Gratitude

I am thrilled to see the sun this morning. My family is all healthy today, and I have several meet-ups planned with various friends today to look forward to. I am filled with gratitude for this. I like to start and end each day thinking about the things that I am grateful for. It seems simplistic, and perhaps Pollyanna-ish, but I can say without hesitation that gratitude has changed my life, remade it even.

Giving thanks is not something we learn much about. Like many of us, I grew up always seeing the obstacles, fearing the worst and generally going about life as though I were fighting a rearguard action. I am not sure exactly when it began to sink in, but I had seen the little lessons from here and there, and about ten or fifteen years ago I decided to change the way I look at things and see only the plusses (and any minusses that I could change or do something about).

For me, gratitude is nothing more than the simple act of pausing in quiet reflection, fixing something that is wonderful in my life in my mind, and letting the feeling of gratitude well up inside me. If you have a spiritual tradition that includes some power greater than yourself, it is nice to send that gratitude in the general direction of this power. If not, just feel the power of gratitude in yourself and maybe share it with those you love. I think that love is sort of the inevitable result of gratitude, but that is a story for another day, along with a story about the differing traditions of Canadian and American Thanksgiving.

I sincerely wish for you that today you have something in your life for which you are grateful. Just a little thought or two on this American Thanksgiving.

Thanks.

Beaches

We spent the August Bank Holiday weekend on the beach down in Cornwall. The weather was fabulous and I got to thinking about how we are really at our happiest when we're near the sea. This picture was taken in Gorran Haven, near where we were staying.

It may be just that we are away from home, and that's always liberating. But I don't think so: other trips never seem to have the same cachet or memories that visits to the sea always leave with us.

I suppose not everyone is the same. For our family, though, a sojourn at the beach rejuvenates us, lifts our spirits, and leaves us calm and happy for days or even weeks after returning home.

Does it matter what beach? It doesn't seem so: here are some pictures of some of our other favourite beaches. I can't say we are happier at one or the other, although I guess it's pretty obvious that the Pacific is our "home" beach.


Gearhart was our favourite beach while we were in Oregon. Only 45 minutes from our home in Forest Grove, it was an easy and comfortable place to spend the day, whether it was winter or summer.

No trip to the beach was complete without a stop at Camp 18, the logging museum cum cafe cum gift shop that was 18 miles from the end of Highway 26.





But we also went to Sayulita Mexico in 2006 and loved walking along the beach there.







Our first trip to Hawaii in 2005 took us to Oahu, and we loved the beach right in front of our hotel. Alex ran down the hall in the lobby towards the beach, yelling "Why-kee-keeee!" on our second day there.







Our return to Hawaii in 2008 took us to Maui, with the same result: we all fell in love with the beach all over again.




We got married on the beach in Tofino BC in 2001, and in 2009, we returned to the same beach on a motorcycle trip for our anniversary.


Almost everyone will have a picture of themselves on some beach in their album of favourite places, or will tell a travel story involving a beach when asked about their favourite trip. Why? Is it just because beaches are among the most beautiful places on earth? Is it because the ocean calls out to our spirit? All I know is, there is definitely a beach in my future, and if I play my cards right, I will be able to see it from the windows of my house.

Religiosity

A friend asked me recently about the differences between the three countries. I’ve obviously spent a lot of time thinking about that, but on this particular day it was religion that occupied my thoughts. There seems to be a particular hue to the practice of religion in the three places.


We’re all reading from the same book: the Bible. But just like Islam and Judaism, the various sects of Christianity all have their own spin on it. The book itself is still the peculiar mixture of Old Testament books taken from the Torah, a collection of letters and anecdotes from Jesus’ time, all tied together with allegory and metaphors written by the members of a then-obscure cult some 400 years after Jesus Christ died.


I think Canada has inherited England’s mainstream sort of laid-back, benevolent and slightly irreverent moral ethos, while the Puritans’ rigid moral backbone still beats at the heart of US religion. You see both sides in England: just like in the States, yet another MP gets caught in some scandal admiring a dark-skinned young woman or having a dalliance with his gay lover. But, more like Canada, people tend to mostly laugh and shrug rather than get their panties all in a twist about it.


Unfortunately, it is the humourless brand of puritanical fervour that mostly obtains in the US. It makes for no fun. No fun is guaranteed to drive people away, even if they carry the guilt and shame with them when they go.


Of course, there are almost as many flavours of Christians as there are people in the U.S. Given the propensity for individuality, everyone wants to start their own religion. And a lot of them are fun, it’s just that the really zealous sorts are the ones that make the best headlines.


I personally really like Mahatma Gandhi’s take on the dominant paradigm of the English-speaking world. He said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

America Grows Up

America is a big, strapping country now, but it has not been so long ago that America was a drooling infant learning to stand and walk and talk.

As America grew to toddlerhood, it had its spells of brilliance, and the world oohed and aahhed over its grown-up Constitution and Bill of Rights. Like Mozart, America was a prodigy, producing in its infancy the Declaration of Independence; one of the best political documents ever written, and one that will stand with the Magna Carta in the annals of history.

But America also had its tantrums and fits pf pique and it nearly destroyed itself in an internal war.

When World War II came, America proudly marched into battle, eager to test its mettle against the enemy. Idealistic and brave, Americans threw themselves wholeheartedly into protecting the downtrodden from bloodthirsty enemies. It invented new technology, fought bravely and, with the rest of the world, looked into the face of evil and mourned the loss of innocence.

In the 50’s and 60’s, America grew into a brash, gregarious, fun-loving teenager, culminating in a nationwide love-in in the late 60’s.

In the years since, America seems to have lost its early idealism, sense of fun and even some of its bravery. Like many of us in our twenties, it seems sometimes to have lost its way. I think that some people are wondering about the waste, the greed, and the arrogance that seem to have informed some of America's foreign policy and even internal policies these last 20 years or so.

A mere 200 years is not enough time to mold a great civilization or really to draw any conclusions about its history, but I only hope that somewhere out there Americans are pondering their way of life and thinking about the legacy they leave in the world. Given what I know about Americans, I think that they are.

Following Somerset Maugham's advice that "The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit*, here are a couple of tidbits about Canada, the US and the UK.

One of the sillier quotes about Canada is that "Very little is known of the Canadian country since it is rarely visited by anyone but the Queen and illiterate sport fishermen." Certainly no longer the case, post-Expo '87 and the more recent Olympics in Vancouver. As for the US, I always laugh when I hear the quote about how the US is the only country in history to have gone from barbarism to decadence without having passed through civilization in between.

But by far the pithiest expression I've heard of the great gulf that separates the two Children of a Common Mother, is:

The boundary between Canada and the United States is a typically human creation; it is physically invisible, geographically illogical, militarily indefensible, and emotionally inescapable.
Hugh Keenleyside, Canadian diplomat, 1929

As a Canadian who grew up in a mountainous backwater of British Columbia, the US was always like a big brother: you were never sure on any given day whether you hated or loved it more, you were fervently competitive while harbouring a secret belief that you would never best it because it was always so much bigger, and you bore the good-natured pummeling it inevitably handed you stoically.

To me as a Canadian, however, the UK was like an irritating great-aunt: overbearing and largely irrelevant, but you still had to be polite whenever she came to visit.

Now that I am in the position of living in, or having lived in, all three countries, I have slightly different views. Canada has grown mythologically in my memory since I left in '04. I have an even greater belief in the horrendous failure of the US to live up to its promise as a country, while simultaneously having the greatest regard and love for the American people individually. And the UK has so far surprised me greatly with its civilized way of life and overall sweet disposition of its people (excluding that one jackass in the BMW who raced past blaring his horn when I was trying to back out of my driveway one morning).

Intro

The Peace Arch straddles the border between the US and Canada south of Vancouver, BC, on the way to Seattle Washington. On it is inscribed a saying: “Children of a Common Mother”. I am a child of Canada, briefly immigrated to the US, now migrated across the sea to live in the womb of the mother country, England.

Some of these posts are slightly political, some are philosophical, and sometimes I make off the cuff comments about religion. I do not intend to disrespect anyone’s beliefs, culture or politics. These are my thoughts and opinions, and if you disagree or are offended, please feel free to respectfully correct me or post alternative views, but I don’t want any vitriol so save it for “Ann Coulter is Batshit Crazy” or whatever your chosen outlet for spewing invective is.

I may also occasionally just blather on about motorcycles, dogs, kids or home improvement, so pick and choose your area of interest and thanks for reading!