Oak

Oak trees have always been a favourite of mine. I like how they stubbornly hold on to their brown, crisp leaves well into winter, like an old man with a full head of hair. Where there are oak trees there is wildlife, acorns are a great source of food. I once read, somewhere, that oak trees are the most likely to be struck by lightning. No wonder the ancient Celts revered them, for they are chosen by the gods of the sky.

I understand that French oak makes the best barrels for ageing wine. I've tasted it, in a bottle of Bordeaux, I must recommend it.

Have you ever noticed that the fruit of the oak, the acorn, has a tiny little hat, like the beret of a Frenchmen? The connection to wine in the light of that fact seems all the more appropriate.

The largest oak that I know of in Cambridge is an ancient one at the northern end of the cricket field in Victoria park. I could take two or three of you and join hands and we may still not encircle it's trunk.

The Means of Production

I wonder if manufacturing in Canada is dead or at least terminally ill. The area that I live in Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo was at one time heavily industrialized. Now I see that our rate of unemployment is higher then in Halifax Nova Scotia. Five years ago if an economist made that prediction he would have been thought a lunatic.

Take a look at the photograph above its taken in a factory that is no longer a factory. It speaks to the way thing have gone. My father worked here for thirty five years. He helped make things, important things, large fans for the mining industry. I would imagine that some of the things that he skillfully built are still turning away helping to pull raw materials from beneath our northern frontier. Only now more and more of those raw materials are moving across the sea to build things that we once built for ourselves, providing people like my father a good job to help support his family.
When I was about ten my fathers union negotiated dental benefits in their contract with the company. Those benefits were hard fought for, I think that they came at the end of a strike. I know that many people are ideologically apposed to trade unions, but I have to say that I enjoy having my teeth now because of them.

The factory now is an outlet mall. Mostly everything in the place is made in Asia and then shipped to our shores. The place employs many people in its shops and shoe stores, but I don't think that many have dental benefits.

I'm small, tiny, insignificant before it all, but I'm flying.

Silly

I once loved a girl named Lily

she had a lovely sister named Rose

Lily was a perfect beauty, though

she had on each foot, six toes.

Lily left me standing at the altar

I guess she was mine to lose.

She found out that I was a poor man

and couldn't afford her special shoes.

Now I have myself a pretty wife

my silliness she always handles.

She may not share Lily's beauty

but she sure looks great in sandals.

Life

Small whirling winds are our spirits that hit the plain in the heat of a summers day.

Our bodies are the chaff and dust picked up and moved along, we are dust devils.

Temporal, temporary, ephemeral, we settle back to the field, but our winds blow on.

Canada Day 09

I remember working with a couple of guys a few years back they were first generation Canadians. Their families had immigrated from Europe when they were young children. I can't remember what we were talking about, but I said something about Canadian culture. The guys just laughed at me and one of them said that the definition of Canadian culture was ketchup on kraft dinner.

I thought that was a funny line. It made me think. Canada doesn't present the greatest culture to the world, nor does the US. I'd have to give that title to France.

I love living in Canada, enjoying the rights of a citizen that can only be had in a liberal democracy, rights guaranteed under a strong charter.

This is a nice place. Coast and woodland, prairies, mountains and a North that is more then just a direction, its a place thats vast and wild.

Tonight I'm cooking chicken the best way that a person can...Italian. I'm be drinking the finest beer...German. I'll be doing this in the best place for me and my family...Canada

Happy Birthday Canada!