Last night. On a bottle of gin. Not really, but I savoured every ounce. KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, Flight number 692, Toronto to Amsterdam. First leg of a 24 hour journey to Johannesburg, South Africa. I noticed Bols Corenwyn – Aged Dutch Genever at the top of the spirits list on the menu as IContinue reading “I got loaded”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Celebration
… There’s a party goin’ on right hereA celebration to last throughout the yearsSo bring your good times and your laughter tooWe gonna celebrate your party with youCome on now Yesterday would have been Mom and Dad’s 64th wedding anniversary; given Dad would have been 89 and Mom 93, the chances of celebrating the occasion wereContinue reading “Celebration”
Ahead by a century
“Your uncle would have been a product of his time.” The statement weighs heavy as the last line of my notes from an afternoon of conversation with Fr. Cor Schilder, appointed as our host on a visit to Mission House Vrijland, a retirement home for Dutch Mill Hill missionaries in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands. Fr. KeesContinue reading “Ahead by a century”
This is Why we Fight
As you may have surmised from my recent posts, music and lyrics comprise an important element of my thinking process. The train of thought travels in both directions where an action or a phrase sparks a song; and, a song will forever represent a person, a situation, an event. Images and music are intertwined, joyously,Continue reading “This is Why we Fight”
Waka* this way
The sun shone brightly On our daily morning walk The first day of spring Of flowers we now can talk Songs of birds, small tufts of green Signs of hope before unseen * a Japanese poem consisting of 31 syllables in 5 lines, with 5 syllables in the first and third lines, and 7 syllablesContinue reading “Waka* this way”
Blowin’ in the Wind
March 20, the 25th day since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the war rages on. Closing in on four weeks and the images of destruction accumulate, worsening, disturbing. Each morning I wake to read the BBC news feed on the latest developments, peruse the stories in the Globe and on the CBC, scroll through Facebook. TodayContinue reading “Blowin’ in the Wind”
Us and Them
In my second year as a full time faculty member at Seneca College in 1990, I was teaching a mathematics course for the General Arts and Science program. The content was remedial algebra and all the students were enrolled because they failed an aptitude test. The rest of their cohort were in higher levels whileContinue reading “Us and Them”
If I had a rocket launcher
In 1981 I was enrolled as a second year student at King’s College of the University of Western Ontario in the Sociology program. Several of my professors were left-wing matching my own political leanings so I was invited to participate in a Marxist reading group. Students and faculty would gather at one professors home eachContinue reading “If I had a rocket launcher”
Stand by me
My Catholic elementary school was populated by a number of ethnic groups, situated in a working class neighbourhood on the east side of London, Ontario. St. Roberts had a history of being rough and it was not uncommon for fights to break out in the school yard amongst fellow students or with the rival protestantContinue reading “Stand by me”
Let it snow
“You don’t have to shovel rain.” I was reminded again this past weekend of my father’s saying after three hours of clearing the accumulated snow fall at the cottage. Some work was self-imposed, shoveling my way to the ice beneath in an annual effort to make a skating rink on the lake. Fortunately, the 200Continue reading “Let it snow”
Wonderings 