Reflections from Canada 2

A question we were often asked when we were home in Canada was, "How did we now view Canada and things Canadian, having been away.?" This question prompted a lot of thoughts and reflection. The question was first posed in Barrhead, AB, and our next stop was Whitecourt.

Whitecourt was where we lived 30 years ago, when we were first married. Visiting there brought up thoughts and reflections on meaning and purpose. What were my dreams and aspirations back then? What became of those dreams and aspirations? Are they still important to me today? Or have they long ago been abandoned, or forgotten, or accomplished and then forgotten. Thoughts that began a process of reflection about the meaning and purpose of my few years, my brief flicker “under the sun”¹. Experiences and sights, as we traveled along, continued to prompt reflection about meaning and purpose.

For example, I came upon a marker commemorating Father Leon (Leo) Fouquet, an Oblate priest, who in 1861 founded a mission and a school for native children, a school that continued for 100 years. The ‘mission’ lent its name to a city, Mission City, just east of Vancouver on the Frazer River. But how many people remember Father Fouquet? He is buried in a vandalized cemetery where the cross above his grave marker has been broken away. What were his dreams and aspirations? What would he have thought of a city being named after him? Would he mind?

Or Silver Valley Stables? Once the home of Canadian champion horses, but now overgrown, decaying, championship ribbons hanging, forgotten, in an abandoned and cobwebbed tack room. What were the aspirations and dreams of those who lived and worked there? What transpired that the ribbons, which must have meant so much then, now hang abandoned and discarded?

Silver Valley Stables

Canadian Grand and Reserve Champion ribbons.

I walk past homes where people once lived and loved, yards that were carefully tended, someone’s ‘new’, maybe even dream, home a scant 50-60 years ago. Today they lie overgrown, neglected, on the edge of a new, ‘modern’ development - waiting to be demolished to make way for someone else’s dream.

Awaiting demolition, making way ...

... so someone else can live their dream ...

... in what someone referred to as a "McHouse".

And so, being in Canada invited me to consider my dreams, my desires, my treasures. What really counts? Few, if any, people remember Father Fouquet. But really, how many of us remember, or really care, who won the Stanley Cup, or Grey Cup, or Super Bowl even three years ago? Or which film received Best Picture at the Oscars? Or who won what Grammy Award? Or how many people came and went in our own neighborhood? When he died, there was an outpouring of information and tribute for Michael Jackson, but who of us really thought or cared about him in the weeks and months before he died. Did his fame and fortune truly enrich his life. What really counts? Solomon again comes to mind, he who described all human endeavors and achievements as merely “chasing after the wind”.²

To be remembered, ... that a life would mean something, to someone,

but seemingly not, ... now just a vandalized headstone.

A young woman we visited in Canada shared her heart’s desire for her life - to love others and live generously in this world. Simple, yet what a difference it could make in our world if more of us were to consider her desire, or more challengingly for me, if “I” were to more deeply consider such a desire.

At the moment I am feeling both a sense of dread and a sense of excitement. I have a number of books that I had started reading and they keep reminding me of the young woman’s desire. I am being challenged, especially about being more generous, not only with my worldly treasure - my money, but also in my attitudes and judgments of others. How come I can be so miserly when it comes to being gracious or understanding or forgiving or appreciative with another? So I live with a bit of apprehension and dread, waiting to understand what more God is asking of me. I argue, “Haven’t I given up enough?” “What more do you want of my earthly treasure and in my relationships with those about me?” “God, are you never satisfied?”** Yet there is also a sense of excitement; excitement which arises from my confidence in God that if I have the courage to love more and live more generously, I will know more of the joy and blessing and purpose and meaning that the last two years have given.

So, back to the original question, "What is my view of Canada?" Canada is a wonderful place, a place of beauty and opportunity. A land blessed and a people blessed, my home and the best place in the world according to Maclean’s magazine. Being away and then coming home has reminded me of all this. The challenge is to guard myself from being beguiled by all that Canada offers, and from forgetting that Canada is part of a bigger world; a bigger world where others are often so less blessed; a bigger world within which God is inviting me to find purpose through living more generously and more lovingly. I am apprehensive about letting go of yet more, more security, more predictability, more of Canada. But if this life is just chasing the wind anyways, what have I to loose if I find the courage to accept God's invitation.

~ Benno ~

¹ A little phrase borrowed from Solomon and first appearing in Ecclesiates 1:3.

² Another of Solomon’s phrases, first used in Ecclesiates 1:14.

** Shane Claiborne writes in the Irresistible Revolution, "It's not hell that makes me shudder but God, because I have no idea what in the world God's going to dare me to do next. ... I have no idea what's going to happen next. ... That's the Jesus I love. And that's the Jesus who scares me to death."