May 16, 2023
Arctic Circle, Norway
Hi Bill
Currently we are residents of the Radisson Blu in Longyearbyen on the island of Spitsbergen in the Archipelago of Svalbard in far north Norway – having flown via Stockholm and Oslo and over many fjords and are a mere 1300 km from the North Pole – and it feels it.
Sitting in my car, waiting for my passenger, is eventful because on this approximate location and date (June 11, 1976) almost exactly 47 years ago I stepped foot on the nearby property which was to be my first residence in Almonte. The residence was then the retirement home of Rev. George Bickley and his wife Anne who for the moment together occupied the manse of St. Paul’s Anglican Church around the corner (poignantly immediately across from the original Land Registry office built around 1860). The contractual matter of my employment as a junior lawyer by Messrs. Galligan & Sheffield, Barristers, Solicitors and Notaries Public at their offices on Bridge Street had been concluded days before over dinner at the Mississippi Golf Club in the Village of Appleton.
I suspect there isn’t anyone who hasn’t contemplated what Country Life labels with some equanimity the distinguishing features of the Town and Country mouse.
Strangely both parties blame the other for misunderstanding or not appreciating the benefits and advantages of living in the town or in the country. It is natural that the prejudice should affect each equally; such is human nature, a bias for what we applaud and an impartiality for what we do not. Nonetheless there were occasions when the balance was viewed as unfair.
The 1 mL syringe portion of THC 20:20 Cannabis Oil I took under my tongue late yesterday afternoon while sitting at my desk, reading, writing and complacently regarding the very pleasant upriver view, stimulated as well the delectation of the subsequent evening meal. But it had also a persuasive soporific effect. I was in bed by nine. I hadn’t any reservation about the propriety of an early retirement because I had been up at 6:00 am that morning. So I felt I had earned the entitlement to excuse myself from the sentient ambience of the apartment as it quelled its daytime brightness with the softened lamp lights reflected upon the precious Persians. I tried reading Thomas Babington Macaulay’s History of England from the accession of James II but I kept nodding off.
Slowly we’re turning the wheels beneath our prevailing exigencies. The things which we knew had to be done upon our return to Canada; and the things we’ve since discovered which have added weight to the cart and provoked new dimensions and necessities. On balance we are pleased with what has transpired (and what has not). Even as I write Mark Thompson of Inverness Homes (contractual) is doing touch-up paint work throughout the new apartment. Earlier this morning I signified the achievement of complacent residency by languishing upon a patio chair on the balcony overlooking the endlessly flowing river. Because I was peering directly into the blazing orb, my eyes were closed. Soon I fell asleep, my head lapsing to the side, stiffening my neck. I awoke when the heat became too penetrating. The breeze was slight only. Our southeast prospect affords us about 150° of radiation from sunrise and throughout the day until the sun moves around to the southwest corner of the building to its point of setting on the distant horizon behind the Old Town Hall.
Whenever I’ve had surgery in the past there was very little pre-operative attention given to or required of me. No doubt because I was already in extremis (“Put this under your tongue and don’t move; we’re doing you tomorrow morning!”); or, I had had the courtesy to distract myself with an overwhelming concussion, punctured lung or broken ribs. This time however the surgery is in the nature of elective, having been scheduled over six months ago before we left for Key Largo in anticipation of fixing my deteriorating left knee.
Although I began the day following my breakfast by stretching out on one of our new webbed patio chairs on the balcony in the blazing morning sunshine and shamelessly dozing, after the courier arrived with my stuff from Dixon’s, I got onto my bicycle. I didn’t make it to the Village of Pakenham along the Ottawa Valley Trail (as did His Lordship). Instead I contented myself to expiate my guilt by wheeling about the neighbourhood as I customarily do these days, just up and down the local roadways and along the river. My balance and control of the bicycle are not exact and predictable. More and more I adhere to my first inclination upon returning home 2 weeks ago; namely, get a tricycle. Bill Barrie Jr is looking into it for me. He is extremely reliable. I am anxious to learn what he recommends.
“And surely it would be the height of absurdity to say that we must accept submissively such usurpers as God sends in anger, but must pertinaciously withhold our obedience from usurpers whom He sends in mercy. Grant that it was a crime to invite the Prince of Orange over, a crime to join him, a crime to make him King; yet what was the whole history of the Jewish nation and of the Christian Church but a record of cases in which Providence had brought good out of evil? And what theologian would assert that, in such cases, we ought, from abhorrence of the evil, to reject the good?
On these grounds a large body of divines, still asserting the doctrine that to resist the Sovereign must always be sinful, conceived that William was now the Sovereign whom it would be sinful to resist.”
Excerpt From
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Symbolic reasoning demands precision: Symbols can come in a host of different orders, and the difference between (3-2)-1 and 3-(2-1) is important, so performing the right rules in the right order is essential. Marcus contends this kind of reasoning is at the heart of cognition, essential for providing the underlying grammatical logic to language and the basic operations underlying mathematics. More broadly, he holds this extends into our more basic abilities, where there is an underlying symbolic logic behind causal reasoning and re-identifying the same object over time.
To a Skylark
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.