Shortly after I arrived in Almonte on a hot summer day in June of 1976 at the age of twenty-eight years I soon recaptured my passion for bicycling. It wasn’t however the idyllic outing I was accustomed to on the paved pathway along the Ottawa River in Ottawa or on the parkway through the Gatineaux Hills in Québec on the other side of the river. It was though as lonely a time as I had spent in Ottawa after my arrival there from law school in 1973 when I first accelerated my sporting enthusiasm for bicycling by buying (upon the recommendation of an aficionado whom I knew from undergraduate studies and who was then dating my sister) a Garlatti 18-speed racing bicycle with thin tyres and matching seat. If I hadn’t lost fifty pounds within months after graduation from law school I would never have sustained either my cycling ambition or application. Whether performing my articles or first year of practice at MacDonald, Affleck on Sparks Street I would not have perpetuated my bicycling routine without the contributing advantage of social isolation.

Continue reading →

We’re showing our age at every turn! We’re down to eating just two meals each day. I view this as a material aberration of the standard social behaviour in the western world. It plainly conflicts not only with ideal dietary recommendation but further contaminates the ageless business luncheon (which I readily admit was often propelled by an overriding ambition for a martini or similar midday analgesic). I recall as a young lawyer attending a noon hour meeting with senior lawyers at a downtown Toronto restaurant. I arrived mere seconds after noon. When I told the mâitre d’ for whom I was waiting, he informed me with a smirk that they were already at table. Enjoying their morning eye opener!

Continue reading →

It pains me to hear politicians and others with a public platform and some kind of exclusive agenda speak about equality and inclusion as though they were saving the world from something toxic.  The notion that “You too can be like me if you try “ is for me not compelling. For one thing there are too many artists from Matisse and Mozart to Frank Lloyd Wright who once offended popular culture and who are now considered classics that I hardly feel moved to adopt current themes as entirely persuasive.

Continue reading →

There are things we prefer not to talk about. Or if we do talk about them, it is in ways calculated to soothe or obstruct the details. Asking someone whom we know the casual question “How are things!” seldom provokes anything approaching an expansive composition. Ask them instead, “What’s the news?” and you’ll get a very different response. Guaranteed. Maybe even one you hadn’t expected. Or worse, one you didn’t want to know. More often than not however the news can be compelling. Not because it is bizarre or absurd but because it is usually meaningful and personal. Getting people to talk about themselves rarely requires more than listening. But you need an introduction to the intelligence more vital than a stock blurb which long ago lost its depth or authenticity.

Continue reading →

Watching life drift by is neither uninventive nor unrewarding. Nor is it for the pusillanimous. It requires application. I am gripped to this day by a quip I overheard many years ago from a stodgy bearded intellect in undergraduate studies at Glendon Hall. If I recall correctly the portly chap said something to the affect that the hardest thing to do is nothing. I’ve learned to accept the witty remark. Yet too often we mistakenly subsume ourselves beneath needless preoccupation at the expense of warranted diversion. And, yes, we do need occasional diversion from our many worldly preoccupations. In the summertime especially when the balmy air and fleeting white clouds invite life’s tranquil and muted pace, it behooves us to reckon with Nature, the buzz of the bees, the chirping of the birds, the perfume of the wild flowers, the hint of a breeze and the solitude of a waterway.

Continue reading →

Americans – not unlike Canadians – have their deep seated differences. In Canada the central root of disturbance is between Upper and Lower Canada or what today is conveniently recognized as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, more fundamentally, English and French occasionally extending to competition between Protestant and Catholic. Then there is the battle between east and west, amplified to anything east or west of the Toronto-Dominion Centre at King and Bay Streets in the heart of Old Toronto’s financial district.  The western provinces have their wheat and oil. Central Canada is banking and retail trade. The Maritime provinces maintain their historic plurality of British blood and United Empire Loyalists (fleeing American revolutionaries) and the French speaking Acadians (a colony of New France).

Continue reading →

In the blend of balmy summer air and the equally seasonal and thoroughly natural decomposition of old age it is not infrequently that one becomes provoked to sentimentality. I’ve heard it said by one whom I trust that old age promotes bleary eyes. Given the absence of those to whom we so often tearfully allude, one has to question for whom indeed the bell really tolls. Is it for the loss of someone dear? Or is it rather the distress of our abandonment which propels the grievous alert?

Continue reading →

We’re a long way from Flip Wilson’s comedy show but religion remains very much a part of government. This in spite of numerous attempts worldwide over a succession of centuries to separate the two. I cannot fabricate a more intolerant, illogical and un-Christian way of forcing one’s bald magic upon others. The political scene remains infested with the likes of Geraldine most recently manifested by the erstwhile twice impeached insurrectionist and comedy show magnate Trump. This is a strange and malicious way to make America great again.

When asked whether he feels he played a role in the reversal of Roe v. Wade, after having appointed three conservative justices to the high court, the former president told Fox News: “God made the decision.”

Continue reading →

The effluxion of time is very often the palliative to anxiety. But to a point. The primary cure is not the passage of time, rather it is the knowledge that comes with it. No matter how one prefers to characterise distress, the hurdle is overcome only by win or defeat. Clarity. Never ignorance or neglect. Wisdom. Real problems don’t disappear.

Continue reading →

It occurred to me early this afternoon while dawdling on the patio of the golf club leisurely perusing the latest accomplishments of artist Kenneth Emig of the Village of Clayton in the County of Lanark and Province of Ontario that he like most successful artists is a member of a preferred class. Though this may resound of “nose in the air” culture, I mean it instead as a frank and purely deductive observation. Permit me to explain.

Years ago when I began practicing law my burgeoning focus upon the material world ascended quite literally from the ground up. I moved progressively from real estate to Persian rugs to mahogany furniture to silverware, porcelain and stemware. Finally after having sated my interest in the rudimentary hardware of accommodation and household provisions I began frequenting art galleries for expression more evocative and scintillating. Not that I didn’t adore my Chelsea Ship’s Bell!

Continue reading →