HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2004-05-27, Page 5Final Thought
Never give in, never give in, never, never,
never, never — in nothing, great or small,
large or petty — never give in except to
convictions of honour and good sense.
— Sir Winston Churchill
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2004. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Eye of newt and toe of frog
Well, I ain't superstitious
But a black cat crossed my trail...
— Old Blues lyric
Well: I ain't superstitious either. We
live in the 21st century, after all.
We've put a man on the moon, a
woman (albeit for a nanosecond) in 24 Sussex
and candy stripes in our toothpaste.
We're sophisticated, well-rounded, rational
people here on Spaceship Earth.
It's high time we divested ourselves of
medieval old wives' tales about bad luck cats,
bloodsucking hats, headless horsemen, wart-
dispensing frogs and other long-leggity
beasties that supposedly go bump in the
night.
Not that a few superstitions don't make a
certain amount of sense. It is merely prudent to
avoid walking under a ladder and it's a good
idea to let sleeping dogs lie.
But some of the other stuff people believe!
You want a sure-fire cure for whooping
cough'? Cozy up to the nearest nag you can
find and inhale a few whiffs of horse's
breath.
Know how to cleanse a sick room of
`enfeebled spirits"? Open the window and
invite in a cloud of gnats.
Would you like to improve your luck? Catch
yourself a well-speckled ladybug.
The number of spots on the beetle's back
equals the number of 'lucky months' you've
got coming to you.
It's all very silly and primitive of course —
about as silly and primitive as the ancient
practice of 'bleeding' a patient to release foul
humours.
O ntario's Progressive Conservatives are
proposing senators should be elected,
which will not exactly jolt voters to
march in the streets but would be a worthwhile
improvement over the way they are chosen
now.
It would mean'no more senators like Andrew
Thompson. Norman Atkins, William Kelly and
Trevor Eyton, to name a few who followed a
well-worn path from Ontario politics to
lucrative, undistinguished memberships in the
so-called chamber of sober second thought.
Federal governments .now appoint senators,
usually for service to their, parties. although
not necessarily the public, and sometimes on
requests from their provincial branches.
Bob Runciman, a former senior Tory
minister, is suggesting Ontario hold elections
to pick suitable candidates for the senate
whom a federal government would have
difficulty ignoring when vacancies arose.
Most Ontarians will not think of electing
senators as a compelling issue, but more as a,
quirky aim of right-wingers in western
provinces who feel alienated from Ottawa.
Ontarians probably would be happier if the
senate were to disappear like hula hoops and
pet rocks.
Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty also will
have difficulty accepting the Tories' proposal
because he would not want to seem to copy
western right-wingers or tie the hands of
Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin. with
whom he tries to be on good terms.
But the -legislature does not have much
respect for the senate as it is currently
constituted. MPPs in all parties voted to
abolish it in a free vote in the early 1990s and
Mike Harris when he became Tory premier
concurred.
McGuinty's Liberals also keep saying they
Actually. ahem. it seems the ancients might
have ben on to something there. Doctors in
Britain — and a few here in North America —
are enthusiastically slapping slimy
bloodsucking leeches on the carcasses of
plastic surgery patients these days. It appears
the leech's saliva contains an enzyme that acts
as an anticoagulant and cuts down the chance
of infection.
There's something even creepier that you
can get by prescription at the Princess of Wales
hospital in Bridgend, Wales: maggots. Doctors
there have found that a generous dollop of live,
wriggling maggots on an infected wound can
work healing wonders that regular drugs can't
touch.
Apparently, maggots eat only diseased flesh
and bacteria, leaving healthy tissue alone. This
is. believe it or not, an improvement on the
usual shoot-em-up-with-a-dose-of-antibiotics
treatment. Bacteria routinely develop
immunity to antibiotics, but they're no match
for a platoon of hungry maggots.
What's more - the maggots are, well, dirt-
cheap, easy to transport and generally get the
job done within three days.
Oh yes, and vampire bats? Turns out they're
actually good for us too — indirectly.
Medical researchers have managed to
want to reform parliamentary institutions and
might support the lesser step of electing
senators if' allowed a free vote that is really
free. ,
They should consider the case of Thompson,
who was leader of the Ontario Liberals for two
years in the 1960s before stepping down,,
citing a heart problem, but also looking
unlikely to push out the entrenched Tories.
Thompson had been chosen leader mainly
because of one rousing speech against the
Tories' "police state bill," which would have
given police powers to fight organized crime
that violated civil rights.
He proved even more economical with
,words in the senate and attended only two per
cent of its sittings while collecting $80,000
salary and benefits sunbathing at his house in
Mexico.
Advertising executive Atkins obtained his
senate reward for managing elections for Tory
premier William Davis and prime minister
Brian Mulroney.
Atkins promoted his party and himself and
became rich from contracts handed his firm by
the Davis and Mulroney governments. His
only other accomplishment was to persuade
the normally reticent Davis to go on TV
declaring his dog was worth more than all the
money in the world.
Kelly was made a senator because he was
genetically engineer a new drug they call
desmoteplase. It is remarkably effective in
restoring normal functions to stroke victims,
even when administered as much as nine hours
after an attack.
Want to guess where they found the model
for desmoteplase?
In the saliva of a vampire bat.
It's funny how we rely on animals to bail us
out — in superstition and in fact. Sounds kind of
grotesque nowadays, but when I was a kid, just
about everyone I knew had a rabbit's foot
attached to their key chains. It was supposed to
bring you good luck.
Another thing that was supposed to keep the
rain off your parade was a horseshoe nailed
over your doorway. A visitor to the country
cottage of Nobel prizewinner Niels Bohr was
astounded to find that even the eminent Danish
physicist had a horseshoe over his cottage
entrance.
"Can it be that you, of all people, believe a
horseshoe will bring you luck?" he was asked.
"Of course not," replied Bohr. "but
understand it brings you luck whether you
believe in it or not."
The great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso was
intensely superstitious. He refused to travel on
Fridays. He insisted on slipping a coin into his
right-hand pocket before putting on a new pair
of pants.
And to protect his golden voice from his
habit of smoking 60 cigarettes a day, Caruso
wore a necklace from which a dried anchovy
was suspended.
Caruso died from abscessed lungs at the age
of 48. Small wonder. There's only so much a
dried anchovy can do for a guy.
Davis's chief fund-raiser and excelled in
prying huge donations from companies, some
of whom unfortunately let slip they thought
they would receive favours from the Tory
government in return.
Davis was forced to bring in a law limiting
the amount donors could give and there was
another embarrassing incident in which
Kelly's assistant destroyed records of
donations just before a judicial inquiry could
inspect them, but this was not enough to
disqualify him from a senate seat. .
Business leader Eyton among. other
contributions advised on financing the
SkyDome in Toronto. which the province had
to sell at a huge loss, and chaired a provincial
foundation that distributed lottery revenues.
Eyton was an alert critic of news media,
complaining they focus on trivia, promote fear
and envy of big business and fail to recognize
that without it Canadians would have a lower
standard of living.
But Eyton lost zest for fighting the world's
evils once he joined the senate and had one of
its worst attendance records. As one critic said
he "turned absenteeism into an art form."
Voters have not always elected the most
suitable people -to represent them over the
years, but they can hardly do worse.
There for the taking
B ats in the belfry, a wedding in the
works, too little time andiway too
little money are just some of the
things adding to my personal stress level.
Throw in war, taxes, the high cost of gas and
insurance, wet weather, BSE, WNv, etc, etc.
and it's little wonder the entire world seems a
bit edgy.
On some levels our generation has been
blessed with a lifestyle that's so much simpler
than those before us. However, whether out of
our control, or our own fault, there are new
and unique stresses placed upon us that almost
seem to cancel the benefits. Let's face it
anyone who works with a computer knows
that technology isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Having to balance career and home requires
more hours than a day holds. And running to
the aid of family isn't usually a trip around the
block anymore.
, So people look for ways to cope. They visit
spas. they practise yoga. There are massages,
aromatherapy or self-help books. They create
personal spaces, environments with water, fire
and wood, places in which they can breathe
and relax. There is music to mellow, and there
are sounds to soothe.
Some people go even further, delving into
new age practices and spirituality. A novel I
was reading the other day spoke of a Zen
moment, that only the current instant is the
one that matters. Reflect on the past, worry
about the future and you have lost the present.
So it was with this wisdom fresh in my
mind last Thursday night that I found myself
reveling in my very own Zen experience.
After a dreary, rain-threatening day, the
clouds broke that evening and the
temperatures sat at the spring comfort zone. In
the pre-twilight, feeling in a folksy kind of
mood, I set the tone with tunes.
Typically, after settling into a chair outside
my first action was to stick my nose in a book.
Then as Judy Collins's ethereal voice flowed
from the speakers to ask "Who knows where
the time goes?", I noticed two birds soar just
above me. Others were providing a chirrupy
back-up to the music. The few _remaining
clouds moved languorously across the sky. A
lignt breeze tossed the leaves as my
windchimes danced. The happy chatter of
children playing outdoors. spoke to me, and
my book was forgotten as I became aware of
all the life around. Walking barefoot across
the grass to the lilac bush, I inhaled its heady
fragrance.
As a light pink touched the, sky my hubby
joined me. After some quiet conversation and'
catching up we stood at the edge of our deck
and appraised what we had achieved and
accomplished. We have all that we need and
maybe even more than we deserve.
For a good hour I had enjoyed each moment
of the life I was experiencing at the time. I felt
rested and content. Even entering my back
door to find yet one more bat couldn't disrupt
the level of calm I had achieved.
Granted there are many moments we live
that aren't going to have this effect; there are
many we'd prefer to skip over and riot focus
on. But when those magic ones come along,
it's important to recognize and hang on. After
all, in retrospect I see that I was in my
personal space, a place in which to breathe
and relax, with music to mellow and sounds to
soothe. There was aromatherapy and no
question that the experience was spiritual.
And it was all free, there for the taking. We
need only remember to look for it.
Senators have been an embarrassment