Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom (And Whimsy)

Posted on October 23, 2024 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet

Huh?

 

“The seasons spinning round again,

The years keep rolling by.”

All My Life’s a Circle – Harry Chapin

You have to love the seasons.

Most people in my part of the world are experiencing one of the most magnificent falls in recent memory. The weather has been spectacular. If you’re an outdoors person, it has been a perfect time of year for a long bike ride, a hike in the mountains or a leisurely stroll on a country road. The Fall colors are breathtaking.

Fall

                                                               how

                                                             I love to catch

                                                           the falling leaves

                                                                   in autumn

                                            I

                                                                   Sit

                               and

                                                       wait

                                                                                                           beneath

                                                                     the

                                        trees

                                                                                       until

                                                            I’ve

                                                                          Cautumn

                                                                                                                                         Brian Bilston

Love this poem.

Every season coincides with some kind of special day. In “night’s deep silence” (the winter), we have New Year’s Day, followed by Valentine’s Day. Next up in early Spring is Easter. Then we have Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. In October we have Hallowe’en, Remembrance Day. Last but not least, we have Christmas in December.

I have highlighted December for a reason.

That’s because I’m going to go on a little rant.

I like the flow of the seasons. They arrive seamlessly one after the other.

At least, in theory.

That is, until some people decide that October is the perfect time to put up their Christmas tree. We haven’t even begun to carve our pumpkins and in some quarters, it’s the right time to put up the tree. And yes, yesterday, I saw my first Christmas ad on television.

I never thought that I would turn into one of those crotchety seniors who grumble at the least provocation, but I guess old age has finally caught up to me. Not all that long ago (just shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth), we respectfully waited until November 12^th before officially leaping into Christmas. “Ten lords a-leaping”.

I know that many of my loyal readers are absolutely passionate about Christmas, and I respect that.

I just wonder how the needles will stay on the tree for the next 63 days!

Municipal elections are over.

The votes have been counted.

Democracy lives to fight another day.

Last week, in schools around the province of Nova Scotia, mock elections were held in the lead up to the actual elections. I happened to be in school, substitute teaching that day, and was seconded to help the teacher who had organized the event.

In my last piece, I talked about Civics 101.

What I witnessed last Friday was one of the finest demonstrations of democracy, writ large, that I have ever been part of. Every aspect of the mock election was a perfect mirror of an actual election. Grade 7 and 8 students acted as agents, poll clerks and scrutineers. Let’s face it. These young people are our future leaders and what better way to get them engaged at an early age than having them participate in the process. They were particularly excited when it came to counting the ballots.

Humility.         

Every day I spend with young students, I have opportunities to pass along little “pearls of wisdom”! One of the students assisting with the voting was bragging about how good she was at this task. I tried to explain to her that people who are good at different things whether it’s academics, sports or artistic endeavours, don’t need to tell people how good they are. It is evident.

Last week, I put on my one man show of music and story telling at our local museum. It was the first time that I tried a solo show using this format so I wasn’t sure how many people would show up. Twenty minutes before show time, there wasn’t one person in the museum unless you counted the mannequin of the ticket agent! People slowly trickled in and by 7:00 we nearly had a sellout crowd.

Before I got things rolling, I told the audience about a book launch that didn’t quite launch. I had always done my book launches in my hometown. For this particular book, I decided to do a second launch in a neighboring town where I used to have an office when I was in business. I decided to go “all in” and distributed flyers, did some radio spots and some ads in the local newspaper. I booked a restaurant for the launch and had them cater to the event. Big trays of sandwiches and sweets, coffee, tea.

It was a wintry evening but not one that you would consider stormy. I anxiously watched the front door. At about 6:58, two minutes before start time, a couple showed up. And that was the entirety of the “crowd”. Fifteen minutes later, I was on my way back to Antigonish with my proverbial tail between my legs.

Humble pie is not all that tasty!

“To everything, turn, turn, turn,

There is a season, turn, turn, turn”

Turn. Turn. Turn – The Byrds

Have a great weekend.