Monthly Archives: November 2022

Inspiration, My Story

Finishing Strong

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We will encounter curves, pitfalls, unknowns and rewards. It’s always too soon to give up.

When we celebrated my 80th birthday on March 14 of this year, I felt I had attained a significant life milestone. Like many who survive to this elevated age, I had not expected to come this far along the path of life. Living to what is sometimes referred to as a “ripe old age,” was never on my bucket list.

The question that looked me squarely in the face at this juncture was one I had not anticipated. I began asking myself, “what lies ahead? Will I live out my remaining days contending with aches and pains and boredom, or is there more?” Dozing in an easy chair in front of a tv offered no appeal.

Looking back over my shoulder at the path Linda and I have travelled to this time, I realize that from the beginning, we were restless. At times we strayed somewhat inadvertently from a pretty safe path into challenging circumstances we really weren’t prepared for.

I’m certain we disappointed our parents when after about two years of marriage I left my job as a heavy equipment operator and Linda resigned from her position at the Royal Bank. We loaded our van with essentials, including camping equipment, and set off along the Trans Canada highway, without a destination or plan in mind. For almost three months we lived in a tent on the shore of Sheridan Lake, among mosquitoes, open range cattle and black bears.

Thinking about that decision now, I realize that this seemingly foolish move set the compass of our lives to this day. Sitting around our campfire one evening I said, “I’ve been thinking about our future. I’d like to go to university, but I know we don’t have the means.” Without hesitating Linda said, “I could get a job.” Shortly afterward, we took down our camp and returned to civilization.

After four years focusing on sociology and political science at SFU, I worked initially for Community Services in Abbotsford. Then, as a program coordinator with M/2W/2, I regularly interacted with inmates and staff at Oakalla, the BC Penitentiary, Matsqui Institution and other prisons. I finished my working career at the One Way Adventure Foundation, running work and recreational programs for young offenders.

In retirement Linda and I have devoted countless hours to community causes. We worked with the Lamont family to secure the release of their daughter Christine and her fiancee David Spencer from lengthy sentences in a Sao Paulo maximum security penitentiary. We also gave many hours to thwart a U.S. corporation’s plan to build a power plant that would have sent its pollution across the border to the Fraser Valley.

For eight years our adventures and challenges were featured in a weekly column I wrote for Black Press and for this blogsite. I also wrote about the people, events and history of the Similkameen Valley. Linda and I interviewed a number of individuals, including John Horgan, Princeton mayor Spencer Coyne, and John Terbasket, a highly respected elder in the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. This was an exciting, challenging time and I felt privileged to have an audience.

At the beginning of this year, after eight years of writing for Black Press, I realized I no longer wanted the pressure of producing a column each week. I decided to move on and focus on writing for the blogsite.

Although I’m tempted at times, I’m still not ready for the easy chair. Having visited my father almost daily when he was in a longterm care facility, I’m very aware of the emotional, mental and physical withering that inevitably comes with old age. I saw white haired men and women sitting quietly in their wheelchairs all day, lonely and bereft of meaning and joy. Some lived with pain.

A minority refused to bow before the onslaught of the years and compromised health. These courageous, indomitable souls won my great admiration and respect. For me they have become role models.

Now, having walked along the at times uncertain path of life so far, I consider myself blessed to still be able to walk, talk, write and more. The challenge that lies ahead is to stay as healthy as possible. Also to develop the will and courage to finish strong.

 

Inspiration

It’s Time To Think For A Change

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photo by Anthony Tori on Unsplash

Discerning observers of the ongoing turbulence around the globe are expressing increasing unease as they attempt to understand what is coming. My friend Aaron is one of those convinced the future is murky, dark, and dangerous. Certainly the covid scare and predictions there is more to come is reason to feel jittery. Putin’s war in Ukraine is another of the myriad issues sending tremors to all corners of the globe. Add to these floods and droughts, and it’s not surprising that there is a growing sense we are being held hostage by environmental disasters, health issues, faltering economies, a grasping for power and wealth by politicians, and more.

Because Canada has enjoyed such a largely uninterrupted run of peace and prosperity, many of us are inclined to shrug off warnings of impending disaster. We hope the harbingers of doom are mere conspiracy theories, disinformation, or the concoctions of foolish minds.

But Aaron and and others with similar views and concerns insist a deluge of fateful events is about to overtake us. “When people are overly focused on their personal issues,” Aaron said, “they aren’t aware of storm clouds hovering just over the horizon. They may be acutely aware that the cost of their mortgage is spiralling upward and petrol, groceries and heating fuel prices are squeezing us more and more. Maybe they hope that by ignoring the increasingly ominous signs, they will escape the negative impact of what is coming.”

The Biblical account of Noah predicting a world flood is an early example of complacency. People indolently watched Noah building his famous ark day after day, not realizing they would one day bitterly regret their apathy and ridicule of Noah. Even if this account seems a stretch to some, we can learn from it.

According to Jared Diamond in “Collapse”, disaster may advance upon a society surreptitiously and unobserved. He suggests the people of Easter Island didn’t understand the disastrous ramifications that would flow from their denuding the island of trees.

Unless we experience a calamitous event personally, we tend to carry on as usual. I wonder if we have become so comfortable with our cozy existence, so complacent, we are unable to understand that we are beset by danger. And we may not know how to respond wisely when calamity overtakes us.

For at least the past year some alternative media have sounded the alarm about a looming global economic, environmental and political crises. Recently an American financial expert wrote an article entitled, “Should you Move your Money by September 21?” He suggested the U.S. government is preparing legislation that will enable it to seize the savings of many Americans. He reminded readers that in 2013 the government of Cyprus skimmed funds from the savings accounts of its people. To this time not all the gloomy predictions have come to pass, but significant upheavals in various places suggest all is not well and we need to prepare as best we can for an uncertain future.

Unlike Noah, I don’t know precisely what is coming, and like our politicians, I cannot offer an all-encompassing response. I do believe though that at the personal and neighborhood level, we need to think seriously about how we can undergird each other in scarce times. With grocery prices already making some foods out of reach for people with meagre incomes, the time has come when talk and good intentions are not adequate.

My friend David has impacted my thinking in this regard. He lives on a couple of acres on Old Hedley Road and each spring he plants an enormous garden. On Sunday mornings he brings vegetables and baking to the little church in Hedley. At times others follow his example, bringing fruit, vegetables and baking. Much of this food is consumed during the fellowship time after the service. Everything left over is given to anyone who wants it. We leave feeling we are part of a family that, when adversity strikes, will pull together and gladly share resources. The time may be coming when more of us need to follow David’s example of giving to our neighbors.