks that I was going to turn around and go back. I knew this even as I kept pedalling by the tree. I was tired and hungry, the clouds were spitting rain and there was one beer from Arcadia still in the fridge at home, off to the left on the second shelf. But back the handlebars turned because that tree could not be ignored. I rolled up, stopped, stood over my top bar and listened to the tree—to the birds in the tree. Fifty happy children on a newly waxed indoor basketball court with squeaky sneakers, that’s what that tree off the bike lane on 102 Avenue sounded like. It took me a few seconds to see into the lattice of the leaves. Wow, all the little birds with their little feet hopping from branch to branch, their heads a-tilt, the branches bobbing under the weight of their little bodies that power...

Happy end of the week, y’all! Each week, I try to notice three things I noticed that made me feel happy or grateful. Noticed that I noticed, because it’s good to try to be semi-conscious. Happy or grateful because anger and outrage, because how’s that working for everybody?  Here's this week's Three Things—episode 41 (5 minutes, 3 seconds):   1. Hauling dolly! There are days, we all have them, where you have to haul a 50-pound delivery dolly downtown and your driver’s licence is two years past its renewal date, so, putting the wheeled contraption in the trunk of the car isn’t going to work. And there are times, we’ve all felt those times, when your commitments to yourself, your very identity hang in the balance, even with mundane challenges like how to get the dolly downtown. And there are, to keep everything together, we all have them—bungee cords. I used eight bungees to secure the dolly and its handle to the back rack of my mountain bike last week. It was a spider web, a mu...

Happy end of the week, friends! Each week right here, and on the Three Things podcast I try to notice three things I noticed that made me happy or grateful, so the algorithm doesn’t gobble up all of my attention. In trying to notice for myself, I follow the approach George Saunders says he took to composting his sentences. They might be shit, but they're my shit, and some day they might get shinier. This week: 1. Instrument Light Rules Filed under "S" for Stuff That Stays With Me is what an airplane crash investigator told me years ago. I still use it to ground my own life. I was a reporter, at a crash site, without much of a clue about what to ask other than, what went wrong here? He told me about being a pilot. Basically, there are two ways to navigate. You can rely on what you see out the cockpit window—the ground, the clouds, the trees, the power lines, the mountains, the landmarks—to stay safe. That’s called visual flight rules. Pilots can also navigate electronicall...

  Thanks for stopping by the Three Things podcast.  Here's my bet. Maybe it's a long shot, but, here it is. If I can do a better job noticing the things I notice that make me happy and grateful each week, and then say those things out loud, then I won't feel, when it's time to add things up, that I have wasted my time. That's the judgment I fear the most. You wasted your time, Glenn Kubish! Here is this week's Three Things podcast: 1. Firestarter A couple of days ago, I found a black Bic lighter on the sidewalk downtown. I don’t smoke, I have virtually no need for a lighter, but whenever I see a discarded lighter, I pick it up. It’s a story in my hand. Scene 1: Man walks across Jasper Avenue. Scene 2: Man spots lighter, wonders if it works, spins spark wheel, waits. Scene 3: Finger of flame emerges. The end. Standing there on Jasper with my new lighter, I flashed back to a conversation about fire with Wallace from the Alexander First Nation a few days earlier. W...

The Three Things podcast is an attempt at this time every week to stop, take a breath and make note of what I noticed that I noticed, with no help from the algorithm, no code from politicians, no prompt from the advertisers.  And then say it out loud. Here's Three Things podcast, episode 38:  Here are the three things:  1. A disappearing act A couple of blocks from home is my favorite no-name park. It’s not big enough to have a name. There’s no list of donors, no lines of verse inscribed anywhere. There’s no plaque. But somebody with the knowledge and command of autumn colours was behind that park. This is the time of year that that unknown planner or planter should receive a bouquet of thanks. Now, the little park is not a postcard view of Edmonton, and I’ve yet to see fine arts students there painting it, but, still, it is a kind of magic. It’s a slow-moving magic act, as the green leaf trees we’ve had our eyes on for a couple of months, and gotten used to, are transfor...