Good new — Bad news …
Good news: our Golden Retriever puppy, Bechamel (Becha for short), is doing fantastically!
The bad news? He leaves me very little time to sit down and write. Adding to that, as I mentioned previously, world events move so fast. I was planning to write about the abrupt end to the trade negotiations, but that’s already old news. What remains entirely current, however, is Canada’s determination to protect its sovereignty.
Expanding My Horizons
I’m still working my way through the comments from previous posts. One reader recently asked why I’ve started writing about broader topics beyond my wonderful pets and travel.
Here is my answer.
I spent a full year writing a newsletter for a hobby organization. While I genuinely enjoyed the writing process, the narrow scope ultimately felt limiting, making it difficult to be creative or thought-provoking. At this stage in my life, I feel I should be able to say whatever I want—consequences be damned.
A key moment of inspiration for me was a post by Charlie Angus, former Canadian MP and leader of The Resistance (Canada). He shared that famous photograph taken on June 13, 1936, at a rally in Germany. Surrounded by thousands of people performing the Nazi salute, one solitary man stood right in the middle with his arms firmly folded.
I aspire to be that guy. That image struck a deep chord. It gave me a fierce determination to stand up and speak my truth, rather than quietly keeping the peace or filtering myself to avoid raising anyone’s ire. Having my own website gives me the freedom to do just that—though as always, comments, arguments, and constructive criticisms are warmly welcomed.
Inspiration comes from many places—people, poems, songs and stories. For me, Peggy Seeger’s “Song of Myself” captures my personal sentiments better than almost anything else:
I love those who labour. I sing of the farmers
And weavers and fishermen and miners as well.
Now, all you who hear me, I pray you draw near me.
Before you grow weary, I’ll sing of myself.
I was brought up in plenty until I was twenty
A joy to myself as some children can be
A joy to my father, a joy to my mother
The pain of the country was nothing to me
My school days being over, I became a rover
From Russia to China, from France then to Spain
I just lived for pleasure, I lived just in leisure
And though none the wiser, to England I came
I thought it no danger to follow a stranger
And as times were changing best friends we became
For the joys of a lover can equal no other
For ever anew and yet always the same
Good fortune attending, we don’t lack a living,
Our children a blessing, our joy to renew.
But to live amid plenty can only torment me
When the wealth of the many belongs to the few.
I’ve joined with the angry; I’ve joined with the hungry.
For long years of anguish, the price will be paid.
To hate and to anger, I am not a stranger.
I welcome the danger, yet I am afraid.
I fear the fate of the rebels and fighters
Who care for the future are tortured and pained
As the trial comes near, if I find I can’t bear it,
With joy, I will share it, no longer afraid.
I’ve learned to be angry; I’ve learned to be lonely.
I’ve learned to be many; I’ve learned to be one.
I’ve earned all my friends; even foes will commend me.
I stand with the many; I am not alone.
In the company of fighters, I find a new peace.
In the company of workers, I replenish myself.
Of miners and weavers, of rebels and dreamers,
When I sing of my comrades, I sing of myself.
Choosing a Path in a Noisy World: A Clarification
A dear friend recently wrote to me, taking exception to a line in my previous post where I noted that “we see this groupthink everywhere, from hobby groups to religious institutions.”
To ensure my message isn’t misconstrued, I want to clarify what I meant by “groupthink.” I was referring strictly to the psychological phenomenon where a group, through shared socialization, gradually adopts a unified mindset—often subtly discouraging individual dissent or outside perspectives along the way.
Our Societies Acts, alongside many companies and organizations, enforce robust Bullying and Harassment policies. These guidelines explicitly state that individuals must be protected from discrimination based on religion, for example. In practice, however, this protection is almost always applied to the right to practice a religion. Rarely is that same consideration extended to those who choose to have no religious beliefs at all.
I have several close friends who are deeply religious. I respect their values, kindness, and good intentions, and I know them to be genuinely good people. But historically and globally, they are not the norm; countless injustices have been committed in the name of various faiths.
As for me, I don’t believe in gods, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny (the list of things I don’t believe in is quite long). I do believe in human-kind and science.
That is my personal stance. If someone else holds beliefs different from mine, I respect that completely—provided their heart is in the right place and their actions reflect genuine goodwill toward others.
I believe that we win if we let our head light but the heart lead the way. In this way, we can surely be the kind of person our dog thinks we are.