Sweet Memories Are Made of This – Food
September 27, 2010 § 8 Comments
Then I started thinking about how many wonderful memories are associated with food.
Image by Joits via Flickr
Amongst my earliest recollections as an adult was the Sunday fare when I boarded with the Hunter family in Richmond, B.C. while attending college. What particularly stands out is the Yorkshire pudding that accompanied the roast beef and gravy.
Of course, that was just a precursor to the pecan pie! I’ve had a weakness for that sweet pastry delight ever since.
I boarded with the Hunters for three years and we’ve remained close friends – more like family – over the years. In fact, I just celebrated my 50th birthday with them.
It is 27 years this fall since Joyce and I started dating. At one of our first outings, I made a small wager for dinner. I won. Joyce made me Chinese food. I reciprocated with a spaghetti meal shortly after. Very nice memories of our first weeks of dating!
Over our 20 years in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, nearly every Christmas dinner was shared with Jeni and Jim Rice and their daughters in alternating years. Our kids are grown now and dispersed. We live three provinces away, but I can almost smell Jim’s rhubarb-strawberry pie baking as I type.
It was wonderful to share these many special occasions with another family when neither of us had relatives in the Sault.
Speaking of food and family/friends could not be complete without mentioning my sister-in-law, Louise, and the sumptuous carrot cake recipe she shared with me many years ago. It’s been the highlight of many gatherings in our home and in the workplaces Joyce and I have had over the years.
When I mentioned my idea for this blog, many friends ate up the idea of sharing their memories.
Here are a few:
Jackie Ostashek, Parkland County Communications Co-ordinator
My Baba (Grandmother) has mastered the art of making cabbage rolls. She makes them so tiny, they are barely the size of the end of your thumb – and sooooo delicious. She always makes them in this ceramic dish that is probably 50+ years old. I swear that is the magic behind the most spectacular cabbage rolls.
I was nervous about telling her I’d become a vegetarian. But my Baba, being the amazing lady she is, took it in stride. Knowing how much I love my cabbage rolls, she makes a point of making them, bacon-free, every time I visit.
This amazing and spectacular woman turns 98 October 1st. For a woman of her age, she is shockingly spry and modern in her thinking. I can only aspire to be half as amazing as she is. But no matter how much I try, I will never come near her talent in making her tiny, tender and amazing cabbage rolls – even if I inherit the old ceramic dish.
Alina Popescu, Principal, Mirror Communications, Bucharest, Romania
They don’t make bread like they used to!
I might sound like an old lady, but the statement is nevertheless true. The best bread I’ve ever had was while visiting my grandparents (from my dad’s side of the family) in a small village near the town of Ramnicu Sarat.
Getting the bread was quite an adventure. I’d take my tiny bike and ride it to the bakery, a trip that seemed to take ages, when it was actually a 10-15 minute bike ride, but time always flows a lot slower when you’re young.
I’d buy this huge, round bread, put it in my bag and go back home. I would just walk along the bike because the bread was way too heavy for me to be able to ride. I’d get home to an extremely warm and lively kitchen where my grandfather would wait for me with stories and smiles while grandma would bicker about the meal being ready for quite a while.
We’d place this huge, wonderfully smelling bread in the middle of the table and break steamy pieces out of it as it was too fresh to cut it.
Whenever I sense the smell of bread resembling that special type that I cannot find no matter how long I look for it, I am taken back to a place of extremely long days filled with wonder, where I never asked for any given day to be longer than 24 hours.
Grande Prairie businessman Brooks Hoffos
Shauna and I were in Cinque Terre, Italy. We hopped off a train and grabbing a lunch break in a quaint little restaurant.
We had a local Chianti wine and spaghetti and local fresh clams. Now, whenever we cook spaghetti and clams, it takes me back to that time and place. We shared a table with an Aussie and an American. We laughed. We drank. We ate. We bonded. It was a great experience. Italy also made us the cooks we are today. It was a life changing experience! Forever!
Debra Ward, Edmonton Communications and Professional writer
I can’t remember what we even ate but my family and I were in Christchurch, New Zealand having dinner at this really nice restaurant when we all had an attack of the “sillies”. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, made us laugh uproariously. …It was a memory moment.
The first Christmas back in Canada was the best turkey dinner with all the trimmings dinner I have ever had. It was special because it was our first “in Canada” Christmas meal after living overseas for so long and because it would turn out to be my mom’s last.
Dale Tiedemann, Youth Facilitator, City of Grande Prairie
Family Dinners at Grandma’s place were the best! Always delicious with home-grown vegetables (she had a market garden)! It’s always amazing watching her cook…no need for a recipe, just add a little of this and a little of that! Plus, you can’t forget about the home-baked goodies for dessert…chocolate pie with whipped cream! Yum! 🙂
Grandma doesn’t cook as often as when I was younger, but when she does … bliss!
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So, what stories do you have where you and family and/or friends partook in some great food while forging wonderful memories? Want to share any special recipes?
Moshin’ and a-rollin’
September 13, 2010 § Leave a comment
This summer, I attended two different day long music festivals. One was Warped Tour, the other was the Sonic Boom Festival. Both were in Edmonton and set up at Northlands.
I’ve been going to concerts and outdoor shows much like these two for over a decade. It was odd watching the shows through my nearly thirty something eyes. I looked at the young kids at the shows and remembered what I thought of people my age when I was their age.
“Oh my god they’re so old. I’m never coming to a show like this when I’m that old, they’re so out-of-place. Don’t they know they’re too OLD?”
The perspective was based out of what nearly 30 somethings are supposed to be doing. When you’re this age you should be married and settled down, possibly with a couple of kids, a steady job and a house. People who have those don’t go to punk or rock shows. Once life starts, you aren’t allowed to have any more fun.
And I suppose there are a group of people who actually do live that way, after all, the stereotype had to come from somewhere. And yet there I was, with other nearly 30 somethings, and some over 30 somethings, at each show. Hanging out. Enjoying the music.
There is one major difference in how I participate in the shows though. The mosh pit. That’s right, back in the good old days I was right smack dab in the middle of it. I’d mosh all day and emerge from the pit, my hair a mess, and smelling like only a kid in a mosh pit could smell… the odour of other people’s sweat mixed with my own, perhaps the fumes of somebody’s joint or cigarette mixed in. Oh yes, somehow that was a desirable state to leave a concert in. These days, I appreciate the music from afar. I enjoy being able to see and hear what’s going on over attempting to support a crowd of body surfers above me while holding my own in a gnarled pit of other teenagers there to jump around while pushing and shoving one another in a mild form of chaos.
The rock show pit is much like I remembered it. Disorderly, unruly. Some moshers were watching out for their felling pitters, but many had no regard for those around them. They would jump, push, shove, whatever they wanted to break through a crowd, trampling any in their way. Experiencing it first hand at Edmonton’s Sonic Boom Festival reminded me of why I quit trying to be in the centre of that crowd.
Warped Tour was a different story. Find yourself a pit at Warped Tour, and you’re more likely to encounter what is known as the circle pit. I have no idea where this concept originated, but it is the most orderly mosh pit I have ever seen.
Everyone knows what to do in a circle pit, when one starts to form, the crowd that wishes not to participate backs up to make room. As soon as the space is there, participants start to run around in a great big circle. Yes, they run. And they’re all going in the same direction. There’s no body surfing in a circle pit, because there aren’t enough people to support body surfing.
Watching one particular pit, there was a point where many of the moshers stopped running around in a circle, and then started to do the same moves. It looked like they could have been kick boxing. It didn’t look like most of them knew each other, and yet they all knew the same pattern of moves. Had they been close together, they surely would have hit one another. And yet, in the confines of the circle pit, they had enough room and nobody got hurt.
Ten years ago, the pits at both shows probably would have been very similar. I find it intriguing now to see the subculture that’s morphed over the years into the different scenes I saw before me at these two shows. And it surprises me that those at the punk/metal show appear to have developed more regard for one another at their events than those at the rock show. They seem more harsh on the outside, but what I’ve observed tells me differently. What I see here is more community than we’d ever get from the mainstream.
I’m no anthropologist. But how this subculture developed is of interest to me. Did it have anything to do with a stronger sense of identity for the Warped Tour crowd? Or was it all just one big coincidence? And on a sidenote, if I were growing up in today’s youth, I wonder which group I’d identify with more?
The obvious lessons are always the hardest to learn
September 7, 2010 § 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia
This summer has taught me a much-needed lesson. Well, it’s RE-taught me rather, because I know I’ve encountered this one before. I don’t know that it’s the last time I’ll need to revisit this lesson, but it seems to be in a different capacity each time, so that a good thing, right?
The lesson I’m learning is this:
I am not exempt from the effects of the natural progression of life or from the laws of this universe.
How incredibly obvious. And yet, it remains something that I, and many others out there, continue to try to defy. Youth has proved my defiance right in the past, but three separate instances this summer have given me reason to pause and rethink my approach.
The first one is that over the last couple of months, I’ve noticed a fairly consistent ringing in my ears. I figured it was stress and would go away once life settled down. It’s the end of summer and life is settling down. The ringing is still here. I also find myself straining a bit harder to hear what people say. I once could hear what others could not, now I’m turning up the volume?
The second is that I’ve had an incredibly busy summer, which isn’t out of the ordinary. But instead of feeling refreshed and invigorated from all of the activity, I’m just plain worn out. Where is my youth that thrived on that energy level and used it to fuel and propel me forward?
Thirdly, I was home for the long weekend and I took my dog Tetris out for a run. As we jogged down by the creek in Millet, I noticed that my calves and my shins weren’t as spry as they should be after a summer of shenanigans and Ultimate Frisbee. In the past, I’ve always bounced back fairly quickly after a lot of activity with minimal maintenance and effort.
What’s going on?
Age.
Last fall, David had a post about the importance of health before wealth. It was a great reminder to take care of ourselves now. And yet I was still of the mindset that I was young enough that I didn’t have to. For the first time, health before wealth is really hitting home for me. Of course I *know* that things like stretching after exercise, eating well, getting enough sleep, etc. is important. But I’ve always bounced back quickly when there was a lack of any or all of these things.
Had the hearing, the sore muscles and the exhaustion not happened within a short period of one another, I doubt I would have paid them much attention. But I’ve always believed that when things come in threes it’s a signal. Here’s my signal to put health before wealth.
The somewhat ironic part is that in doing so early, I become exempt from many of the situations I may find myself in if I continued to ignore the lesson here. But it most definitely makes for a clear choice. Health before wealth now for me too.
What’s In An Age?
August 24, 2010 § 4 Comments
Image by clevercupcakes via Flickr
So, I turn 50 on Saturday. Yes, a half-century old. The Big Five-Oh.
While this blog focuses on motivation and inspiration, you won’t find me using phrases like, “you are only as old as you feel” or “age is only a number.”
In fact, I’ve never had any strong feelings about reaching any significant age. This year is no different.
However, a colleague gave me pause for thought the other day. She remarked, “We are getting older, David.”
There is no doubt we are. But any reflection I do on the subject revolves around realizing that I continue to grow as a person and as a professional. I learn about myself and the world around me every day.
I aspire to the phrase that when you stop learning, you stop living.
Certainly the signs of advancing age are there – less hair and what I have left has streaks of what I refer to as “Arctic blond” otherwise known as grey.
I can’t do some of the physical things I used to do as well or with as much stamina – the onset of Type 2 diabetes has had a noticeable effect on my eyesight and is likely responsible for the degenerative discs in my neck.
And because I take medicine for diabetes, I don’t drink alcohol. So, if I want to party hardy, I won’t do it by consuming booze.
However, I am content that virtually all the things I have ever really liked to do, I can still enjoy wholeheartedly.
I remain an avid sports fan. I still like to crank up the tunes – and I have yet to reach the stage where I need to. Live theatre is a great interest and being in the great outdoors is an enjoyable daily occurrence with my wife and Jasper, our dog. I still relish hiking and tent camping.
I continue to maintain the motto: Never grow up. Just age gracefully.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is the importance of fostering great friendships.
I’ll be marking The Big Day with Joyce by visiting some of them – the family I celebrated with while boarding at their home 30 years ago when I was attending college in Richmond, B.C.
Friendships can also occur with anyone of any age and background. It’s really a matter of connecting with people who are meaningful and enhance your life. It’s not just who you connect with but how.
For example, my blog mate, Wendy, has become a close friend since we met at a conference in May 2009. Soon after, we realized we had much in common and decided to create this blog to develop content for inspirational and motivational book(s) and collaborate on other projects.
Wendy is 28 and I am old enough to be her parent yet we can readily finish each other’s sentences and routinely one of us says something that sparks ideas for the other. We often enjoy long conversations via Skype between Grande Prairie and Calgary.
She has remarked that I am her 20 years from now.
It would be a great loss if either one of us had put up barriers to this connection.
I’ve been inspired by other younger people lately.
The City of Grande Prairie’s Economic Development Officer, Brian Glavin, just turned 25. He has the wisdom and poise of someone much older. This makes him a joy to work with and talk to on any subject.
Brian is bound to be a leader in our organization for many years to come and will have a great impact on his community or in any venture he takes on.
Then there’s Mary Leong who I had the occasion to speak with a few times this summer through her internship in Grande Prairie helping youth seek employment.
Mary, who grew up in Singapore and has been in Canada just five years, will go as far as her ambition takes her. I was immediately taken by her enthusiasm and wide array of interests.
She’s studying political science and psychology at the University of British Columbia. Her future will see her doing either research on how technology shapes cognition and its subsequent effects on political behaviour or something in foreign relations. Perhaps she will be an ambassador or a diplomat. Who knows, maybe she will be Prime Minister.
Mary has already accomplished much in her short life. I look forward to keeping tabs of what are sure to be many success stories authored by her in the future.
At the other end of the spectrum is my mother-in-law, Mary Black, who turned 87 in April. Visits with her bless you with her peacefulness and sense of simplicity. Plus, there is probably not a kinder, gentler, classier person in the world.
So, what is in an age? It’s up to you!
Causes With Credibility
July 26, 2010 § 3 Comments
When politicians come to my door at election time and start telling me all the ills of their opposition, I immediately switch the conversation to what they will do if they get into office.
Let’s face it, if the political hopeful is talking about the party in power, I already know about them, so I don’t need someone else’s opinion.
If it’s the incumbent talking about the contenders, then they aren’t focusing on accomplishments achieved while in power and what they plan to do if returned to office.
I had much the same feeling of the non-focussed politician at my door when some American environmentalists launched the Rethink Alberta campaign recently. They want to draw attention to environmental issues surrounding the oil sands in Northeastern Alberta.
Their campaign attempts to get tourists in various parts of the world to avoid travelling to Alberta. One gets the sense from seeing the video, in particular, that there was a recent oil spill in the province or that all of Alberta is an environmental wasteland.
Give them credit for slick production capabilities, pun intended, but beyond the propaganda, I ask much the same question as I do with the politicians at my door. “So, what are your solutions?”
I am sure they’d reply that creating the campaign is their contribution. If you want to identify problems, be sure to have solutions.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I applaud environmental efforts of all kinds, whether these are community-based garbage cleanups in the spring or much larger initiatives such as cleaning up the Great Lakes. I admittedly am not the greenest person in the world, but I do attempt to do what I can at a household level to recycle, reduce and reuse. I also clean up garbage on neighbourhood walks throughout the year.
I’m also a rebel with several causes. I supported a campaign to build a swimming pool in a former community. I’ve written letters to the editor when I believed wrong had occurred. I competed for a seat on a school board. I was a union steward while employed at a newspaper.
The problem with Rethink Alberta is it is nothing more than a smear campaign against the whole province. Essentially the goal seems to be to hurt the economy in Alberta.
I would love to see cleaner forms of energy production. The fact is, however, few people in North America are doing much to reduce reliance on production from the oil sands.
Are the environmentalists taking the shot at the oil sands doing anything to clean up their own country? Are they protesting the damage the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is causing?
I created a Facebook Group to draw attention to the environmental protesters. It is called: Concerned About Environmental Issues in Canada? Clean Up Your Country First!
My hope is to create some real dialogue on the issue rather than having some people point fingers at industry and government with no reasonable solutions. Let’s face it, if there aren’t consumers for a product, the industry wouldn’t be there.
I want to see money invested in research to find solutions to cleaner forms of energy. It would be great if more people walk, car pool or take transit to work, for example.
The real answer lies in all of us caring enough to make change and challenge governments and industry to do better.
However, trying to get tourists to avoid Alberta is not the answer. In fact, it could easily backfire because most travellers tend to check out the landscape before hopping on the plane and jetting abroad.
When they open up their magazine or go online and see Mount Edith Cavell or Maligne Lake, they may want to come.
Oh and by the way, when the students from the nearby elementary school come to my door to fundraise, I make them tell me how the money is being used. Same with the hockey players looking for sponsorship.
They need to be accountable, just like the politicians coming to my door and the environmentalists trying to sway opinion.
If the environmentalists really want to gain credibility, they need to stick to the issues and the facts.
In the meantime, if you live in Alberta, you know what we have.
If you’re reading this in another part of the world, check us out. We have our issues and they need to be addressed. What place doesn’t? We also have some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. We are also very hospitable. Check us out for the real story.
Be. Do. Have.
July 19, 2010 § 2 Comments
For most of my life, I had the first two words of these three words reversed. Do. Be. Have. A certain type of person had the things I wanted to have in life. But in order to be that type of person, I had to first do all the things that kind of person did. That meant I had to build my life and the things around it before I would ever reach that level. To me, being the person that I wanted to be was going to take years.
Last year, those words were switched up for me. Be. Do. Have. That meant I could already be the person that I wanted to be. By being that person, it would drive my behaviour to already do the things that person does and eventually have the things that person has.
As it turns out, when you’ve lived your entire life from a ‘Do. Be. Have.’ perspective, changing that around to ‘Be. Do. Have.’ is a little trickier than just switching a couple of words around. Learning to BE before I DO has proven to be a tough process for me.
But DOing first before I can be is not working for me. It’s keeping me in a perpetual cycle where I’m striving so hard to reach the level I want and I never quite seem to get there. Why? Because there will always be an endless list of things to do. And in a scenario where DO comes first, it’s a stage I’ll never get passed.
The trick, I think, is in letting go of what I thought I was and accepting the fact that I already am who I want to be. I’m BEing her.
Who knew changing the order of two words could make such an impact?
Be. Do. Have.
Deja Vu All Over Again
July 6, 2010 § 1 Comment
My wife and I were visiting my Mother-in-Law and other family in Ripley, Ontario last week when I heard a thought-provoking statement that jolted me out of my seat.
They were busy sorting through some genealogical documents when Joyce’s mother came across a photo of her late brother. Gordon Berry McGuire died 66 years ago this month in World War II.
She paused and remarked, “We never learn, do we?”
Indeed, it seems the world has not progressed a lot from what one would have hoped could have ended global conflicts.
There’s been virtually ongoing unrest around the world in the interim. This has ranged from religious-based upheaval in Northern Ireland to larger scale fighting involving several nations such as the Gulf War.
Gunner McGuire, a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery, died in action on July 11, 1944 and is buried in the Canadian War Cemetery in Beny-Sur-Mer, France. He was 25.
Mickey, as he was known to his troop mates, inadvertently picked up an activated grenade, left behind by the retreating Germans. Sounds very similar to the roadside bomb casualties we hear from the ongoing Afghan war.
At times like this, I hear the words of John Forgerty’s song Deja Vu (All Over Again), produced in 2004, comparing the Iraq War with Viet Nam, chiming through my ears.
Joyce’s Uncle Gordon is laid to rest in a graveyard with more than 2,000 other fallen soldiers from Canada and other Allied countries.
He is among about 200 men who perished in World War II from Huron County alone.
In June, Canada passed the 150-mark in losses in the Afghan War. We are supposed to be withdrawing in 2011, although I suspect our military involvement will continue beyond next year. Our pullout can’t come soon enough for me.
Our role in rebuilding the war-stricken country gets lost on what seems to be almost daily news that more of our soldiers have been killed.
The most heart-wrenching stories are those where we hear the soldier is just days away from returning home from a tour of duty. They are a husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father, or brother or sister.
For a country with a relatively small population, Canada has a glorious war history, particularly for courage in specific significant battles and for our significant participation in freeing Paris and Holland in World War II. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy.
The Dutch remember Canada fondly to this day for our soldiers’ role in returning their country to them.
In the Second World War, Canada joined forces with the Allies to defeat the Nazis. We would also take engage in the Korean War. Canada participated in the first Gulf War but declined to in the second.
Since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, there is reason to suggest the Nazis and the Axis Allied countries might have attempted some kind of global domination if they’d been successful in their advances.
It’s always difficult to determine how and when Canada should be involved in conflict on the world basis since only once has our own country ever been under attack.
In the War of 1812-1814, combined forces of British and colonial Canadian residents and Native Canadians defeated intruding Americans.
Now, Canada is viewed as a world leader 143 years after confederation.
I am not here to point fingers as to who is right or wrong in disputes in other lands. Factions in those nations believe in the rightness of their respective positions.
Their arguments don’t make sense to me – but then I was brought up to value life, my own and the lives of other people. I can feature risking my life to save a loved one. It would never occur to me to list Suicide Bomber on my business card.
It still galls me when Canada enters these frays and loses lives when they are not defending our borders. I support our troops and understand that Canada is a world leader. But there is also no guaranteed end to our involvement in Afghanistan and I would not like being the one telling a family they have lost a loved one.
While our government makes decisions on what battles to engage in on the world stage, would it be right for another country to attack us because it disputed something we are doing?
What is the impact of deciding not to enter certain conflicts? We came out looking good by not joining in the Second Gulf War. Some question what the difference is between the war in Iraq and that in Afghanistan.
I am more concerned with the bigger picture – the prospect of a larger threat.
That is because Mary Black is correct. The world never seems to learn.
John Fogerty had it right, too – Deja Vu (All Over Again).
O Canada – True Patriot Love
June 30, 2010 § 2 Comments
I suppose it was only natural that the Canadian Public Relations Society national conference was held just a couple of weeks before our country’s birthday.
Several moments during the three-day event held in Regina June 13-15 evoked strong sentiments of patriotism – and I don’t know of anyone prouder of our great nation than myself.
First, I met people literally from sea to sea during the conference so there was already a special feeling to the event.
Since it’s been a long-term dream of mine to travel to every part of our country, I was thrilled with this great opportunity to network with these colleagues from near and far, a few I had connected with in person before, but most I only knew by name. Numerous, like me, were attending for the first time.
It is always wonderful to gather with people from your own profession. When they also happen to be from every part of our great land, it is a terrific time to learn more about our country – first hand from people who live in these other places.
While we occupy the second largest country in the world and there are definitely some regional characteristics, Canadians really don’t vary a lot from coast to coast. It is more the personalities of each region and accents that stand out.
For example, the opening meal of the conference was dubbed as a Fowl Dinner, essentially the fare one should expect from the region around Regina. Some diners were not sure what the small white objects were near the end of the food line. Some wondered what the white condiment was. Well, they were perogies, of course, and you would want sour cream to accompany them.
Next June, I will be able to fill part of my Canadian travel void since the conference is scheduled for St. John, New Brunswick.
I have a brother-in-law who teaches at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, so it will be wonderful to make a side trip. Oddly enough, we will make it to the East Coast faster living in Alberta than by being in Ontario for 20 years. Since my wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary, it will be a splendid opportunity to make a holiday of it.
Another moment of nationalist feeling came when Lynda Havertock, president and CEO of Tourism Saskatchewan, gave an inspiring account of efforts to market the province in recent years.
It gave me pause for thought because a lot of people think of Saskatchewan mainly in terms of its major cities of Regina and Saskatoon, the prairies and, of course, the Roughriders.
Most people would not think the province could offer water enthusiasts a body of water the size of Lake Diefenbaker or other remarkable landscapes like the Cypress Hills.
Everyone has heard the jokes of how you will begin your day driving across Saskatchewan and can see far off in the distance where your day is going to end.
What this tells me is that if you take time to stop, every part of our country has something to offer.
An especially poignant moment came when our group stopped in at the RCMP headquarters and took in a presentation by new the latest crop of new officers. I had my photo taken with new recruits from my current location in Grande Prairie and my former community of Sault Ste. Marie.
It caused a few misty eyes to consider these and other new officers are about to put their lives on the line every day for residents near and far from their homes.
The highlight of the conference was Peter Mansbridge.
I have never found the CBC anchor to elicit much emotion from me, but I was extremely proud to be a Canadian when he illustrated the impact of what people from our country have had abroad.
He should know. Mansbridge has travelled the world over countless times in his decades with our national broadcaster.
Mansbridge recounted how he encountered a young girl in Sri Lanka who had wonderful thoughts of Canada thanks to medical aid administered by nurses from Vancouver. They had thought it to be imperative that they travel to the tiny country when natural disaster wreaked havoc.
He reminded us that the Dutch memory of Canadian troops liberating their country in World War II lives on in school children today. They visit grave sites of our fallen soldiers from that conflict.
Then there is the young woman he met from Afghanistan who is so taken with her new country of Canada that she feels compelled to return to her homeland to tell people there how good it is here.
As Canada Day approaches, it was great to have even more reasons to feel good about this nation.
Many Canadians are so busy navel gazing that they fail to recognize just how wonderful our own country is. Sometimes it takes a visitor from another country or someone who has been abroad to drive that message home for us.
I enjoyed my visit to Regina. I learned even more about a part of the country I had only previously seen driving back and forth across the country.
It was also great to be connect with a lot of new colleagues. I look forward on gaining additional perspectives on our great nation next year in St. John.
Happy Birthday, Canada, Our Home and Native Land!
Music Makes the Moment
May 31, 2010 § 17 Comments
It was a typical Saturday morning as I was getting ready to walk the dog.
Our weekend morning ritual begins with sitting in the hot tub listening to some tunes and guzzling some freshly-brewed java. The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun came on as I re-entered the house for breakfast before hitting the trail.
What a perfect song to begin the day! Mr. Sun smiled down on a great trek.
And who better than the Beatles to provide the background music to an uplifting day? They are arguably the most important band of all time. Their music is timeless – often imitated, never duplicated.
As I walked, I began musing about how important music is to me, either making my day when I am already happy or helping me come to terms with life when I’m down.
It’s only natural that either Wendy or I would write about music in this blog. We often use a lyric from a song or the name of a tune to describe a situation or an idea when we speak. I began an earlier blog with a lyric from Tom Cochrane’s Life is a Highway.
My wife says I use musical lines at the drop of a hat.
She’s right. Where better than stories told through the lyrics of music to find a handy comparator? Over time, every conceivable situation has been described in song.
Although I’m a good old time rock and roll fan, the blues and jazz are also favourite genres.
Different music suits varying situations.
While a pop tune from the Fab Four is perfect to spring out the door on a walk with the dog, I prefer nothing more than the gritty, cutting words of Warren Zevon in songs like Lawyers, Guns and Money while cleaning up in the kitchen. Not sure why. Perhaps getting involved in the late singer/songwriter’s ballads is a good way to forget that I’m doing a task that no one relishes.
I have seen many of my beloved performers in concert, including Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, the Rolling Stones, George Thorogood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Healey, Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, and Colin James.
Some of my favourite lyrics have come from these artists.
When I say or do something on the irreverent side, Thorogood provides the perfect line … Bbbaad to the Bone.
Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac bring hope with Keep Your Eye on the Prize (The Boss did a remake of the Pete Seeger song on his tribute album to the folk legend) and Don’t Stop (a song from the 1977 Rumours album) respectively.
Taking care of Business from Bachman’s BTO days was a perfect anthem for my time operating a communications firm.
Other songs have even deeper meaning.
Simon and Garfunkel’s hit Bridge Over Troubled Waters is a song I think of when I’ve brought peace to a situation or helped someone in need of a friend. It was also chosen by my Grade 7 class for confirmation.
My eyes well up when I hear the Beatles Let it Be because of its gripping inspirational quality.
What could be more heartening than John Lennon’s Imagine? Ironically, this peace-preaching musician would die at the hands of a crazed gunman.
Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s Complicated song reminds me of how I’ve put up barriers at times with new people in my life.
Billy Joel’s Innocent Man was important to me when I began the relationship with my best friend and now wife.
I’ve used the Trooper song Raise a little Hell to remind people who are bemoaning their lot in life that it is up to them to take matters into their own hands:
If you don’t like
What you got
Why don’t you change it?
If your world is all screwed up
Rearrange it
Raise a little Hell …
There is no better way than music to pay tribute to someone you care about. We recently said goodbye to Frank Drodge of our Facilities Department at the City of Grande Prairie. He died far too young at age 50 on May 10. Frank was also known as the drummer and promoter of the local band Anywhere But Here.
Frank was remembered for his hard work, kindness and good cheer and I loved exchanging yarns of favourite concerts and bands.
I bid you adieu, Frank, with a favourite song title from Bob Seger.
Rock and Roll Never Forgets.
Other songs bring back happy memories.
My father couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I can remember him often reciting a favourite song written during the First World War, There’s A Long, Long Trail – A Winding.
I remember little from my high school graduation – come on now, it was 32 years ago – but recall vividly Queen’s We Will Rock You belting out at the bush party I attended (I wonder if my Dad ever discovered that I lifted a bottle of rum from his liquor cabinet for the occasion).
Nothing is more memorable than the prank I pulled on my wife-to-be at the 1983 St. Paul Journal Christmas Party. I bet her dinner that the “next song” would be Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll.
Little did she know that the DJ was also the bus driver for the hockey team I covered for the paper, and I’d rigged the wager. Mmm, that was good Chinese food. I later reciprocated with a spaghetti dinner.
There are campfire songs to enjoy with a bunch of friends. Show tunes such as those from the Beverly Hillbillies and Gilligan’s Island are fun to sing along to while making a long trip and needing to stay awake.
That was a fun memory during our overnight trip to the West Coast from Grande Prairie in 1987.
It was time to pull over for an early morning meal when we started into Raffi’s Down by the Bay!
So, music really does make the moment – sometimes it makes a sad moment happy. Other times, it helps makes sense of a situation.
At other instances, it is good just to take away the Sound of Silence.
Are you a rock? Are you an island?
May 17, 2010 § 1 Comment
What’s your typical response when dealing with a situation? Do you clamp down and not let anyone know what’s going on? Do you think you’re strong enough to weather it all on your own? Do you feel gratification when you’ve proved to yourself that you can handle anything? That you don’t actually NEED anyone? If you answer ‘yes’ to all of the previous questions… well, you and I were so very alike not that long ago. I had a need to prove to myself that I was strong enough, I was good enough and I could accomplish anything on my own. I could deal with any situation. Life couldn’t bring me down. I was a rock… I was an island.
At some very recent point, I pulled my head out of the sand long enough to realize just what it was I had done. I took a moment to step back and admire all that I had accomplished. I’ve done well with my career, live in a decent neighborhood, I’ve dealt with some pretty big life issues and I’m still standing on my own two feet. And I did it all by myself. The puzzling part was that the rest of the world wasn’t cheering me on when I emerged. Why weren’t they happy for me? Why couldn’t they see the struggles I had been through to get where I am? Why couldn’t they understand the reasons I had been working so hard for so long?
Because I was a rock and I was an island. Tough to the core. Unwavering. But here’s the thing: Rocks are hard to work with and islands are difficult to get go.
Nobody was cheering me on because none of them knew what was going on. My self importance, my need to prove something to myself had a much larger impact than I could have foreseen. And it’s an impact that I want to reverse.
I’m still proud of myself for my accomplishments, but I wonder how much easier everything could have been if I had taken the approach of a more malleable, connected material? As I opened up and began to share more with those that were once close to me, I found something extraordinary happened. All of those struggles, the trials and tribulations I sought to handle on my own didn’t seem so hard to deal with any more AND there were people applauding me along the way for everything I was trying to do.
So the questions remains – will I do it differently next time? You betchya. Except for me it’s not just about next time, it’s about every time. One day, one person and one situation at a time to create a new shape for me and a new connection in the world.
davidolinger
Wendy Peters & David Olinger
Wendy Peters
The Muse and Views 