While the Blossom Still Clings to the Vine

Governor General David Johnston delivered the Throne Speech this past week and I decided to turn on the TV and have a look. (One of the advantages of being an octogenarian!) I was surprised and pleased to listen to the first few minutes of the presentation but soon after, I was truly bored and went about other things. It was not even good entertainment, not that it was intended to be so.

"I see in the not remote distance one great nationality..."

I thought, and later heard others voice the same insight, that the introduction was the opinion of the Governor General himself...it did not sound like Conservative propaganda anyway. He had five 'Consider this' statements that pretty much summed up what Canada is all about. He pointed out that we are 35 million people gathered from every part of the world, that we are an honourable people (that was a good clue that the Governor was speaking  his own thoughts!), that we are selfless and our survival "has been sustained by humility and acceptance of our mutual interdependence", we are smart and a caring people whose "abiding concern of the common good of our neighbours - in each community - makes us responsive." He even went on to quote Thomas D'Arcy McGee!

It was down hill after that as one might expect from a mid-term Speech from the Throne.

The speech, following closely on Canadian Thanksgiving, did prompt me to reflect on how much we take for granted living, as we do, in this beautiful country. I will be charitable and say that it is not so much that we don't appreciate our life here, it is just that we don't remind ourselves just how lucky most of us are, we just stop taking notice most of the time!

On a global basis a new report points out that slavery, yes SLAVERY, still traps 30 million people world wide! Almost equivalent to the total population of Canada! Indeed, the report continues, modern slavery is at an all time high. The list is long and includes such categories as sex trafficking, forced marriages, exploitation of children and child prostitution, domestic servitude, debt bondage and more, much more. According to a recent Sudanese government report there are approximately 35,000 slaves in that country alone!

TROUBLED WATERS

The movie Troubled Waters, with Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips, the skipper of the Maersk Alabama, 155-metre cargo ship is attacked, like the trains of old, by desperate Somali pirates off the coast of Malta and Morocco. Their traditional fishing grounds exploited by others, their beaches littered with flotsam from neighbouring states, their own country in shambles these men are desperate even to the point of attacking a ship that was delivering water and food to fellow Africans.(According to Captain Phillips in the movie!) Naturally our sympathies go out to this captain, who offered himself in real life in exchange for his crews safety. But, I am sure others came away from that movie, as did I, with a better understanding of why suffering and deprived innocent people become angry drug addicted robbers.

I am not saying we should be thankful because so many other dwellers on our little planet are having a tough time and we are so much better off. Rather we need to think about our own attitude towards entitlement, how we so easily lose sight of what truly matters in our daily lives, how much we take for granted, how easily and ready we are to make assumptions or fail to appreciate our significant other.

As a tribal elder I may be 'clogged with prudence and limping with rheumatism', as Robert Louis
Stevenson once said, but I have learned the preciousness of each day and every relationship. I know I can't change the world, but I can change my world by being attentive to my surroundings, my friends and my loved ones. The longer the blossom clings to the vine, the more I am becoming aware of what really matters in life and where real values lie.

And that's Dicks View of the World this Week