Thanksgiving Day has once again come and once again gone.
But it periodically crosses my mind to wonder if we are being thankful for everything that we should be thankful for. I, fortunately, grew up during the dragged-out years of the Great Depression. It was a time when nickels and dimes were in short supply, and a penny was still worth risking getting your fingers stepped on while stooping to pick it up. The food that arrived on our table was a direct result of mixed farming as well as market gardening.
My parents stood each Saturday, for 37 years hand-running, at the Guelph Farmer’s Market. There they sold eggs, cut-flowers, an assortment of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and hand-churned in our country kitchen, Jersey butter, yummy!
It was my job at this market to make change when a purchase of any sort was made.
I enjoyed doing this as there were many nationalities that came to the market, and it was fun to guess by their different appearances, expressions, and accents whether they were Italian, Dutch, Polish, German, Czechoslovakian, Jewish, or whatever it turned out to be.
I found out years later that designation of this job was due to the fact that my parents well knew, regardless of creed or colour, no adult would intentionally cheat a child. On the contrary, though most sales were less than 50 cents, quite often a penny was tucked back into my hand. At the day’s end, I’d have a dozen or more to jingle happily in my jeans.
That, to me, explained at the time what a true Canadian was made up of. Strange as it may seem, my feelings have not changed over the years. Should we not be more thankful that Canada has become what it is?
Sitting at half-mast in my overflowing chuckle bucket, I found a clipping that was sent to me several years ago. It was an editorial written by an Australian dentist in words he defined, much better than mine, what a Canadian really is.
In greater part, here it is:
“A Canadian can be English, French, Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. A Canadian can be Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, Arab, Pakistani, or Afghan.
“A Canadian may also be a Cree, Metis, Mohawk, Blackfoot, Sioux, or one of the many outer tribes known as Native Canadians. A Canadian’s religious beliefs range from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or none. The key in Canada is that each is free to worship as each of them chooses. Whether they have a religion or no religion, each Canadian answers only to God.
“A Canadian lives in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can only be found in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that recognizes the right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
“A Canadian is generous and Canadians have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
“Canadians welcome the best of everything – the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services, and the best minds. But they also welcome the least – the oppressed, the outcast and the rejected.
“Canadians are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit and freedom.”
Should that not be something for which we are truly thankful? I certainly think, with no perhaps, that it is.
Take care, ’cause we care.
Barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105