Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas, Everyone!

What a wonderful, wonderful time of the year!

Christians across the world shout with joy! It's time to celebrate one of our most important Festivities of our Faith - the birthday of our Savior - Jesus Christ!

Over time, too many pageant traditions have made their way into our precious Celebration and have blurred the significance of Christmas. Fortunately, people from many European countries have managed to separate the mercantile-driven gift-giving from the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas, for them, is a Sacred and Holy Celebration.

But North Americans, in the main, have, sadly, become hypnotized and obsessed with the materialism side of Christmas, much to the chagrin of the true faithful, and much to the delight of the merchants who drain millions of dollars from our pockets at this time of the year.

If you are a Christian, I challenge you to make a stand, much like our European brothers and sisters have done: separate the gift-giving from the true Christmas Celebration. Reserve Christmas Day for gathering with your families to honour the birth of Jesus Christ, to go to the church of your choice, to enjoy good food together in the celebration of Christ's birth, and to remember why Christmas is our special Season.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy 2010.

Gary

The Swine Flu and Vaccination

How serious is the Swine Flu threat? That's the million dollar question everyone seems to be asking. A lot of us are confused. Is it really a more-than-normal serious flu? Or is it just a propaganda campaign backed by the drug companies who stand to make a fortune in sales? And, are the death rates going to be worse than in other years?

Both my wife and I batted these issues around in trying to get to the truth. In the end, we faced a few unchallengeable certainties. Amongst them:

- Otherwise healthy people seem to be dying, and they all weren't old . . . in fact, many of them were in the prime of their lives and athletic;

- The serum is basically the same as used in previous years for routine flu shots, except it was modified to suit this particular strain;

- The Swine Flu is a problem globally;

- Some older persons seem to have an immunity to it - perhaps because they may have had the same strain of flu back in the fifties; and

- Lastly, there seems to be no guarantee that healthy people who get the Swine Flu are going to have an easy time with it.

For moms and dads with children, the decision to get the shot or not should be a "no-brainer": the children are your wards - they cannot make the decision for themselves - and you are entrusted to protect them from anything that might, even in the remotest of possibilities, cause them harm. You and your children should be vaccinated with due haste.

For the remainder of us, a decision has to be made to protect ourselves, to protect others around us, and to help eradicate this life-threatening menace.
There's nothing macho about risking ourselves and our loved ones.

I was procrastinating. I hate needles - even the thought of them. Then last weekend, my wife and I baby-sat our two oldest granddaughters. That morning they were all vaccinated. Our oldest, Nicola, became the catalyst for me getting down to the clinic. Five years old, she acted more mature than a lot of us adults. When she arrived at the clinic with her parents and younger sister, she stepped forward and said, "I'll go first." And she did - never flinching - and set the example.

Later that evening when she sat with me, I mentioned that I would probably go on Monday for my shot. She put her index finger and thumb gently together on my fore-arm and said, "did that hurt Poppa?"

I said, "no, sweetie, not a bit."

She added, "that's what the needle will feel like."

On Monday, I got my Swine Flu shot and, you know what? Nicola was right, I didn't feel anything more than her gently pressing on my arm.

If you haven't done it, I encourage you to do so. It may save a life.

Gary

Another Memorable Ontario Town

When my wife and I first visited this Victorian-era town situated along the Rideau Canal and about 45 minutes from Ottawa, we were smitten with its quaintness and wonderful array of charming Christmas shops. Strolling its lazy, well-decorated streets seemed to bring one back to a period when time stood still. For just a fleeting moment, my imagination was caught up in a scene of horse-drawn sleighs, jingling harness bells, and puffs of steam from the horses nostrils.

After a couple of blissful hours poking around in the old-fashioned stores, we meandered down the street to one of a few excellent eating establishments fitting of the Victorian period.

The town - Merrickville.

If you have a special town, please let us know and we'd be glad to pay it a visit.

Gary & Jo Ann

Memorable Towns in Ontario

My wife and I frequently visit places that we haven't been to before. These are cities or towns within easy reach of Ottawa and are not often in the high-profile tourist-target-zone such as places like Stratford or Niagara Falls.

Recently we were treated to a very special place that caught our attention for its hospitality, late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century charm, cleanliness, excellent eating establishments, and tasteful shops. It was a breath of fresh air for anyone wanting to step off the fast-paced twenty-first century treadmill. Complimenting its gorgeous downtown buildings were beautifully groomed parks and a live theatre.

We tip our hats to the mayor and council of Port Hope, our latest addition to our memorable towns of Ontario.

The Ten Commandments

It seems to me, as each day passes into a new week, and each week into a month, and on into a new year, that we are witnessing an escalation of heinous, evil crimes against mankind. Crimes that not only appear globally, but randomly splatter our neighbourhoods, as well. It doesn't surprise me, nor should it surprise others.

As a student of history, I believe an excellent case could be made for the twentieth century being one of the darkest, (if not the darkest), in mankind's existence. A century in which evil reined unparalleled. Until now . . .

Although the book is yet to be written, the twenty-first century may, if it continues spiralling out of control, make the twentieth pale in comparison.

What has happened? What is going wrong?

Many of my generation can recall never locking our doors at night. Churches were always open. The worst crime was the odd Friday night tire-squealing, or the local drunk.

Although it's easy to generalize, and I don't particularly like to do so, there appear to be, in my opinion, a sharp decline in the mores and values being taught to today's youth. Family interaction is missing in many families and spiritual values have been waylaid and replaced by technological gods that leave children lacking in reality and an empathy for his/her fellow human-beings.

Although it may seem old-fashioned and out-of-touch with many of our younger parents, I contend that the following Ten Commandments would be a positive contribution to the welfare and good development of our next generations, if treated seriously and in the context of their intent:


The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)

1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

6 “You shall not murder.

7 “You shall not commit adultery.

8 “You shall not steal.

9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”

Wouldn't it be a much better world if these Commandments once again became a part of our way of life?

Gary

Summer, Summer - Where Have You Gone? Why Have You Forsaken Us?

In Ottawa, July was a real bummer - a write-off . . . unless, of course, you happened to be a duck. But even they, (the ducks), began to show signs of turning moldy, and their good-nature seemed to sour as they plodded through the muck.

August donned with a small ray of hope. Very small. The sun, now suffering from being heavily water-logged, was able, for five days, to push itself above the horizon. But, alas, it couldn't maintain its position and, by the third week, it was frequently pushed from the sky only to be replaced by its loud and brassy twin sisters: thunder and lightening, and, of course, its accompanying rain.

Today, as I write, I'm witnessing yet another deluge. Ankle-deep puddles stream down the roadsides and a rat-a-tat-tat of splattering, heavy droplets pounds the window pane.

The summer of 2009.

Is this a sign of the winter to come?

Gary

Time: The Eternal Thief of Life

The eighty year-old man sat sunken in his soft chair, his shoulders stooped with the weight of the years now behind him. He rocked gently. His face wrinkled and weather-beaten. His dashing blue eyes now a pale grey. His knees ached and his back felt as if a hundred small knives were piercing it.

His mind, still alert and honed, was that of a teenager. All he had left were his dreams and memories. He reflected back to his school years and a poem by Eugene Field that stuck with him. It was titled Little Boy Blue and went like this:

"The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair,
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now don't you go til I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So toddling off to his trundle-bed
He dreamt of the pretty toys.
And as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue, -
Oh, the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face.
And they wonder, as waiting these long years through,
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue
Since he kissed and put them there. "

A tear trickled down his wizened cheek as he remembered . . .

Gary