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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1978-04-05, Page 2WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 1978 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean 13ros.Publishers Limited, Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly.Newspaper Association *CNA • Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. OCNA 4,41;ERs ASSO t ilki/ PAN S CO gs'amc7*zto.00,..commu, okir- 4Bruwls Post Thanks for the show. It seemed like almost the entire population of Brussels turned out Saturday night to watch the Brussels Figure Skating Club's annual Carnival. And the club gave the audience its money's worth. Once again Brussels has put on a better performance than could be expected from a village '.three or four times its size. Probably more good figure skaters and good hockey players per capita have come out of Brussels than from many other bigger places too. The Brussels Figure Skating Club deserves a bouquet, both for Saturday night's fine show and for its continuing work in bringing along skaters of championship calibre. Carol Wheeler is the current example. of a provincial class skater who started here. The club has many of its 110 members working to win Canadian Figure Skating Association badges. More than 40 boys belong to the club....perhaps another first for, area figure skating clubs. All the parenti`who organize , the Brussels club are volunteers. They work at everything from costumes to programs and publicity and as Saturday night showed, they know their jobs.' To the parents, 110 young skaters, to the skating pro Faye McDonald and her assistant Debbie Jeffrey, the Post would like to say thanks for brightening our winter season. We're sure everyone who attended Saturday night will agree. To the editor: ALPHA doing survey The Awareness League for Physically Handicapped Adults (ALPHA) is conducting a survey of private accommodation in Huron County suitable for use by the handicapped. We Will appreciate your cooperation in making this known to your readers and would ask any person who, has such facilities available to write ALPHA, P.O. Box 1388, Clinton, Ontario, NOM ILO. Thanks for your assistance on behalf of ALPHA. Elaine Townshend Marsh World SATELLITES AND SNOW GEESE — Investigators from the Quebec Government, 'the Canadian Wildlife Service and from private industry (Gregory Geo- science Limited) are using pictures taken from satel- lites to predict the nesting success of lesser snow geese in tho Canadian Arctic. The nesting success of a snow goose colony is closefr related to the date at which a significant proportion of the nesting area is clear Of snow. Therefore, if the pictures from the satellite show that the snow has cleared early from the nesting , area, the investigators can predict that the nesting success will be highei than average. Behind the. tweptefi- [by Keith Roulston] Have you ever noticed that we spend a lot of time talking about the big crises of life when it's the little things that really affect us most? Television and the newspapers talk incessantly abou it out domestic economic woes when what affects most of us more is the little domestic battles such as whether the toothpaste tube should be squeezed from the middle or the end (my wife squeezes from the middle while I work from the end). They talk about the tensions between the Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East while what really matters is the tensions between husband and wife when he leaves his dirty socks sitting around the bedroom floor instead of putting them away in the clothes hamper. There are many bad jokes made about the troubles of a man and woman adjusting to each other in the first days of their marriage but 'it's actually very true as nearly anyone who has been married will admit. Really when you think of it, it's tribute to the flexibility of human beings that there aren't more marriages that end in disaster because people can't learn to do things a different way. If people showed as much willingness to accommodate others in their whole life as they do in _their marriage, the world would be a better place. We talk about national unity but when you think of it, each family is a little country. of its own. Each has its own rules, its own customs which are a little different than all the others. When two people who have been raised under two sets of customs for the first 20 years of their lives suddenly move in together, without any period of getting adjusted, it can be like two trains on the same track heading for a collision unless both parties are willing to give and take on the things they are used to. In our family there's been a ,good deal of give and. ake. We settled the toothpaste issue by simply ignoring each others habits. She still squeezes froin the middle and I squeeze from the end and to complicate things, we've got three kids that squeeze anyplace in between. We had problems at first about cooking. It Amen by Karl Schuessler Are we too Hello. I'm Karl. I'm friendly. 'Can't you tell? I'm wearing this sign stuck on my tapel. The woman at the door gave it to me when I registered at the desk-for this weekend seminar on church music. It's a workshop on the use of hymns in public worship. • Just introduce yourself 'around, she said. Make yourself at home. Have a cup of coffee. Circulate. Get to know everyone. They'll be happy to meet you. But what if I don't feel friendly? What if I don't want to circulate? What if I'd rather go to my seat? Sit down. Wait. In quiet before the speaker begins. I had enough coffee today already. I'm tired -Saw lots of people. So I walked into the auditorium. Sat down. Rested. Waited. Waited until the acknowledged authority on church hymnody, Erik Routley began to speak. Score one for me. About an hour later I heard a' sigh of relief come over two clergymen who sat a couple of chairs over. I knew they were clergymen. Those turned around collars. I didn't have my glasses on. I couldn't read their friendly name tag, but I know clergy threads when I 'see them. But those two men exhaled with that's-the- exact-way-I-feel-abouf-it, - only let's face it. They never had the courage to say it out loud in public like Dr. Routley had. Erik Routley said he was embarrassed by much of the enforced friendliness in the church. You know the kind. There you are. A perfect stranger in a congregation and then all of a sudden the minister says shake hands with the person you're sitting next to. Or turn around and say good morning to the fellow in back of you. Or extend yeitr hand and say "The' Lord be With you" to someone and then she 're supposed to reply "And with th, y spitit." I've seen that done enough. times on this side of the Atlantic, but I saw the dilly of all when we were in Jerusalem last spring. At a multilingual service--conducted in three language, English, Arabic and .6ermaii. All of a Sudden in the middle of this most liturgical service ever, everyone was supposed wasn't that my wife wasn't a good cook, but just that she had been taught to cook things in her family a little differently than I had been used to in my family. My mother, for instance, believed in cooking roast beef until there wasn't any sign of red left in it. My wife's mother cooked her meat far less. The first time I visited my future Mims and had a slice of roast beef with the blood still oozing out of the middle I thought they were going to have to pick me up off the floor. My wife converted me on, most things to do with food, however. Today I can eat beef that is, if not rare, at least medium and actually can prefer it that way. She converted our family to using brown sugar instead of white for things like cereal. She regularly uses whole wheat and brown breads when only white appeared, on our table back home. So we've managed to solve our problems in nearly all areas: except one. After ten years of marriage we still have not been able to compromise fully on what time to go to bed. The problem is that I'm a nightowl while she's an early-to-bed person. I function best in the evenings and even into the morning hours while she is long gone by them. She came from a family that went to bed early.while my faMily watched the late movie s. every night on television. When we first got married she started yawning about 9:30 every night while I was just getting around to the time I felt like reading or working. We had a -. hard time getting adjusted at all. Later years, she didn't have much of a choice. My work kept me out until midnight or so most nights of the week so she got used to going to bed without me. Now with three kids roaring around the house all day long, I find I want to continue to stay up late just to enjoy the hours of peace , and quiet that come after they've finally gone to bed.. • There are times when we can still agree on a common bedtime. She's moved back from starting to yawn at 9:30 to about 10:30.' I've moved up from 1 a.m. to midnight and usually about 11. Who knows, in another 10 years we may actually co-operate completely. But then, so might the, Arabs and Israelis. friendrY? to break out of his seat, walk the aisle , to the front and back--all over-- and greet everyone in this Lord-be-With-you fashion. And when the outburst of enthusiasm died down after ten minutes, everyone went back to his seat to pick up the solemn service and business as In some of these kind of friendly services, I've seen things get really chummy. Go real Eastern. Embrace the man sitting next to you. The man? my heavens! What do you do if it's a woman? But anyway. This bear bug of familiarity is quite Oriental and common. And after that hug of friendship can come the kiss of peace. Wow! Sitting next to a woman may not be so bad after all. Dr. Routley says when all this timed and planned hospitality goes on, he feels something like a six year old child again. Back to mummy when she told him how to act. Be nice, now, Erik. Be friendly. Say "hello" now. Be friendly to Mr. Thompson, our visitor. Wave goodbye now. Sit. Stand. You may go now. And Dr. Routley said when he came from England three years ago to teach in the States, he personally determined not to join a church of bear huggers, plastered smiles, hand pumpers and head bobbers. He said he wanted to relax "into" a congregation. A his own rate. In his own time. Score one for Dr. Routley. And then .in the question period of the opening session, I asked him about all those sad and sentimental tunes we sing at funerals. . I wondered why we don't insist on joyful, triumphant hymns--hymns that speak of hope, Easter and resurrection. Dr. Routley replied he hoped people would choose those kind of victory hymns, but, then, he reminded me you can't make people feel certain ways, especially at a time like that. Feeling sad and singing sorrowful may be the dominant mood of the day. You can't hold up signs that dictate, "Be joyful". "Remember -heaven" and think that will change the feeling. It's time well spent, Dr. Routley insisted, if his ministry of 40 years influenced only one person. For that much, he'd be most grateful. Score two for Dr. Roiatley. Score three for his Lord.