To thine own self be true

(The Father of Canada and Confederation)

Long gone are the survey courses in both of my youth. With the usurpation by politically-correct topics, kids no longer know, study, or encounter:

Frederick Banting

Alexander Graham Bell

Billy Bishop

the Bluenose

Robert Borden

Brebeuf

General Brock

the amazing Building of the first transcontinental railway (CPR)

John Cabot

Guy Carleton

Jacques Cartier

Samuel de Champlain

Company of New France

Confederation

Conscription

Constitutional Act

Coureurs de Bois

Depression

Diefenbaker

Adam Dollard at Long Sault

the Donnellys

Tommy Douglas

Durham Report

Lief Ericson

Evacuation of Japanese Canadians

Expo 67

First World War

FLQ Crisis

Fort Louisbourg

Terry Fox

Fur trade

Alexander Galt

Wayne Gretzky

Group of Seven

Chris Hadfield

Halifax Explosion

Gordie Howe

Joseph Howe

Henry Hudson

Hudson’s Bay Company

Imperial Conference

Jesuits

Henry Kelsey

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Klondike Gold Rush

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

La Verendrye

League of Nations

Literature, Canadian

Loyalists

John A. MacDonald

Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Alexander Mackenzie

Jeanne Mance

Metis

Military, Canadian history

Montcalm

French-Canadian Nationalism

New France

Newfoundland

NORAD

North West Company

North-west Passage

North West Rebellion

Painting, Canadian

L.B. Pearson

Plains of Abraham

Port Royal

Quebec Act

Queenston Heights

Radisson

Red River Colony

Red River Rebellion

Regina Tornado

Louis Riel

St. Lawrence Seaway

Second World War

Seigneurial system

Seven Oaks Massacre

Seven Years War

Joey Smallwood

David Suzuki

Ken Taylor

Tecumseh

David Thompson

Treaty of Paris

Pierre Trudeau

Sir Charles Tupper

Union Nationale

George Vancouver

William Van Horne

Voyageurs

War of 1812

Winnipeg Strike

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How well do new Canadians and Canadians under 40 know the history of our country? How well do they know, understand, and appreciate the broader, big-picture sweep of our country’s culture and its most famous and important people and events? Many have little or no sense of pre-2010 Canadian history back to the Viking visits in Newfoundland in 1000 AD. *That’s 10 centuries of ignorance, basically. A major cultural vacuum.* It’s interesting, with all the new incoming First Nations curriculum, how little attention is now being paid to the rest of Canada’s history as fostered and generated mainly by the English, the French, the Scots, and European immigrants before 1950 in six of those 10 centuries. Canadian history today–who needs it?

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Further: The past is now more forgotten and slighted than ever these daze. The ironic result of this is that few people under 50 and most newcomers to Canada have little or knowledge of this country’s history and the process which led us all here to now. No context and no large significant frame of reference for viewing things. This is yet another reason why politically correct types have run amok with zero perspective, context, understanding, and appreciation of the past. The sort of recklessness, nastiness, and vandalism, for instance, that has resulted with historical statues and monuments being vandalized or removed is often blind and cases of reverse discrimination (something seldom discussed when political correctness is being cited or played as a trump card).

The basic textbook of Canadian history that generations of Canadian elementary students of the past learned from in the twentieth century. It had a run from 1928 into to past 1960. I studied it in grade 5 (1959-60) and many of the names and events listed above were encountered for the first time then. It was a romantic take on Canadian history told in narrative form, but it was fact-based nonfiction. If you or someone else who knows little or nothing about Canadian history wants a quick easy reader, then you will find copies of this book sold on ABEbooks and Amazon.ca.

Lots of fun, educational, etc. Basic and advanced questions. Highly recommended.

A recommended puzzle:

“Touch is the meaning of being human.”–Andrea Dworkin, Intercourse

“Touch is the landscape/of what is possible.”–Kate Green

“We are what we are, the spirit afterwards, but first the touch.”–Charlotte Mew, Charlotte Mew and Her Friends

“The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.”

“Our job is to straighten out our own lives.”

“When everything is lost and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed.”

–Joseph Campbell

(April 2007)

After my mother died, I experienced the reflectiveness of orphanhood and jotted down some bearings which I rerecord here.

What about “me”? (in no particular order)

-How much longer will I live? How and when will I die?
-How long and how much do I want to continue to work? At what point, is work interfering with more important things?
-What things need doing? should be done while there is time and personal energy?
-Travel–where and while able
-What are the `missing pieces`, the unfulfilled dreams?

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What Are People Most Afraid Of? (in no particular order)

-cancer, serious painful illness
-death
-lack of money to survive
-losing their worlds
-aloneness, loneliness, isolation
-not being or never having been loved
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What Is the Crap of the World?

-greed
-gossip
-toxic people -lies, dishonesty with self and others, personal and social hypocrisy
-lack of common sense, stupidity and choosing these
-pursuit of sex and money above all else
-games: manipulation and control of others: treating others like crap
-selling of everything, advertising everywhere, exploitation of others for profit
-material acquisition per se, `show`
-betrayal
-thinking one is better and superior to all others (EGO)–privileged, entitled
-inability to listen to others–total selfishness; I am IT, there is no one else
-overindulgence and intemperance–junk food, smoking, drinking, drugs
-bureaucracy, red tape
-politics

What Is Good?

-family, friends: their support, protection, nurturing
-people who listen and help others
-good luck and good timing (never discount these)
-Nature, natural beauty–birds, animals, pets, landscapes
-excellence in choices and one`s skills or talents
-those things that work, that one can rely on
-fulfilling work and its distractions–how it satisfies self
-having something one is really looking forward to
-touch, love and its distracting involvements and healing powers
-good food, air, sleep, health
-larger spiritual matters–deep inner nourishment of the soul
-literature, music, the arts
-thoughtful, sensitive conversation with kindred spirits

1. What is my bliss? What do I like? What am I into? What am I passionate about? What can I lose myself in/distract myself with? What is positively engaging, immersive, and distracting in my life?

2. What am I good at? What are my strengths? What do I have to offer others and the world?

3. Who can I rely on and trust? What for? To what extent can I do as completely as possible for myself? What are my current (known) limits and limitations?

4. What missing pieces do I still have in my life? Do I need to address any isolation, alienation, or loneliness? How might I do this?

5. What specifically is ‘to do’, remains undone, unfinished, and unfulfilled?

6. What do I have to look forward to today, soon, or in the near future?

“I am all the things I am
A lot like you,
I am all the things I am
And you.”
–James Mireau, friend, former student, filmmaker;
Klark, “Return to Note”, Task Lighting album

We can do it and make more bucks off it, so it’s happening, baby.

Example: Telus’s fascistic fibre-optics campaign to win the war with Shaw. “It’s gonna happen whether you like, want, or need it, baby.”

(Imagine our best writers without markets of readers…)

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underfinanced community especially through their online offerings. Kenney, the other premiers, and Trudeau need to get their asses in gear to help foundering arts groups and bookshops.

It is impossible for artists to share their works sans government support. Otherwise, we are going to lose most arts offerings and groups in Canada which would be a major loss to civilized and aesthetic living and experiences in Canada.

Human society needs the arts to feed people’s imaginations, feelings, minds, and souls. The whole expressive vein and venues have been shut down and we are impoverished beyond belief the last four months.

And so the big combines rolled into 1930s Oklahoma, driving out the farmers, destroying their farms and farmhouses to earn a wage.

Today in E-Town, the Telus crews roll thru neighborhoods tearing up lawns (befitting of a wasteland city), putting up ugly orange, red, and blue flags. Only afterward does some smiling guy come to the door (regardless of No Soliciting and We Do Not Answer signs) to say that the ‘combines’ have arrived again (as if you did not notice), that they want permission to run a line to your house beyond those markers on your real property (the question to invade the house will come separately by a better-dressed guy).

And, if you don’t agree, they will leave a ‘flower pot’ at one spot on your lawn for perpetuity until you cave in to in this massive takeover war against Shaw here. You’ll pay more and Telus will own you own right. ‘Friendly persuasion’ to avoid a permanent ugly pot you never asked for. And not a word from the City about your rights.

Yup, it’s back to the ’30s Dust Bowl and that helpless feeling that Okie farmers had as they watched the big combines invade, this time to destroy your house and property. All for money, jobs, and another uncontrolled corporate takeover in depressed times. Smilin’ guys at your door (“It’s my job” and “No problem”). Grapes of Wrath revisited.