On My Way to Work

Exercise has never been ‘my thing.’ Well, there were those few years in college and university where I did the Canadian Forces 5BX program for 30-40 every night before showering and hitting the sack. I always slept well, but now they tell us we need to gradually reduce our activity before bed so we are bodily ready to sleep. Maybe that is the advice necessary for those who can’t sleep due to anxiety and being tense from stress, but my routine worked for me. At least 3 times in my life I tried jogging – it never lasted more than 6 weeks. Not sure why I quit the first time; that was when I was a Family Practice Resident and my new wife and I jogged along the banks and dikes of the Red River in St. Boniface (Winnipeg). The second time, in the mid ‘80’s, I used to go to the nearby WC Morton Collegiate (high school) when we lived in Gladstone MB where I had my first practice and jogged around the track. That stopped when my wife’s aunt and uncle came for an extended visit. The third and last time was perhaps somewhere in the 90’s, when I went to nearby J. R. Reid Elementary School and did laps in the schoolyard. That came to an end with a snowfall and my getting wet feet getting a cold.

So, I walk. I like to cycle too but I must admit that as of the date of writing my bike has been sitting unridden in our carpark for a year or more. I have certainly done my share of biking to school and work over the yrs though. The longest was a 6-mile one-way trip to Winnipeg’s the Grace Salvation Army Hospital when I was doing a psychiatry rotation there as a 4^th yr. medical student.

Thus it was that when we made a pre-retirement move to Richmond (BC) in 2005, one of the stipulations we made of the local relatives and real estate agent when searching out a new home was that it needed to be within walking distance of my workplace. Actually, I currently have two workplaces and our condominium is within walking distance of both. I could cycle but I never have. By the time I get suited and geared up for that I could be ¼ way to my ‘office’ by walking. Depending on the pace and traffic, my walk to work is between 15 and 25 minutes.

After saying goodbye to my wife Anne and walking down the to the opposite end of our (4^th) floor and taking the stairs down – not the elevator - I walk out past our building’s front gardens on either side of the bricked entrance to the street. Anne and I just planted some of our own perennials there to share with our neighbours. Then I cross the street and walk west on our street past apartments and townhouses, invariably ducking under overgrown cedars – why don’t people trim their trees that abut the sidewalk for us tall guys (I’m 6’2”). In spring there are a couple of cherry blossom trees here to enjoy. For awhile, when my son had gotten an iPhone and did not need his iPod, I tried listening to music while I walked to work. Between the earbuds dropping out of my ears and not being able to hear the birds and other outdoor noises, I gave up on the iPod. 

Halfway down the block is a church. When we first moved here we asked another occupant of our building where the nearest mailbox was – yes, we are of a generation old enough that we sometimes still post letters. He told us it was on the next road north and that there was a shortcut across this church’s parking lot. It then goes between two arms of a collection of daycares/pre-schools, across another parking lot and to the next road. I often muse that if the workers of these daycares ever questioned my walking there, whether my answer that I was a child psychiatrist who cares for children so their charges are safe, no need to fear, would hold water. But there are many who cross here.

There, at Granville Road now, backing on to a small plot where daffodils and other shrubs bloom in spring and daylilies later, is the mailbox, next to a row of newspaper boxes where I frequently pick up the day’s Metro and/or 24 hours. If I’m not going to work, I may turn right or (east) and cross to the north to go up Buswell Rd. on various errands or shop. That’s also the way to Dairy Queen if I’m just out for a walk. To go west to work I walk in front of several office buildings, including one where a number of my fellow Vancouver Coastal Health workers are employed, which I refer to as ‘the gold building’ for its colour, and a condo tower built after we moved here and a lot where a Shell service station used to be. If I don’t take the aforementioned shortcut but walk to the end of our block and north on No. 3 Rd., I pass the first Macdonalds in the country, built in 1967 – no longer the original building of course.  A few years ago a disgruntled ex stabbed his former wife and her lover to death there, right in front of the counter. Don’t take this the wrong way; our neighbourhood is normally not like that at all. Across the street here is Brighouse Park where the floodlights are sometimes on when I come home because of a ball game of one kind or another. During the 2010 Olympics there were huge water filled Olympics rings on the grass at this park, with Richmond’s famous cranberries floating on tip. There was also a free Ferris wheel ride to get a better view of the rings from the air. The ponds around the City Hall were full of cranberries floating on top too.

After crossing Granville Road to the north I generally walk past our Richmond City Hall, an architecturally award-winning tower built in the ‘90’s. At night, and especially around Christmas, the trees around the city hall, including along the park across the street to the south, are lit up with colorful LED lights. These are permanent in the trees along No. 3 Rd., Richmond’s main street; that goes north past City Hall and Richmond’s largest mall, Richmond Centre. I cut across a parking lot on the north side of City Hall through a break in a hedge and I am now in the parking lot of the mall. Here, as frequently elsewhere on my journey, I often encounter squirrels and rabbits. Gulls, ducks, usually Mallards, crows and Canada Geese frequent the City Hall grounds with its trees and ponds. I have even seen Canada Geese perched on the mall carpark wall and Sears roof!

If it is raining I will walk though the mall – doors open at 8 to accommodate the hordes of walkers, tai chi practitioners and exercise groups that make it their home in the morning before the shops open. I can take my pick of several routes within the mall, but none cross the food court anymore; they moved that upstairs and expanded it a year or so ago after closing down the last remaining downtown movie theatres there. Can you believe I have not been upstairs to the food court yet? Anne always says I am easily tempted by junk food and treats. Well, I have walked past Papa Beards (mmm cream puffs and eclairs – never been there, although I have had their wares from elsewhere), Purdy’s Chocolates, Macdonalds and all those vendors in the food court, which used to include Dairy Queen before the move, with hardly ever making a stop. Indeed, we had been in Richmond eight months before we realized there was a Tim Horton’s on the east side of the mall! A friend came to visit and asked Anne to meet her there…

If it’s not raining I prefer the fresh(er – no air is fresh when your walking amongst cars and buses in the city) air outside and walk around Sears and OK tire and up past Sportcheck, Cobb’s Bakery – occasionally stopping in there to redeem a coupon or buy something to boost morale at work -  and Kin’s Farm Market, sometimes picking up produce there on the way home as I reverse my tracks; these all open to the west side of the mall. Then I cut straight north across the parking lot until I meet up with Minoru Boulevard and continue north past a few condo towers and more parking lot until a crosswalk. For safety’s sake I have attached reflective straps to my backpack – yes, I carry a backpack full of ‘homework’ and my agenda that usually weighs at lest 10 lbs altogether including my lunch. More training - because there have been too many pedestrians killed in crosswalks in our city and of course for too many months of the year I am going to and from work in the dark and rain when visibility’s very bad for motorists to be able to see pedestrians. Just to the south of the crosswalk in the median are two lovely old cherry trees that bloom most beautifully in spring. The City of Richmond parks workers keep the flowerbeds around the tress fresh with new flowers all year round too. They do the same for other sites I pass, particularly in front of City Hall and Brighouse Park. Sometimes they are quite creative with the ‘sculptures’ they include.

Currently, the one and two storey low rental homes that have stood across the street from the mall here for years have been demolished to make way for another 5 high-rises, two of which (some 300 units) are still to be for low rental. Behind them are three identical high-rises built in 1968, the first in Richmond. Their brick walls and full-length balconies are quite different than the glass and steel of today.  Then it is past Minoru Residence, Richmond’s tertiary long-term care facility. In spring the apple blossoms filling the east courtyard of the residence bloom wonderfully as they hang over the hedge as I walk north along Minoru Blvd. If the clouds aren’t covering them, here and from on Number 3 Rd I have a nice view of the North Shore Mountains, all the way from the Lions Ears to Grouse Mountain. They are at their most beautiful after a fresh snowfall in winter. At night one can see the ski run lights sparkling in the distance. Once I watched a pair of Bald Eagles fly over the park behind the hoses and residence and go north to light on the top of the Marriott Hotel, which is one of a row of hotels on Westminster Highway at this point.  Then I turn down an alley before getting to Westminster Highway, Richmond’s other main road, and head west past the back of the long-term care facility to our office building adjacent to Minoru Park. There are a number of maple trees around the parking lots here that are a wonderful red in the fall. I cut across the parking lot of our building, past a dumpster sometimes frequented by raccoons, and go around the west side, past a couple of dogwoods and hydrangea bushes – more nice blooms at the appropriate times of the year – to the entrance of our building and  - voila – I’m at work. The entrance of our building faces Minoru Park, a fine inner city garden in a Japanese style. Punch the appropriate numbers on the keypad to let myself in, disarm the place if I’m first there in the morning, which is often the case, and I’m on my way upstairs to unlock the doors there, turn on the lights, unlock the file cabinets and get my files. We go through all this because just before I moved here a disgruntled ex-patient (Israeli ex-soldier) stabbed his counselor to death in the parking lot outside the Adult Mental Health Centre so safety precautions have been upgraded.

This has been my route three, and more recently two days a week, for the past 7.5 years; I cut down to a pre-retirement 4-day week in the fall of 2011. On the other two days a week my walk to work is to the southwest instead of northwest.

I go to the end of our block and instead of turning north towards Macdonalds I turn south. Sometimes I walk all the way down Number 3 Rd. to Blundell directly. Other times I go down a block and cross to take a shortcut to Minoru via Acheson. This is all residential area except for a couple of service stations and a Seven-Eleven as well as a convenience store flower/garden shop at the corner of Number Three Road and Blundell.

Then it is west along Blundell, crossing Moffatt where crowds of grandparents, parents and kids are sometimes going to school via the crossing there. There may be some high school students meeting me to go to the high school that is east of here; the Asian (as they call those of Chinese origins here) boys with their unisex hairstyles and the girls with their impossibly skinny legs (now there's an expression I've wanted to place somewhere for along time...). A couple of blocks past Gilbert Road and I am at Blundell Elementary School. Again, in spring the parking lot and the park at the back of the school have cherry trees, which look so nice when in full bloom. I cross the parking lot and walk around either side of the school to the double portable at back (south) that houses our office. I walk up a railed asphalt covered ramp and I’ve arrived. Sometimes I don’t walk all the way to the school. I cut across the Richmond Baptist Church parking lot and the playground at its southwest corner to pass through a gate in the schoolyard fence and then walk along the school to come around to our portable from the east. Again, if I’m the first, I have to turn to the school first to disarm the portable before gong back to unlock the door, enter and turn on the lights. After the shooting at New Town Connecticut this winter, our school doors are locked all day now and there are newly installed metal ‘blinds’ pulled down over the windows at night. Fortress America, here we come!

So, sometimes I take my car to work, especially if it’s pouring rain or I am going to other places during the day, e.g. schools for meetings or observations. However, I try to walk at least 50% of the time – both ways. Sometimes when I go to Blundell my wife gives me a ride and continues on to shop at the Safeway at the end of the block; there is a large collection of shops at Blundell Centre there, including restaurants staff and I have sometimes attended – or Macdonalds where I’ve sometimes gone for a Flurry or ice cream treat on a warm summer day. Hey, it’s another walk!

Someday I may video representative sections of my walk(s) to work…

Thoughts on Suicide

The recent loss to suicide of the child of a friend has prompted me, particularly as a psychiatrist who works with children and adolescents and their families, to write this piece.

Parents' loss of children is always upsetting. It is unnatural, against the order of things. Parents are supposed to die first. If that loss is due to suicide, the effect is magnified.

Some of the natural responses to such an event are questions such as, what causes suicide and how can we prevent it.

Although some debate this, particularly in the circumstances of terminal illness and late life, most suicide occurs in the context of depression. This risk can be increased if there are other issues present such as substance and alcohol abuse and psychosis. As such, with rates of depression increasing among young people, we can expect the numbers of suicide to increase unless we do more about the background.

One of the myths that still persists is that talking about suicide might bring up the idea and increase the risk of its occurring. This is entirely false. It probably stems from our own discomfort and denial with discussing such a threatening subject. We don't want this to happen so we don't talk about it. We need to talk about it, just as we need to talk about mental illness in general, to decrease these fear-based taboos and stigmas. Inquiring about and counseling against suicide is a regular part of my practice. One thing that I stress with my patients and their parents is that suicide is a symptom of depression. It is the false ideas of the value of life created by depression in one's diseased mind. It is not an impulse to be yielded to. If anything, it tells us that we need to work harder to overcome the depression.

There are many strategies to try and prevent suicide, not the least of which is, of course, to try and prevent and adequately treat depression, psychosis and substance and alcohol abuse. Supporting those who work to promote wellness and combat mental illness in your community is part of this. This could even include contacting your political representatives and government to promote more support for this area. We need more work in this area than we need more jails. There are agencies with websites and suicide prevention numbers to call that every person with depression and their family should always have available. We need to open up the channels of communication about those who suffer with that and their families and caregivers so that they can receive the support they need until they recover to the point that suicidal thinking is no longer an issue. And that, of course, is the other point to stress again, that once the sufferer’s depression begins to resolve, the suicidal thinking will disappear.

Having said that, we need to realize that, as concerning is the prospect of that is, that we will no more be able to prevent every suicide than we can prevent every other type of mishap that we fear. Suicides even happen in mental health wards where people are admitted for closer observation and more intensive treatment.

As Christians, I think most of us are moving beyond the idea where we think of suicide as always a sin. Indeed, it was once considered legally a crime. We know of Christians who have committed suicide. My belief is that in the throes of depression, the person is really not in their right mind when it comes to making a decision about this, and for that I think it helps us to hold on to the belief that our all-merciful and forgiving heavenly Father does not hold that against them.

Of course, when a suicide has occurred, we need to be there to support the family and friends of the lost loved one. They need our presence, our prayers and reassurances for the struggles and questions that such an event raises for all of us.

- NOTE: the above minus about 250 words to meet their editorial limit was published in the April 15, 2013 issue of The Canadian Mennonite.