Monday, February 29, 2016

Thanks be to the gods!

I have no intention of evaporating or blending in with the wallpaper before acknowledging the beneficence of my private universe! I am tempted to observe that even if my exquisite luck were to change for the worse, I owe it to the unseen powers to preserve unbending gratitude for all that I now have and have once enjoyed.  At my advanced age and given my history of indulgence and serendipity, it would amount to unforgivable thanklessness to do otherwise.  Life owes me nothing!

Adventuresome day!

If you dispel the obfuscating fog of everyday living, life has I think you’ll concede its discernible – though subtle – drama. The source may be unpredictable and even unlikely. Don’t let a facade of placidity dissuade you! Behind a veneer of composure may subsist one of daring enterprise. Permit me to observe that while I am not perpetually living on the edge I too have my moments. Consider if you will the following example.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Jekyll Island, Georgia

Than Jekyll Island, Georgia there can be no greater proof of the adage that good things come in small packages! Jekyll Island measures 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, a mere 5,700 acres. Like other barrier islands along the Atlantic Ocean, Jekyll Island is easily accessible from Interstate 95. When motoring southward for example it is nothing more common than a left turn across what invariably are inland sea marshes to the equally predictable signpost of the Island.  The initial trumpeting of Jekyll Island is a singular bit of landscaping. There are two large ponds at the entrance on either side of the comparatively private-looking causeway to the Island.  The ponds each sport splendid water fountains.  Not much further along the decidedly quaint road from the highway to the Island one encounters a gateway reminiscent of a staid and grand entrance constructed of mellow stucco plaster with heavy wooden doors imparting a faintly tropical flavour boosted by the roadside palm trees and vast tidal marshes which afford an expansive view and which instantly cheer one's spirit.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Noli me tangere

It was exactly 20 years ago less a day that Denis and I began our confederacy.  Instantly we bolted from the starting gate and began in earnest the race that is life!  The very next day was a memorable luncheon for six close friends at the house in Almonte where we would eventually cohabit. Mere weeks later we inaugurated what became a succession of trips.  Our initial jaunt was to New York City where in keeping with our now well-established preference we landed at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. This weekend visit was illustrative of what was to come: we have since perched at other renowned hotels (including the Carlyle, the Plaza, the Boca Raton Beach Club, the Chateau Laurier, the Royal York, Le Reine Elizabeth and many other five-star hacienda  - rounded out by First Class airplane seating and once with a private helicopter ride to the airport); we were completely sober (a condition which although somewhat mercurial has largely been sustained); we had unforgettable dinners (steak et frites at Chez Ma Tante and Osso Buco at the Gershwin Theatre); we took a water tour on the Hudson River (characteristic of our serendipitous affection for water generally specifically the Caribbean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean); I misdirected us on a rainy night walk almost into the Hudson River (the impetus for our "first fight"); we daily took long walks (a love of regular exercise which now focuses upon bicycling); and, afterwards we immediately began to plan our next venture together.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Daily Wonders

Lately I've experienced a number of very pleasant events, small events admittedly, but nonetheless exceedingly pleasant events.  Today for example we punctuated our customary weekend celebration by going for Sunday breakfast at a place we've never before visited. The restaurant has the preposterous  name "Watusi" made all the more enigmatic by the nameplate addition "It is what it is".  In spite of its obscure dance theme, Watusi is an exceptionally well-appointed venue, having a charming outdoor patio and a terrific soda-fountain-style bar (where we chose to sit this morning). Because I not writing a food chronicle I won't reiterate either the menu or what we ordered other than to say the breakfast was nonpareil and the espresso coffee was the best I've ever had!

Friday, February 19, 2016

You are what you think

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.
Walden (Life in the Woods), Henry David Thoreau (1854)
It is almost universally accepted that the character of our lives is a matter over which most of us have dominion. This is normally translated as an acknowledgement that we are what we think.  This in turn becomes the popular prescription for having happy thoughts. Customarily the recipe amounts to motivational speeches or the power of positive thinking. Not infrequently we are encouraged to capitulate, either to ourselves or to a higher power (usually a religious god). Whatever the course adopted or proposed, the object is invariably that we shall discover accommodation for what is blithely called happiness. Pointedly however the very ambivalence of the object trivializes the formula for getting there.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Axiomatic Living

As a guest speaker addressing a graduating class I am bound to advance, in addition to well-deserved congratulations, something helpful about navigating the future. There likely isn't anything in this life which hasn't been said before and I can pretty much guarantee you won't hear anything novel from me. There are however certain truths which bear repeating and I would like to share them with you. I propose to set out ten concise principles for daily living. These principles are what I call axioms, adages which are not only undeniably true by definition (such as 1 + 1 = 2) but importantly are self-fulfilling prescriptions for success.

By way of introduction and to provide an overview of the flavour of these principles consider this brainteaser. It's a reminder that things are not always what they appear:
If a baseball and a bat cost $1.10 together, and the bat costs $1.00 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?

While you cogitate upon that (and hopefully without diverting yourself from attending what else I have to say) permit me the effrontery to say I have welcome news for you; namely, life doesn't have to be hard. An outsider looking at this privileged assembly might readily be forgiven thinking that not one of you has reason to be wary. If as I suspect you don't wholeheartedly embrace that unqualified proposition I'd like to share indicia which might persuade you otherwise.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Winter Blahs

Can it be?  Do the winter blahs affect even those of us who are fifteen hundred miles south of the snow belt and sitting within yards of a swimming pool, palm trees, the beach and the Ocean?  Apparently so. Just over half-way through our five-month sojourn on Hilton Head Island we are slumped in a trough which is reminiscent of the winter blahs. There is an aching feeling of repetition; the glamour of the sea has evaporated; sitting by the pool in the afternoon sunshine has become routine; novelty is a thing of the past. It is undeniable that the local weather suffers the reflective pain of Northerners as the cold, Arctic air spills southward.  The fronds of the palm trees sympathetically lose their verdant sheen; the grass shows its remission; there is no excitement to do anything or to go anywhere. It's the winter blahs!

Monday, February 15, 2016

Clouds

The news from home was devastating.  A murder-suicide was the summary story in the media. I learned of it in the same blunt manner I first heard of the World Trade Centre attacks on September 11, 2001 - akin to abruptly banging one's head when standing up. In both cases I was making what in hindsight were trivial enquiries about matters affecting my personal affairs, only to be drawn up and told in reply the rude and brute intelligence. It is no surprise that in the days following the revelation an air of disturbance has prevailed. Nature itself has aligned with the misery, lulling me in my bed until late in the morning, heavy rains and widespread clouds throughout the past several days. I have tried as usual to maintain my regular agenda but a dark void consumes me and weakens my spirit. Any remorse that might exist is speedily replaced by pallid dejection.  It is impossible even to arouse anger at undeniable madness. A shattered treasure, no one to blame, nothing but a horrible and irrevocable incident.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

Sideline Politics

Wintering on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina - one of the more distinctive Confederate States - I have incrementally submerged myself in American politics. The media is equally immersed in political saturation as the Presidential Election in November approaches. As gripping as I have found the topic to be, and as regularly as the accusation of self-absorption is levelled at Americans, strangely it is of little interest to many. When for example a journalist recently asked some what they thought about the candidates of the competing Democratic and Republican parties, it was acutely evident that they had no idea who was involved. If nothing else, the result affirms the value of spending astronomic amounts of money on television ads in the hopes of persuading those who might ultimately deign to vote.  Additionally it perhaps sadly signifies that many Americans could care less and are largely estranged from the political process, dismissively imagining that things will unfold one way or another without real difference or change. It was only in 2008 with the prospect of election of Barack Obama as the first black president that the numbers of voters spiked and that is mainly attributed to the unique involvement of African American voters.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Let's get away from it all!

It is gratifying to report that we haven't lost an appetite for adventure and discovery.  We have just returned from an agreeable jaunt to Florida.  What however conspires against this frivolity is that we have been on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for the past three months. It's not as though we have at hand a ready excuse to "get away". Nonetheless the capitulation to go abroad reinforces the equally persistent adage that a break from anything is welcome.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

There's such a lot of livin' to do!

Bye Bye Birdie
 - Lot of Livin' to do


I got a lot of living to do!

Sizzlin' steaks all ready for tastin'

And there's Cadillacs all shiny and new!

Gotta move, cause time is a-wastin',

There's such a lot of livin' to do!


My late father and I hadn't a lot in common. But we both had a passion for automobiles.  His was boundless compared to mine.  He surpassed my superficial fascination with horsepower and appearance by combining it with technical savvy, an elevation I was never inclined to imitate. Neither of us required encouragement to drive. My father was notorious for going on extended drives from Ontario to New Brunswick.  Granted he had the plausible excuse to inspect the 170 acres of land he owned there, but I am certain he would have gone there or somewhere in any event.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Moving on...

Even if it is your good fortune not to have suffered greatly in life, I suspect you have nonetheless endured the challenge of moving on. I reckon no one is spared the occasional trial. We all have something we’d prefer to leave behind. It really matters very little that the strength of one’s particular encounter with fate is of comparatively weak intensity; in the end, accommodating a tribulation of any degree exacts some measure of duress. The consequence of moving on is letting go; the two concepts go hand-in-hand. One concept (moving on) is prospective; the other (letting go) is retrospective. You cannot move ahead if your foot is on the brake.