Bringing light to the darkness

I'm not sure how best to describe this, but I often struggle to communicate effectively with Canadians. For a start, they don't laugh at any of my jokes. It's quite probable that most of my jokes aren't funny, but under the sheer weight of trash that I say you'd expect something to be funny at some stage. The probabilities are such that even if I'm very unfunny, someone should have laughed at something by now, if only just out of politeness. But the people of Canada don't even laugh in an awkward way at the things I say. Not even while backing away and deciding whether or not to report what I've said to child protection officers. No, they greet everthing I say with a kind of earnest, well-meaning bafflement.

One reason for this that is not related to my own significant limitations is the substantial cultural gap between Canadians and everyone else I've ever met. As an example, not one Canadian I've spoken to has heard of the "Beached As" whale cartoons. Given that 200 years from now, people will be looking at these cartoons as the early 21st century's equivalent of Rembrandt, I think this is a pretty serious thing to be missing from your life.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The pop cultural chasm between Canadians and everyone else I've ever met is unfathomably deep. It is beyond the hope of any single person to bring the light of youtube to this dark and barbaric place, let alone an Australian. And yet, I feel like I can't stay here in good conscience without bringing one candle to light the intellectual and aesthetic cave that is the West Kootenays. And hopefully, with that candle the people here can start a blazing fire that brings civilisation and a better life to this whole land.

Perhaps here, in Rossland, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single chup.