October 21, 2023
Riverfront Estates
Almonte, Ontario

My dearest Lynn,

Thank-you for your email in which you asked for my thoughts regarding John’s request that you plan a reception following his death. May I first acknowledge that Johnnie often repeated the names of Lynn and Hugh as those who were among his closest and most valued friends. I recall your friendship goes back many, many years (perhaps as far back as childhood in Manor Park). Whenever we all foregathered it was instantly apparent that you, Hugh and John mutually propelled one another. Your collusions and bantering were unparalelled and as often mischievous.

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Why we are possessed by the contention that there are two ways to look at things (as opposed to three or more ways of doing so) I can only resolve by the comprehension that the proverb is designed to address a conflict or contrast between one side and another.  This attributes to the adage a collective feature. In any event what I am getting at is that there are always ups and downs in life, some good and some bad, ins and outs, ons and offs, bigger and smaller, richer and poorer and so on.

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Getting things settled seems to be an interminable preoccupation.  I suspect the enterprise is characteristic not only of my own mundane lifestyle but common to us all.  Each day something new arises, something to disturb the former placidity, something to corrupt or enlarge whatever we had before determined as sufficient and workable.

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There’s no telling what may erupt from a casual luncheon of fried smelts, calamari, pasta and affogato al caffè. The ages of our triumvirate at table today were 75, 72 and 70. Each of us had a tale of woe concerning our health. Naturally a good deal of the conversation centred about recent medical history of ourselves and loved ones. But what I hadn’t anticipated is the intelligence from the middle member of our troop that there is the possibility of medical assistance through Canadian Cannabis Clinics.

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My earliest introduction to Lady Jane was the song “My Sweet Lady Jane” recorded by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, written by the group’s songwriting duo of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.  The song was initially included on the band’s 1966 album Aftermath.

My sweet Lady Jane
When I see you again
Your servant am I
And will humbly remain
Just heed this plea, my love
On bended knees my love
I pledge myself to Lady Jane

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May I ask, dear Reader, that you afford me the small privilege of literary licence. I wish to varnish what follows with an arithmetic extension of the meaning of “day” to include for purposes of this manoeuvre the past twenty-four hours.  Not that any one incident is by virtue of its substance connected to another except by the ignominy of having been disconcerting.

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It has memorably been moralized that death is a dreadful subject.  And indeed it is. Decidely not for the pusillanimous. Nor does it constitute, except for the blatantly curious or the morbidly inclined, an especially vivid literary turn. Nonetheless I find lately that the inescapable eventuality has preoccupied me more than I care to accede. Yet strangely, without endorsing the peril, it invokes a hitherto uncommon liberality, strangely freeing me from former prejudices surrounding the grim theme.

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Readers who take an interest in the progress of civilisation and of the useful arts will be grateful to the humble topographer who has recorded these facts, and will perhaps wish that historians of far higher pretensions had sometimes spared a few pages from military evolutions and political intrigues, for the purpose of letting us know how the parlours and bedchambers of our ancestors looked.

Excerpt From
Thomas Babington Macaulay
“The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 1”

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Happily there are few things I unreservedly regret. There were of course events which at the time I would rather have avoided. Yet in retrospect even those trying moments afforded me a profit, the complete beneficence of which it wasn’t until much later in life I fully appreciated. I speak of those ticks of universal application which at the time we consider either trifling or unbearable but which later prove altogether the opposite. Not the least of those fortuitous happenstances is the very reason I am sitting at this desk peering at the river beyond the meadow.

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Gone are the days of depending upon finding what you want by visiting one store afer another. The modern shopping mode is far less contingent upon either travel or luck and more dependent upon on-line research.  And in my limited experience with this new mode of shopping the results are not only impressive but in most instances preferable.  I have for example been able to locate clothing of the precise style and measurements required.  We have also found a modest storage case (which required assembly) that fit the bill perfectly (and it was assembled at the store and subsequently delivered to the front door of our residence). We’ve also ordered hardware, pharmaceuticals and cofffee on-line. Each of the orders arrived promptly. The latest delivery is a rebounder (mini trampoline) made in USA. It is a product which hasn’t any local agent so its discovery would otherwise have been impossible.

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