The concepts of infinity and eternity, no beginning and no end, are among the disturbing and illusive concepts often associated with a discussion of god or the creator of it all (including the even more toxic contemplation of who created god). Competing with these unfathomable topics are the investigations and proofs of science though I don’t believe science has yet explained the evolution of self-generation and perpetuation (or what we commonly call life). The sobering question of it all is, What came before nothing?
Author Archives: L. G. William Chapman, B.A., LL.B.
Round About
An intriguing account was related to me earlier this morning by a young woman (with whom I am dealing professionally) in response to my enquiry, “What’s the news?” She said she was going to travel to Belize in January for a holiday. If you, dear Reader, like I, have a moderate geographic knowledge only, it may help to recall that the former name (until 1973) was British Honduras. It is a country on the Caribbean coast of Central America; population 359,000; languages, English (official), Creole, Spanish; capital, Belmopan. Apparently, like so many other products of colonialism, Belize was “proclaimed” a British Crown Colony in 1862. Belize became an independent Commonwealth state in 1981. Guatemala, which bounds it on the west and south, has always claimed the territory on the basis of old Spanish treaties, although in 1992 it agreed to recognize the existence of Belize.
Not my type
I began looking up the word Antiqua to ensure I had spelled it correctly. My spelling is not good (I respond to words more phonetically than literally). Anyway here’s what I discovered by chance:
Late September summer
With only a day remaining in the month of September, the weather forecast for the next week is a combination of superb and ideal – sunshine and, for a third of the time, above average temperatures. Ornamented by the honking geese and the huge flocks of them landing upon the river, plus the fully grown fields of yellow corn stalks, the environment is a spectacle of sunshine and blue sky. The deep balmy wind carries within its nutritious scope a limitless imagination.
Little Red Riding Hood
BE IT RESOLVED: Little Red Riding Hood is a sexual myth.
FOR THE GOVERNMENT
Monologue:
If I had it to do all over again…
There is inevitably a curious attraction to the alternative. What would we do if we had it to do all over again? The attraction no doubt springs from a moderate (though often concealed) admission of fault; namely, the recognition that there are things we could have been done differently – and, as a result (and of equal allure to the vivid imagination) things could have been different – which is to say, our shortcomings may have been avoided.
May the truth be told…
Having just arisen from an exceedingly pleasant afternoon nap – and having afterwards parked myself upon the balcony in a deck chair to absorb the inexpressibly beautiful late afternoon sunshine glancing off the dry yellow corn stalks and the blue river water rippling in the wind – I am sufficiently awakened to confront today’s monologue. By some standards, the daily production of this literary rubbish is a curious endeavour. But – in plain terms – I need it; I need to do it. It is not a habit – like brushing one’s teeth. Nor is it a romanticized deceit – like daily prayers. It does however approach the similarity of an appetite, a yearning never fulfilled though temporarily acceded or extinguished.
Saturday
I don’t know about you, but I find that a Saturday – even after more than a decade of retirement – is still a special day of the week, inspiring a degree of recklessness and abandon, a day for casual clothes and perhaps shopping or some other trifling local amusement. I suppose I could say that about just any other day of the week – I mean, that each day somehow has its long-lasting customary appeal or regret. Think of Mondays for example; Monday always remains the start of something new, a signal that sobriety (in every sense of the word) is on the agenda once again, occasion to prepare to address matters of importance and to stiffen one’s bearing And I hardly need mention Fridays or Sundays, each of them has its own character which, as I say, often continues long after one were trained to endure years of the defined behaviour. No doubt it contributes to the enduring nature of each day of the week as we knew it that the bulk of the population performs similar daily customs. Even when, many years ago, retail stores began remaining open seven days of the week, my perspective of the days remains even now as it was five decades ago. I still preserve an element of the original “weekend” to Saturday and Sunday (the latter, for example, including CBC early morning classical music – which reached its height surrounding the Christmas holiday season).
Invitation to treat
When I studied law I excelled in two courses; viz., constitutional law and contract law. Oddly the two are distinguished by the one (constitutional law) being specific, the other (contract law) being general. The root of the difference is that constitutional law is regimented (legislated) through the British North America Act; while contract law derives from custom and judicial precedent or what is called the Common Law (rather than statute law). Constitutional Law is for example most popularly detailed in Secs. 91 & 92 (defining federal and provincial legislative jurisdictions respectively). Contract law by contrast was driven more by what, in the circumstances, is considered reasonable.
Let it go!
There are people whom I regret not seeing any longer – people with whom I no longer participate. One of them has died; another has just stopped calling. The pressure to reunite with estranged acquaintances is for me affecting. I don’t like conflict; and, more often than not, I seek ways to diminish the stain of a difficult relationship. My thinking is this, what advantage is there in maintaining a distance when one would prefer otherwise? Certainly, the privilege to feel as though one were “winning” or accomplishing anything by maintaining separation is questionable.