HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1980-01-02, Page 2by Keith Roulston
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 2 1980
Serving Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising
Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association
Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $10.00 a Y`‘trr.
Others $20.00 a Year. Single Copies 25 cents each.
BLUE
RIBBON
AWARD
1979
OH, BOY WE GET TO SEE SANTA CLAUS—Kathy and Kenny Graber
looked happy to be on Santa Claus's knee when they visited with him at
the Royal Bank on Saturday, December 22.
Behind the scenes
Happiness
• Happy New Year. It's a wish that has 'are cities filled with such marvellotis
new ye0r:.
A new year hag; started. With a new year comes the' hope of making
Brussels and , area a more' progressive, cheerful and friendly
community to live \tn.
At the moment, however, in some respects, Brussels looks as though
it is becoming a dying community. Many stores have closed, and
others are closing their doors. If no new owners come along to take',
over, Brussels will reeemble a ghost town. •
The once very active Brussels Business Association also seems to be
a dying entity as fewer and fewer members straggle out to the
meetings. But at least one very good idea of the BBA caught on like
wildfire. That was the $100 draw inspiration which drew' shoppers to
BrUssels on Friday night so that parking space on the main street was
next to impossible to find.
The vitality that area residents can being to their commun'ty has
been shown time and time again in .Brussels.' .•
Paying off a debt like the one owing on the arena in less than two
yearsitime is no small feat. Neither is getting a pharmacy to settle in a
village the size of Brussels. And the staggering amount of events put
on by the Lions Club, the Optirhists, the Figure Skating Club the
churches and other organizations show just what people are capable of,
if they put their minds to it.
Attracting new business and industry should be a priority for
Brussels in the coming year. Fresh blood and new ideas are necessities
for the survival of any community.
Short Shots
person's political leanings, one could not but
feel compassion for him • as he made the
announcement. He appeared to be under
strain, determined to go ahead with what he
felt he must, but was not happy about it.
What the outcome of it all will be on
February 18, and what is ahead for Canada
in the years to come, no one can now be
sure.
* * * * *
A few New Year's resolutions: Give up
being a pessimist, be an optimist; not always
"me" first, consider others; try smiling not
frowning; offer a helping hand to someone
who needs it; put a curb on angry words; no
gossiping about neighbours and friends;
take care of your health; stop and think
before sounding off; listen to the other
fellow's viewpoint; stop smoking; do not kick
dog, give him a pat instead; cultivate being
an extrovert not an introvert; chase away the
blues with happy thoughts; not cling to the ,
idea that being a senior citizen means,
retiring from an active and enjoyable life; try
to be the kind of person that folks like to
have around.
***a**
If we make New Year resolutions will we,
keep them? The first one that will be made
by me is that I will, with the first day of
January, stop procastenating. Putting off,
until the last possible minute, things that
must be done, is a failing of mine. It puts me
in a dither with frantic haste driving me •
when a task simply has to be completed,
such as having this column ready for the
deadline. Somehow it always gets done. No
doubt the putting off is why it reads rather
strangely at times, that, and when those
pesky little gremlins tamper' with it substi-
tuting words that were never meant to be
there.
* * * * *
May the New Yeat bring to you
Joy in everything you do.
beenleard many times in the last, few days
as we move into a new year and a new',
decade.
Many people will spend a lot of time in
1980 seeking that happiness so easily
wished so hard to attain: The American
constitution written over 200 years ago
made "life, liberty and the purSuit
happiness" a right of every citizen of that
country. For the 'modern "North American
it is happiness Itself that has become a
right and with a large portion of the
population still vainly pursuing it, they feel.,
cheated of their rights.
And who can blame them. The whole
continent has been built on the idea that.
happiness is just around the corner. It was
settled mainly by unhappy people; from
foreign lands who saw in the new world a
chance to build a new world of their own.
They came from the bottom of established
societies. Just having a piece of land to call
their own would make them happy.
And I suppose it probably did for a
while. Those may have been the happiest
people this continent has seen. But they
didn't have a lot of time to enjoy
themselves because they had to struggle to
stay alive in their new world. They had to
battle the forest and the climate and the
hardships of a primitiVe land. Once they
got the cabin built they could be happy.
Then once they got the land cleared. Then
once they got a frame house built to stop
the wind whistling through the cracks in:
the log house. Then if only they had a brick
or stone house and so on.
Happiness for those early people meant
mostly material gain, They wanted things
to ease, the discomfOrt of their harsh
lifeStyle.,
Happiness to the sons and daughters of
those settlers meant something else again.
Looking back it's amazing to see how
quickly people forgot the urge that had
brought people to Canada in the first place.
Oh a large number of sons stayed on to
keep the family farm going and daughters
married other farmers' sons but many
more> moved on. The farms were barely
cleared in Ontario before many young men
had the urge to repeat their fathers'
experiences and they moved west to take
up land on the prairies. Many others,
sickened by the continual hard grind of
homesteading sought escape in the cities
and towns were they took jobs in factOries,
shops and offices, Happiness for them was
telief from backbreaking work and the risk
taking of farming. As years went by urban
life, the escape from the real or imagined
hardships of rural life became the pot of
gold at the end Of the rainbow:, happiness'
personified.
But it hasn't been. Today we have a
society dominated by the large cities. They
wealth that they would have seemed like
fairytale lands to our'fathers who came to
this land of bush and cold, but they aren't
filled with hippiness. The search for
happiness is our houses filled with all the
latest wonders of *technology is perhaps
stronger and more deverate today than
ever, in our histOry.
We, hear so much these, days from
politicians and the media .about Alio, sorry
state of our economy..The real pioblem in
the country is more likely not economic but
psychological. There's probably a case •to
be made that our economic probleins are
caused to a good extent by our fruitless
search for happiness.
People have given up so much in their
mad chase after happiness. They have,
given up their independence. The , vast
majority of people today work for other
people, usually for huge, faceless, heart-
less corporations which may have head
offices thousands of miles away. People
often have no sense of purpose in their
work, no sense of accomplishment. They
are unhappy in theirwork and so they try to
make up, for, it by demanding more': money
for their work so they can seek happiness in
their off-hours work: happiness in a fancy
home, material possessions, a lively night-
life, "exciting" sexual activities. But
somehow it all rings hollow for them.
We built our modern society to escape
the unhappiness of the old society. We
moved to cities because we wanted to have
a society shaped by man, not nature, but
now we find that society is shaping man,
telling us how we must act to fit in to the
pattern. People can no longer expect to
own a hotrie in cities but must be content to
live in apartments despite the fact :the
country was founded on the dtive of people
to have something they could' call their
own. We bought cars to give us freedom
and now we find that they have ruined our
cities with noise and pollution and marred
our countrySide with ribbons of concrete
and wasted our resources petroleunt and
made us subject to blackinail and degrad-
ation from abroad.
We bought our material possessions to
• bring us happiness and find we are the
prisoner of the lifestyle we have chosen.
We can't escape because of the high cost of
maintaining that lifestyle. And so people
are more wealthy and less happy than ever.
We're on a treadniill, always running
toward happiness but never reaching it.
The treadmill is oiled by big bitSiness who
Want to keep us thinking that the next
gadget we buy will bring happiness. Will
We wake up in the 1980's or will we,
continue to play the ganiei getting ever
more frustrated until something really
frightening happens?
Ali! —when shall all men's good
Be each man's rule
And universal peace
Like a shaft of light
Across the land.
—Alfred Lord Tennyson
******
Do not plan anything else for January 26th
for that will be Robbie Burns Night at
Brussels Royal Canadian Legion. Just get
those kilts and dancing shoes ready to go
that night. Be, ye Scot or no, you will enjoy
the music of the pipes and swirl of the dance
on Robbie Burns Night. Plan to attend.
Watch The Post for later particulars.
'• -i*****
Here we are with a brand new year ahead.
What we personally do with it is up to each
one of us. Each new day of the year presents
to us a blank page of time on which we will
leave our impression. Will we, on them,
'record a year of accomplishments, or
defeats; consideration of our fellow men or
display only selfish concern for our own
desires; will we make the best of what we
have or will we bemoan out lack of all the
things we would like to have; will we make it
a year of happy association for those close to '
us or a year of discouragement and
unhappiness? What we accomplish in 198(' )1;
up to each individual. We cannot blat,
others for the impressions we leave on those
blank pages of days.
******
Pierre Trudeau responded to the rather
desperate plight of his Party and is now
embroiled in what, no doubt, is the toughest
election battle he his fought. His decision to
again take on the Liberal leadership must I
have been an extremely difficult one for him.
He resigned because he wanted a more ,
relaxed personal life with more time to
spend with his yoting sons. He stated he
gave that up for what he felt was his duty to '
his country and his party. No matter what a