Apparently, knowledge is a good thing. It enlightens us and sets us free. Knowledge is power, which is a great quote and also a fairly reasonably priced trivia game. We should all acknowledge that we need more knowledge.
But I can't help but feel that, given our current news cycle, it might be better off if events hadn't taken us to a place where I know a lot more than I want about certain things.
For instance, I could stand to not know as much as I do about the exact location of Quebec.
Again, qualification here. Long before the last few weeks I knew where Quebec was. It's one of those places people in the U.S. refer to as being "up north." Which is true, if a little unspecific.
Not that incredibly polite Canadians would, but they shouldn't take offense at that description. It seems most U.S. residents also refer to any states past Missouri as being "out west there somewhere." Geography, both internal and external, doesn't appear to be our long suit.
Blissful ignorance of Quebec's exact location, particularly as it applies to wind patterns, would have continued to be a feature and not a bug for most of us. Except that it seems large parts of Quebec caught fire.
And by large I mean, LARGE. Quebec and, frankly, all of Canada are large places. Our northern neighbor is 1.6 times larger than the United States, but has 10 provinces compared to our 50 states. How Canadians must laugh and laugh at the thought of Rhode Island.
Canadians operate under the model that someone has to want to live there for them to make it a separate place. Before we find fault with that, remember North and South Dakota exist.
Anyway, large parts of Quebec caught fire recently. And as a result, large amounts of smoke descended on the United States. And you thought oil, maple syrup and Ryan Reynolds were going to be Canada's leading exports.
So, thanks to the fact that there is no Canadian equivalent to Smokey the Bear (actually there is: Ember the Fox. But you get the point), the Northeastern part of the U.S. was shut down for a time. And we got treated to sights of people walking around in masks. Which wasn't the least little bit triggering, given relatively recent events.
It would have been so great not to know that really unpleasant stuff runs downhill and large amounts of Canadian smoke runs to the U.S.
And while we're on the subject of things I know now that I sort of wish I didn't, I was unaware, specifically, that we had both the Presidential Records Act and Espionage Act. OK, I kinda knew there were laws covering both those topics. It's just that I'd really rather not have known the details.
You would have assumed you could have grouped both of those under the famous "Don't Do Stupid Stuff Just Because You Can" Act. Which isn't an actual law but ought to be. Or the "Take Better Care of our Nuclear Secrets than Most of Us Do the Warranty for a Waffle Iron" Act. Again, should exist, doesn't.
But, no. For days, weeks and, heck, months ahead we're going to get a regular dose of all the details that go into safely storing very important documents. Since it seems our government is among the last places in the world that actually has sure enough, on-paper documents that aren't those offers for aluminum siding you get in the mail. By now you've have thought we'd have gone paperless, since it's paper that always seems to get you in trouble. That and tape recordings.
Now don't get me wrong. As a somewhat informed citizen I have a duty and responsibility to understand to what extent people's lives will be disrupted by cataclysmic natural events and to hold accountable those elected officials who, when it comes to storing important stuff, decide to forego really, really secure places like vaults for bathrooms and garages.
But I wish I didn't have to. Mostly because I think I and many of my fellow countrymen and women (and quite a few Canadians, I'm sure) just wish so much bad and/or stupid stuff didn't keep happening so closely on the heels of other bad/stupid stuff. Its been a rough few years. Could we all just chill out on the dumb and terrible for a bit?
It's like Albert Einstein said: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot."