The Brussels Post, 1975-12-17, Page 2BRUSSELS
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1975
ONTARIO
Servifig Brussels and the surrounding community.
Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario
by McLean Bros. Publishers, Limited.
Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Dave Robb - Advertising
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g Brussels Post
Pansies in December
0*.
Do we need palaces?
During the Depression people had only home
made entertainment to. keep them from sliding intb
gloom and to give them a rest from long days of work
at low pay.
'They survived; they even enjoyed themselves.
Some of them talk about the Christmas concerts, the
local talent shows and the pick up hockey games as
the time of their lives.
Now though, we are accustomed to expensive,
tailor made recreation ... a projram for every age
group. This is fine and it's a help to those of us who
don't have the time or energy to organize activities
on our own.
But this preoccupation with having things done for
us, instead of doing them ourselves leads• to
extravagance. We start thinking of expensive arenas
and brand new halls, instead of flooding a vacant lot
or making do with the school gym.
Perhaps this was okay in the booming sixties when
everyone expected to make more and buy more every
year. Many communities were flushed with progress
and prosperity. Decisions were made something like
this. Our kids need a new arena? Weil by gosh we'll
put a million dollars together and build them one.
There was little attempt to look at the community
as a whole. Instead of groups sharing expensive hall
facilities with each other, they each built their own.
There was no concern that the community maybe
didn't need two halls ... both of which would be idle
a good part of the week.
Instead of fixing up an old arena, many towns
decided to rip it down and build a new one. Outdoor
swimming pools were no longer good enough, sm all
towns wanted recreation complexes with indoor
pools.
Two towns in Huron
recreation complexes right now. Meetings are being
held. Hours and probably some small amounts of
money are being spent •in both Exeter and Goderich,
planning and investigating the need for recreation
centres. .
Planning goes ahead despite the.fact that a huge
new recreation complex sits unused and not nearly
paid for in Kincardine. Organizers there ran into
trouble raising money for the complex. Lately they
have been unable to get a good road built to the site.
One of the backers of the Kincardine building
admitted that maybe Kincardine's recreation
complex "went a little big."
We think these recreation palaces are all a little
big. These are hard times and until our present
economic woes are over it would be smart to patch up
and make do With what we have, from arenas to halls
to swimming pools, until things look brighter.
At a time when the province is closing hospitals to
save money, can We justify spending money to
duplicate in a central and more luxurious form
recreation facilities we already have?
In the light of the Kincardine experience there
should be a lot of reassessing underway in towns
looking to buildhg a recreation complex.
In the best Of all possible world, sure it would be
nice:
But for our money; we'll take dare of more
pressing heeds, and they include daycare, Sewer's,
good local Medical faCilities,• feeding those who
don't get enough to eat, first.
Amen
by Karl Schuessler
How would you like to marry for
eternity?
And you thought a lifetime was long
enough. Probably that's too long enough for
most people. Just take a look at the way the
divorce rate soared over the last year. It
increased over 21%. And a Statistics Canada
specialist predicted a 50% jump in the next
five years.
To cushion this jump, there's help on the
way. A whole new field of pioneer work is
developing. There are courses in creative
divorce, group sessions for single parents,
parents without partners. There's a directory
for the divorced -- a list of all the places you
can go for help and services. Toronto has two
monthly magazines for divorcees only. How -
to - films. Audio tapes. And soon a 24 hours
divorce hot line.
A man who teachers a creative divorce
course looks on the cheerier side of things.. He
says div orce can be an opportunity for
personal growth and education. He has his
own theory of multi-divorce. He's now
separated from wife number two. He says it
takes about three marriages before you really
settle in. The first one is romantic, the second
is on the rebound. And the third, well maybe
by then you finally come to your senses.
Good luck, fellow! Happy hunting
But on second thought, I think this Allow
needs more than luck. Maybe he needs
Emmanuel Swedenborg. He's the man who
thought marriages should stick, not just for a
lifetime either. He said marriages last for
eternity: So no one in his church--now called
the Swedenborgian Church or the Church of
the New Jerusalem --ever walks down the
aisle that lightly. When the couple says "I
do", it's more than a life-long sentence. It
punctuates And shakes the very gates of
heaven.
With this sort of everlasting conimitment,
you try harder., With those sort of ground
rules, you keep on trying. You don't wake up
each Morning and think "Why on earth -,and
heaven. did I ever Marty you?
You know the answer. The love of the Lord
and yogi* spouse dotneS first With this sort of
conviction, you don't just ask what's in it iot
itief
A recent Suoey Showed religious women
were more sexually satisfied in their
marriages. And the surveyers concluded it
wasn't because they experienced ,more
satisfaction, but because they settled for less.
Now I'm not ready to untangle that one. But
when religion emphasizes others and not self-
those researchers may have concluded in the
right direction.
Now don't get the Swedenborgians wrong.
They won't consign you to an unhappy
marriage forever. If you didn't make the right
choice, there's rest in sight. You can have a
respite --like the man did who buried his wife
in upper New York state. On her gravestone
he put
"I laid my wife beneath this stone
For her repose and for my own."
But don't think you're going to rest forever.
Because you can't get into heaven unless
you're mated -- if not with that eternal partner
you started out with on this earth, then a new
one -- a better, the perfect one.
You have to wait around in a foyer-like place
for your perfect match. Then together you'll
enter heaven. For no one is complete alone. A
person is not wholly himself until he's joined
with his other half.
Swedenborg spent the last forty years of his
life with his feet on the ground, but his head
was in the clonds--in the spiritival worldHe
wrote that he saw in the heavens a person in
the distance. And as they neared, he realized
they were two people. For the two do become,
as one, just as the marriage service says
And a good Swedenborgian will tell you to
take a look at couples 'Married a long time.
Over the years they do begin to think alike, act
alike and even look alike. The two are one.
not
he. 8weenburgiaris of course admit that
all their
d
Matriage§ ate heavenly here on
earth,. But they struggle They try herd,.
Harder. To become one: They go into
marriage with the idea it's going. to
WOrk,They'll Work hard to Make it Work,
And to ny Mind that's a refreshing Mid
Chaste attitude. balantek this divorce prone
age,