TRUE NORTH, STRONG, AND FREE
Saturday, September 12, 2020
I’ve been reviewing my situation, and it’s not good, but I don’t know how to quit.
There is no sense-making for our feelings, there is no ‘set of facts’ for all of us – the playing field is not level, and the competition is between the need for normalcy and sanity vis-à-vis a crazy-making future of misinformation, and politics vis-à-vis opportunism – those who want to make new businesses, services, and enterprises to serve our needs.
The ability we have to be resilient, optimistic, and self-motivating is compromised.
Six months of COVID-malaise, and this is still the beginning stages of this pandemic.
The middle is yet ahead of us, and the end is nowhere in sight …
I would love to believe 50% of the words of the optimistic talking heads, but I’m more inclined to believe 50% of the pessimistic ones. We are resilient people; we are a resilient cold-weather winter-resistant society. We are hewers of wood and drawers of water; we supply our country and so many others with food, minerals, lumber, pulp & paper, cars, manufactured goods, and talent.
Canada and Canadians are tough stock, and we’ve been toughened by history, service, and suffering. We’ve fought for others, our troops have kept the peace in many war zones, and we’ve sent troops, equipment, and money to aid others. We deal well with truth, and we don’t need our politicians to lie to us for Canadians to remain patriotic, peaceful, and helpful to others.
And we aren’t fools.
COVID is not a country we can police or send troops to fight – but it has invaded us like no enemy in over a century. We need to stick together, we need to support prudent actions and criticize malfeasance -
Stay safe, wear a mask, wash your hands, hug fewer people for the next couple of years, give up handshakes for a couple of years, drive less, meet face-to-face less, and vote liars out of office – that’s all we need to do. Oh, and work hard.
Work hard, create, be clever, be fair, be firm, be clear, and be Canadian.
p.s.: Kudos to the Hudson’s Bay Company – their ‘original charter document,’ signed by the king of England on May 2nd, 1670, allowing them rights to trade into Hudson’s Bay – an action which really took Canada from ‘fishing grounds with land attached’ to its destiny as resource and proud rich-country and colony of Britain, and later a fully independent nation – that document, is being shipped to a Museum in Winnipeg to be displayed for Canadians to see. It’s not our constitution, but it’s pretty fundamental to who we were, and to who we’ve become. A country with flaws, racism, unresolved and incorrect acts – but we know we are.
Reader feedback:
The challenge, the struggle, is to be more than a pawn, more than a puppet, RH, Calgary, AB