Archive for canada
Grateful days
So, Sunday was Valentine’s Day. Yesterday was a British Columbia holiday called Family Day. Already a one – two punch for lots of people, especially during the pandemic. I am trying to come up with a holiday for today to complete a trigger hat-trick. (A-Plus Day? Let’s Splurge Day? Beauties Day? Continence Day?)
Home
This is from late 1999, on my way to the clinic to get my staple-stitches out. I had injured myself trying to hop a curb with my bike: I tipped over, shattering my humerus, separating my shoulder, and breaking a bone in my neck. I was in the hospital for about a week.
It was an exceptionally sweet time for me, though. My care at St. Paul’s hospital was marvellous and friendly, and there was no bill. Lots of friends and colleagues and clients from work came by. My brother and his wife brought their kids. I enjoyed morphine for the first and last time.
I was still pretty new to Canada – born here but raised in the States, not returning until 1996. It was during this hospital stay that I saw manna falling from the sky – here, in Vancouver, BC. I was given such grace.
The photograph is by my dear and esteemed friend Lincoln Clarkes, who had brought two pies to my hospital room.
Thanksgiving
I’m lucky to be celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with two dear friends up the street later this evening. I love this holiday, and obey its name. So many blessings have filled my life.
Canada’s “Covid Alert” app
My friend Chet Wisniewski, a world-renowned expert in data security, breaks it down for you: “These apps are like wearing a mask. They are there to protect others as much as yourself.” Chet’s convinced the app protects user privacy. I’m signed up.
To the south
After I moved back to Canada in 1996, I spent many years trying to determine what made Canadians and Americans different. I came to two conclusions: (1) Americans are ruled by zeal, (2) Canadians by a sense of the commonweal.
About a month ago I decided to go with a third conclusion as well: Americans hate one another.
Considerable simplifications, I know, but with high explanatory value.
Whining
Back in 2013 I wrote:
Unless they mean it humorously, when people utter this phrase – “but I’m not complaining” – they are *always* complaining; i.e., they are expressing “pain, grief, or discontent.” What these sad and/or irritated individuals mean to say is this: “But I’m not whining.” That is, they are not complaining in a petulant, feeble, long-lasting, or high-pitched manner. Nonetheless, they *are* whining, usually, despite their protests of innocence, aren’t they?
I felt I needed to come up with a formula to get my insight across: “If you complain about the same thing three times in a row, no other significant topic intervening, then you are in fact whining.”
With the pandemic, it has become almost impossible to interrupt one’s complaints with other topics. For example, my partner lives in the United States and we can’t cross the border to see one another. The “pain” and “discontent,” if not the “grief,” is continual. On the few occasions I am not talking about it, others are asking me about it.
So therefore, a new formula: Whining = just fine.
Morning walk
Lost Lagoon.
It’s easier to physically distance oneself from others in the mornings and in Stanley Park, but the place is still busy.
I’m blessed to be living in this paradise.
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