A baby is coming. If you have been incarcerated at CECOT in El Salvador and are therefore unaware, Maggie is due in April. Sorry, let me restate that: Maggie and David are due. That’s what the kids say, “They are pregnant”. In this case the pronoun is actually plural (‘OG’ – Original Grammar). It’s like each of them will carry for 20 weeks and they will flip a coin to see who delivers. Put simply, impending grandfatherdom is triggering me back to Dazed (Grand)Dad status. Out of touch and out of time.
I’m aghast at how much stuff, by which I mean expensive stuff, is required for the little one. Don’t worry, I have counseled the young couple that by foregoing these gadgets and investing these funds appropriately, the future value would probably cover our granddaughter’s first year of university in 2045. Bandit the dog, who can be a bit ‘reactive’ is in training for the big day. Maggie is smearing a life-sized infant doll in hamburger and putting it in the baby rocker on the floor. Nothing to see here Bandit, move along.
Beyond insemination, 2025 has been a good year. Civil rights and rule of law in the US took a severe beating, but the stock market is up, up, up and the Toronto Blue Jays very nearly won the World Series. You don’t need global stability if you have world domination in pro baseball.
The extended family enjoyed heading to San Diego for our nephew Robert’s wedding at a classic Southern California resort called Rancho Bernardo. It was a magical setting eating under the stars in mid-September with perfect weather and outstanding food. When I got home, I immediately sent out emails of apology to our friends and family who had attended our wedding reception at the Appleby College dining hall and got a chicken breast and few green beans! Things have changed.
Hannah and Adam work with kids. Adam supporting kids in Grade 6 with special needs and Hannah visiting kids under 3 yrs in their homes and daycares. Hannah provides the kids (and parents) with exercises to help them meet developmental goals. At Adam’s school the kids put their phones in a signal-blocking pouch when they arrive and the teacher locks the bag with an electronic “key” until the end of the day. In return, the kid gets a dose of Concerta and a loaded handgun for self-defense. Okay, the phone thing is true – the rest is my suggestion for the next phase of the pilot.
Hannah works with quite a few families in marginalized communities. She has a front row seat at the circus of American decline. She carries cards in a wide variety of languages that explain what to say if ICE arrives at the door. Nonetheless, the kids are getting the therapy and services they need – supporting the idea that “what’s wrong in America can still be fixed by what’s right in America”.
It all reminds me of my own professional work with teens – older teens mostly. Getting them started on the right brands of alcopops uh – “coolers”, and beer before moving them on to spirits. Luckily my deficiencies as a marketer are benefits to society. In the last 20 years alcohol use among high schoolers has nosedived from 65% to 35%. I am considering philanthropically pivoting to social media and sports gambling.
In August Carolyn and I were in British Columbia on the northern tip of Vancouver Island. We had a chance to visit with people from the first nation of Gwa’sala-Nakwaxda’xw. It is an indigenous nation of roughly 1,100 people and 8 square kilometeres. As a group they were particularly disadvantaged because in 1964 the government “relocated” them from a few hundred kilometers away on the mainland across the inner passage that your cruise ship takes to get to Alaska. The “Indian Affairs” Minders found it too inconvenient to track these people up in Smith Inlet so they promised them housing on Vancouver Island and burned their village once they were on the boats. Of course, the “housing” was fake news. Today the Nation is doing their best to rebuild their community and has nearly finished their “big house”. It is a community-arena-sized building that is at the centre of their spiritual rituals and cultural practices. Sort of like the big church in small town Quebec. When we entered, we were bowled over by the massive carved pillars, the timber work and the huge sand floor and fire pit for traditional dances that have preserved their oral tradition for 10,000 years. To build it they traveled back to Smith Inlet to gather the sand from their ancestral home and that is what they will dance on. The grand opening, likely this summer, will draw thousands, many by canoe, from all over the inner passage and Vancouver Island.
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| The Big House |
Our family’s holiday rituals and traditions seemed paltry by comparison. Nothing against Elf on a Shelf, but that experience certainly made me wonder about the vestiges of both Christmas and Hannukah that we practice. Facing the resilience represented by the creation of that “big house” it seemed obvious. Go and get the sand from your metaphorical Smith Inlet and dance on it.
