I took a Viking River Cruise with my wife a few years back. It was our first such adventure on water. I saw many things of historical significance as we travelled from Amsterdam to Budapest and experienced the Second World War up closer than in my history books. One of my strongest memories was during…

I remember as a 17-year-old travelling by train on my own, from Montreal to Ottawa for my birthday on what is now known as Flag Day. I wanted to see the raising of our new Canadian flag. It was a painful political and national process to get us to a final decision. I wanted to…

I recently had a family adventure with our grandchildren. We spent a few hours at the nearby Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village. It celebrates the immigration of many Ukrainians who came to Canada around 1900 for the offer of 160 acres of free land. This outdoor museum covers a large number of acres. All the buildings…

I like to remember this when I’m struggling with an uncertain future. In other words, I find it helpful to zero in on what is real, known and tangible. Those elements have a degree of certainty greater than the abstraction of the future. I’ve been struggling in my mind about our future vacation plans. By…

I struggle when using labels. I need them to make sense of my world, but each label has its baggage. The baggage can weigh me down, reduce my range of vision, and limit my ability to see things in a different light. For example, think of the labelling of some activity as boring. That will…

I want to give you a few examples of this elusive idea of stubborn optimism. Several years ago, I decided to write a play. I had never contemplated doing such a thing until I had a Zoom meeting with the Writer In Residence (WIR) at the local public library. It was on a completely different…

I consciously look for contrasts to help me widen my understanding of my perspectives. Let me give you an example. Child soldiers. My awareness of these youngsters is that they are from far away – usually another continent other than North America. At this distance, I can risk being empathetic, understanding, and caring. I can…

I first want to say the featured image for this Blog is not a Selfie. I can’t avoid hearing about artificial intelligence, shorten to just AI. The modern multifunction cell phone is about 15 years old. It changed the world. AI, the kind that is easily accessible to the masses around the world, has been…

I just about finished reading a book, Dream States, by John Lorinc. He is a new-to-me author who writes about the urban scene.  Being a city fellow, I’m always curious about the current urban scene and how we got here. One tiny portion of the book deals with curbs. Now please calm down. Curb your…

I like to solve problems by looking first at the extremes of a continuum. In this case, I can either resist something I am trying to avoid or adapt to it. Let’s look at some examples. One example I’ve seen often is how we try to prevent snow from drifting onto roads or walkways. So…