The overthrow is complete! Tonight marked the last of my official commitments! This evening’s meeting of the Committee of Adjustment of the Corporation of the Town of Mississippi Mills was the final meeting which I shall ever attend. I had already submitted my resignation effective October 27th next (by design the same day as the upcoming municipal election) and because of minimum public notice periods it is impossible that there will be another meeting of our Committee before then. Even if the Committee were not functus officio after October 27th next (on the basis of some theory of prolonged longevity until the new Committee is properly constituted), my earlier resignation would in any event trump my involvement. I’m done! And I willingly capitulate! This is the proverbial last nail in the coffin. The event complements the proceedings of September 30th last when I rounded out and resigned from my fourteen years as a Director of the Mississippi River Power Corporation. Now in addition to the refinements of our municipal zoning by-laws I no longer cast my mind upon the turbulent waters of power generation in the Town of Mississippi Mills (Almonte Ward).
Naturally I am delighted to have been afforded the opportunity to serve on both these boards in addition to the others which have ornamented my 38-year career in the Town of Almonte. But at last I can rest! I simply couldn’t imagine having to step back into harness. It is serendipitous that my complete retirement should be about to begin as our planned four-month hibernation on Hilton Head Island, SC is a mere three weeks hence. One year ago when the prospect of the sale of my heritage office building was imminent on November 29th, 2013 it was then my objective to retire on November 30th, 2014. While my retirement from the practice of law was accelerated to either March 31st or April 30th (I have forgotten on which date I finally alighted though I suspect it was the latter), I was nonetheless still shackled to my duties as an unwitting executor to a former deceased client, in addition to my duties as a Director of the Mississippi River Power Corporation and a Member of the Committee of Adjustment. Those functions were not especially onerous but neither could they be ignored; it was still work. It was with a buoyant heart this evening that I proffered a cheery wave adieu to my fellow Members, Stacey Blair and Patricia McCann-MacMillan, on the steps of the Town Hall. Only weeks ago it was a round of glad-handing about the Board table of the Power Corporation.
Honestly I could not be happier to have it all behind me. As peculiar as it may sound this is the first time in 38 years that I have really commenced anew. Having new clients and serving on different committees, boards, foundations, clubs and fraternities does not qualify as beginning afresh, rather it was just more of the same. I have at last put all of that behind me and I have no intention whatever of repeating the choreography. I frankly highly doubt I would have the energy to do so. Whatever one may say about drawing upon one’s “years of experience” it is nonetheless labour. Even my admitted vanity doesn’t palliate the anticipated drudge of it all.
It is too trite to repeat it, but allow me at least to observe that three other events unfolded today which while trivial conclude prior ambitions and connections and therefore nicely dovetail with the other salient details of my life. At last I feel poised to embrace my fresh vernacular, to cast myself adrift from former moorings and to set sail for unfamiliar horizons. I particularly relish the nautical theme as we head for the Atlantic Ocean, a heartfelt enterprise I have harboured my entire life.