The root of the word University is the Latin form of “universe” or “whole”. I suspect that it has less to do with the number of subjects taught and more to do with how it takes over your entire life. Qualification, selection, admission, preparation, remuneration and finally separation. So, I was surprised that we had no sooner endured the tearful return home from the drop-off at McMaster then Maggie was standing in our living room. I am exaggerating, but the GO train from Hamilton takes about as long as getting to Union Station downtown. Our child is not “away” at university, she is in a halfway house working toward an orderly transition into society.
Early in the year Carolyn started a new job at the Heart and Stroke Foundation. I was glad of her CPR retraining and expertise with an AED (defibrillator) as we went through Maggie’s high school graduation and the Prom. Organizing the Pan-Am games is child’s play compared with planning and executing a high school prom. All I can tell you is that in the end, there was a party, there was a Prom and there was a dress. It was a tsunami, and then, it was gone.
Hannah continued to thrive at the quirky school and her school dragon boat team set a personal best time at the finals. The team competed at a higher level, so they did not win their division. At the time of writing she has applied to a few universities and we are ready to do it all again – older and wiser. She has taken to spending the week after Christmas with a friend in Palm Beach, Florida. Friend’s Uncle has a beautiful home and they all live like Richard Branson. I need a friend like that. Heck, I need a friend.
Carolyn’s sister Jenn and her husband Nik left their circumnavigating sailboat-home in Trinidad and spent the summer in Toronto visiting family and friends. We had fun motorcycle shopping and road tripping to Montreal for Maggie’s Ultimate Frisbee finals. They are the Captains of adventure and lead a derring-do lifestyle that the rest of us aspire to. They could have a lot of Twitter followers – but they don’t need them.
We are lucky that my brother’s family lives nearby and we get to hang with his kids Jackson (10) and Sienna (6) virtually at will. We can easily attend some soccer/basketball/track events and not all of them. They are not going to University any time soon. We have the joy of having fun with them, encouraging misbehaviour and then handing them back to their parents if they get cranky.
Even as an extended family we have had a remarkable run of good health. I attribute this to the multivitamins we take most days and a high stress lifestyle that forces you off to work before you can start complaining. Basically we are trying to outrun illness and leverage the placebo effect simultaneously.
While some people are trying to put Christ back in Christmas, we are lobbying against it. The more we secularize Christmas and Hanukkah, the closer we get to fusing them and simplifying our lives. Eight days is clearly too long, but one day is kind of meager for a full-on festival. There used to be twelve days of Christmas before the cutbacks. We are working on a four day Christmakah that always includes the winter solstice. The Retail Council of Canada loves the idea.
Of course all this secularization doesn’t help much with faith. It is in short supply but in great demand every Season as world events never fail to shock and dismay. I suppose that one of the meanings of this time of year is to somehow reconcile the “over there” where there are ebola and beheadings and drone attacks and working poor down the street with the “over here” and all of our good fortune. I certainly don’t have many answers on that one. I am thinking of perhaps returning to university, everyone is doing it these days and I seem to be driving there anyway.
Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday and joyful 2015 from all of us.
