Sticks and stones will hurt my bones but words will never hurt me.” I remember hearing this as a child. At the time I thought all such aphorisms were based on years of experience so made the assumption it must be correct. Experience has taught me that this one is totally untrue. Words hurt far …
Ten years ago on October 27th, 2014, our son, Grant, received a kidney transplant. He has Alport’s disease which he inherited from his mother’s side of the family. His kidneys had deteriorated some years before he received his ‘new’ kidney, indeed excessive tiredness in his early 20s showed the direction in which his health was …
“If you pass the ball along the line and all of you catch it while you are running then I promise you that you can go and chase the geese.’ It was in the early 1990s at Burnaby Lake fields in the City of Burnaby, just east of Vancouver. This group of 6 year olds …
There is an issue in my life, Dear Friends! Like every issue it needs a solution. But, sadly, I don’t believe there is one. Many, many years ago, I spent 5 years as a pupil at a boarding school. It was an interesting, challenging period. I wouldn’t say it was a fun-filled frolic but close …
“Those whom the gods destroy, they first make mad.” Classical scholars are unsure whether to attribute this quotation to Euripedes or Sophocles, Dear Reader. But we know it is of ancient origin and from many perspectives the wisdom of the ancients seems to be a cut above some of the stuff spewed forth through social …
Lytton was a wee village in British Columbia. It was in the dry belt. It was peopled by a variety of peoples including a First Nations clan. Three years ago it was burnt to the ground in one of the many fires that plague our province every summer. It has yet to be rebuilt. This …
When I was a student both at school and Teacher’s Training College, I achieved mastery at prevarication and procrastination. This, Dear Reader, is not something of which I am proud. It is true of my life that I do not get bored. But it is also true that I drift in different directions. I am …
“We have seen the enemy and he is us.” Everything somehow came together in that split second. The football arrived at his feet. He hit it on the volley and it sailed into the topmost corner of the net. The goalkeeper barely moved. It was over in an instant but the memory remains. The West …
Dear Reader, this blog is about numbers but I hope that you will find it more interesting than that. I recently read In a British Newspaper that the 20th Century lasted 36,525 days. Apart from the shock that 100 years is merely that number and the implications that that has on our own mortality, I …
Sometimes, Dear Reader, it is important to listen to the quietly spoken voice at the back of the room. It is true that the person at the front, the groomed suit with the polished shoes and purpose built haircut, the extrovert, the orator-come-demagogue, the populist with mellifluous effluent, his plunge into the pool does make …
