HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1995-02-01, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1995. PAGE 5.
Ice bound in
the black hole
Well, here we are, ice-bound in the black
hole of the annual Canadian weather
experience - which is to, say right smack in
the frosted bulls-eye of yet another winter -
and do you know what we'll both be thinking
about today?
The only thing that really, really matters to
any Canuck who finds him or herself up to
the axles in white stuff - escape.
We will be thinking meteoerotic thoughts
of Acapulco, Vera Cruz and Tampico Bay.
We will muse indecently of swaying palms,
white beach sand hot enough to toast one's
tootsies and tangy margaritas served with
love in long-stemmed glasses as big as
birdbaths.
We will entertain uncharitable thoughts
about the bloated plutocrats among us who
are rich enough to turn the Canadian
midwinter Fantasy into reality. The ones
who can actually afford to hop aboard those
southbound chartered 747s, leaving the rest
of us stranded in the drifts, in our galoshes
and earmuffs, growling muffled curses into
our scarves and shaking our snow shovels
skyward.
Canadians will generate a Great Lake's
worth of envy today, but one southbound
couple we will not be wishing to exchange
places with is the Mclntyres.
The importance
of symbolism
In one of my last classes before Christmas,
I was referring to the economic policies of
an Eastern European country and I suggested
that the implementation of such policies
might well open a Pandoris Box of undesir-
able effects on the country's economy. While
most of the students in the class were aware
of the expression, I had to pause for a
moment to explain to the others just what
was meant by such a box.
In thinking about it on the way home, I
realized how important such expressions
were in our language, or any language for
that matter. Furthermore, most of the ones
we use come from a classical and/or foreign
source. Without them English would be a lot
less colourful language.
To use the above mentioned box as an
example, many of these symbolic expres-
sions have a rather colourful history.
Certainly the story of Pandora is a long one
and is mentioned for the first time in the
works of the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived
in the 8th century B.C. The poet wasted no
time in ascribing all the ills of the world to
the female sex.
All this came about as the result of the
Greek gods deciding to make human exis-
tence something less than idyllic. The god of
fire was given the job of crafting a female
figure, which he did with the help of other
goddesses who gave her a considerable
amount of beauty. With these attributes she
was set among mere mortals. While she was,
along with her beauty, lazy, ill-natured and
stupid, she managed to find a husband in no
less a person than the brother of Prometheus
who had given fire to humans to help us
Don and Margie McIntyre I mean. They,
too, are heading south, and they're not doing
it on the cheap. They've got two, count 'em
two, boats full of supplies - enough to keep
them in grub and spare clothes for a couple
of a years. By the time it's over the
Mclntyres will spend almost half a million
bucks on this little vacation, what with the
satellite communication links, the solar and
wind-turbine power generators and whatnot,
but you have to spend money if you really
want to get away from it all, right?
And the Mclntyres figure they really will
be getting away from it all. They don't
expect to see another human for the next
year.
That's because the southern resort spa
they're heading for is on the shores of
Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica. Population:
nada.
They'll be living in a fibreglass hut
especially reinforced to withstand winds of
200 miles an hour - which is what they can
expect on the shores of Commonwealth
Bay, a destination designated as "kingdom
of blizzards" by those tourists luckless or
witless enough to have stayed overnight
before.
The most famous visitors would have to
be the 18-man exploration team led by
Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, back
before the first World War. In the spring of
1912, starving members of the Mawson
expedition were reduced to eating their own
sled dogs. The two men perished, one went
bonkers and Mawson himself staggered back
along.
Pandora brought into her marriage, a box,
out of which came all the torments of
humanity - aging, pain disease, madness. It
also contained hope which was supposed to
Peep us all from ending of our lives and thus
.scaping such misery.
Hesiod thought fit to point out that "the
aernicious female sex came to be a great
misfortune for the male... she is mother of
the hordes of women who have become the
ruin of mortal man." It is just as well that he
lived a long time ago. The fact that the
legend goes on to mention that the daughter
of Pandora, Pyrra, was the first mortal
woman to be born, would have done little to
help him.
Thus there is a lot of history in this expres-
sion and I am sure that the vast majority of
people who get around to using it are not
aware of the details leading up to the modern
use of it. Perhaps it is just as well that all the
sexist connotations have disappeared; it
would not go over well in this century.
Let's get away from Greece for a while
and look at a word that everybody knows -
stepmother. She has come down through
fairy tales, mainly German ones, as an evil
anti-mother. At times she is ready to kill her
wards and in so doing becomes the closest
the Germans have to that most evil of female
figures - the witch. In fact, in Grimm's fairy
tales, that is exactly what she is. Remember
what happened in Snow White and you will
know exactly what I mean.
In German, if you say "to complains to
one's stepmother," it means that you are
wasting your breath. In addition, "to weep at
one's stepmother's grave" is to pretend to be
sorry. Both in German and in English the
fate of the stepchild is to be neglected and
we see it in expressions such as "this
economic program has become the stepchild
of the new administration."
to base camp just in time to see his rescue
ship steaming out to sea.
None of which deters the Mclntyres, who
have cheerily dubbed their adventure
"Together Alone: Expedition Ice-Bound".
The prospect of sitting out a 365-day long
winter storm doesn't phase them. In fact,
they're toting an extra year's worth of vittles
just in case the pack ice prevents their
scheduled rendezvous with a supply ship
next December.
Well, okay, but what do you - you know -
DO when you find yourself virtually snowed
in for an entire calendar year? In Antarctica
of all tropical vacation spots.
It's not like you can count on wandering
Mariachi bands or occasional busloads of
party-hearty dentists from the Midwest.
Hey, Antarctica's so remote it doesn't even
have a team in the Canadian Football
League.
Don and Margie figure they'll handle the
solitude okay. He plans to work on a three
foot model of Captain Cook's famous ship
Endeavour. As for Margie, she says she
intends to stitch and stuff 50 teddy bears to
sell at an Australian charity auction later.
And Don McIntyre's got experience - he's
considered one of Australia's toughest
sailors.
Margie? Well...she says she's never
actually skied or snowshoed. As a matter of
fact she's scarcely ever seen snow. •
Do I think they'll make it? Why not? Hell,
they sound almost wacky enough to be
Canadians.
There is only one strange aspect to all this.
In German the word "Stiefmuetterchen" is
the translation of the English word "pansy."
What it has to do with flowers is not clear
since the 19th century the pansy was
described as "looking so sweet, so loving, so
good, like the gentle mother's heart that
gives faith, hope and love to the child of
another." Perhaps there were a few good
stepmothers around after all.
I can't resist the urge to finish this article
by talking a bit about William Tell. This is
perhaps the best know bit of symbolism
coming out of Switzerland since only the
most dyed-in-the-wool nationalist would
argue that he is a real rather than a symbolic
person who did all that was claimed for him.
You probably know the story of the archer
who bests represents the Swiss longing for
independence and liberty; at any rate his feat
of shooting the apple off his son's head is
undoubtedly symbolic; the same feat is said
to have occurred much earlier in Saxon,
Nordic and Scottish history. It can be argued
that the legend became famous beyond the
borders of Switzerland mainly through the
works of two foreigners, the German writer
Friedrich Schiller in his play William Tell in
1804 and the Italian composer Rossini in his
opera of the same name in 1929. You are
undoubtedly familiar with the music of the
overture to this opera which served as the
theme for the The Lone Ranger.
By now you get the point as to the role
that symbolism plays in our life. You
probably have your own preferences and I
can only wonder how many of you have
chosen the number seven at any time, almost
totally unaware that in many ancient
civilizations it was the most sacred of
numbers.
The
Short
of it
By Bonnie Gropp
Nature majestic
Then came old January, wrapped well
In many weeds to keep the cold away;
Yet did he quake and quiver like to quell,
And blewe his nayles to warm them if he may
—Edmund Spenser
Tomorrow, Wiarton Willie is going to
stick his head out from his cozy subterranean
cocoon and decide whether he wants to stick
it back for another six weeks or not. For the
first time in quite a few years I find myself
not actually giving a hoot.
Now I am not a complete fool and
therefore fairly positive each Feb. 2 that we
can surely expect another six weeks of
winter, whether Willie sees his shadow or
not. But, sometimes, when we've been
subjected to a particularly cold, blustery
winter, I take whimsical satisfaction in the
confirmation of the season's end, even when
it's a prediction which comes from as
unlikely a source as a memberof the marmot
family, not especially known for their
intelligence as any good old hunting dog will
confirm.
While I do actually recall one year when
we were promised something less than the
traditional six weeks of winter, most of my
recollections of Groundhog Days in the past,
make me believe there are higher powers at
work here. No matter how many days of
cloudy skies we have endured, the sun will
usually shine just long enough on Feb. 2 for
Willie to cast a shadow, meaning six more
weeks of winter, which we all expected
anyway. Willie's credibility is obviously
getting some help.
Either way, as I said before I find myself
really caring less. The winter of 1994-95 has
been an unexpected treat, except for that first
week of the new year. Being neither fond of
winter driving nor below freezing
temperature's, that first blustery snowstorm
had me ready to go underground and join
Willie.
Canadian winters are usually challenging.
In the days before I used to spend so much
time on the roads, I considered winter to be
my favourite season. Unfortunately, now my
job keeps me from stowing away safely at
home, thus while travelling I have found
myself caught in the milk bottle surrealism
of winter's wrath enough times that my
enthusiasm for nature's sparkling season has
dimmed in recent years.
My respect for it has increased, however.
Nature commands it: -Anyone who has been
challenged by the elements, no matter how
minimally, knows they are dealing with
something majestic, something almighty.
I was reminded of this recently while
watching the movie Alive, the true story of a
team of Uruguayan rugby players who
survive a plane crash in the Andes. For over
70 days they simultaneously battle and work
with this hostile yet glorious terrain.
The hardships they endure, sub-zero
temperatures, blizzards, avalanches, only
seem to intensify the feelings of wonder they
can't help but hold for their opponent, whose
omnipotent power is rivalled only by its
grandeur. Their struggle made them not just
happy to be alive, but proud to be alive.
It kind of made me ashamed that in recent
years instead of being able to say it doesn't
beat me, I have spent winter trying to whine
it away because it asks a bit more from me.
Even if the weeks left are more adverse
than the last few have been I'm going to try
to respect the season's challenges. Even if it
snows me under, I hope I can admire it and
be grateful to be here to see each day as it
comes.
Arthur Black
International Scene