An English Immigrants Christmas - installment #1

There are a million memes out there asking what you like/remember about Christmases past and present. I considered responding but thought it might be more enjoyable to write about my Christmas memories.

Like Mary P said about Christmas memories in her Blog

“They all sort of blend together [and] . . . I don't have a favourite.”

The first Christmases I have any memory of as a child were in Mum’s semidetached bungalow in our small southern Ontario town. We lived next to our English grandparents and in reality we lived with them. We thought little of just wandering from one unit to the next as we shared a common entrance. As kids we would show our friends around the house and, as I am told, tour them through our grandparents place as well. This became a common joke, “here is the living room this is the hall and that’s my Grandad siting over there.”

My Granddad loved Christmas, but the traditional one, not the Santa stuff. He was very critical of organized religion but Christmas was Christmas and you celebrated it even if you thought that a lot of the story was bunk. So we sung Carols and watched Dickens a Christmas carol on our old B&W television, except when we watched it on Grandad’s TV which was colour, not that it really mattered because we usually watched the Alistair Sims one which was black and white anyhow. Grandad, my aunt and later my sister would play Christmas carols on the piano. Sometimes our two dogs would howl as we sang. Mainly though it was the younger dog Rolly that would howl first, he never wanted to be left out of anything.

Out came all the decorations and Grandad would dig out a copy of Handel’s Messiah , other collections of other classical Christmas music, Perry Como’s Christmas music for my granny and an ancient Burl Ives, Christmas album (I guess it wasn’t ancient then) which he would play on an old cabinet stereo. Actually then the stereo wasn’t quite so old either, when I inherited it, it was old and I did it no justice, by playing my scratched and abused albums on it.
I remember eggnog but I don’t think Grandad liked it, that was more a Mum & Granny thing. We had Frys Cocoa more often than we had hot chocolate. Grandad would drink tea I don’t think he really liked much else in the way of hot drinks. He never really ate much as I recall. I think much of his blood was orange pekoe tea (Red Rose to be specific) and he substituted cigarette and pipe smoke for oxygen. I don’t smoke but I like the smell of pipe smoke, because it reminds me of home. Christmas was one of the rare times we had alcohol in the house, not because anyone was against it, it was just not a thing we did. Grandad, so I am told, couldn’t drink much, probably because he was a very small man and it effected his asthma, and about the only alcohol that Granny drank was sherry. Mum drank some but not much but she would drink wine and port and such. For some reason we always had a collection of cheap wine, like Baby duck and other Barnes products. I think the Baby duck was mainly for my aunt, who generally didn’t drink so the sweet taste of Baby duck appealed to her over the dry stuff that I prefer. Also the local small town liquor store didn’t carry much else. It wasn’t until much latter when the occasional case of beer would enter the festivities (I think that was mainly for guests, maybe my uncle, and me when I was old enough to drink.) Decorating the tree was fun, both units had a tree so we would decorate with Gran and Grandad and then with Mum and sometimes the other way around. Some years we had a real tree but most of the early years both Mum and our Grandparents had these funny silver tinsel trees. My next oldest sister ALWAYS wanted a real tree. I hope she still feels this way I prefer real trees too. The tinsel trees were basically a wooden pole with straight twisted wire branches, covered in fuzzy silver tinsel. You could hang one maybe two ornaments on each branch we had balls and bells and other odd things and every year we would have to buy new ones as the dogs and us kids would have broken a few. That said some survived for years. This past weekend I helped Mum put up her tree and we found two plastic bells that Granny had bought in 1951 or 52 when the first came to Canada. The bells survived because they are plastic covered with chrome. When all the decorations were on the tree for some weird reason we would put more tinsel onto the tinsel tree. Then we would put these old glass Christmas lights on the tree. There was always the big fight with the lights to untangle them and then the procedure of finding which darn bulb was blown. The tree was thus a mass of sparkles and when the lights were on the tree and the room lights off the colours of the bulbs would leave cool patterns on the walls. I used to sneak out of my room on nights before Christmas plug in the tree and just stare at it. It was beautiful. In reality the poor old things were losing tinsel and were really not that big but Mum did not really have much left over cash at Christmas for a new tree. Before the presents went under the tree there was this big gap and the rather ugly metal base could be seen but before long a mountain (from my three foot high vantage point) of presents under the tree.

That was the beginning of the season and it usually happened around December 1st.

Plymouth Brethren Church History (notes for a further study)

I used to attend Pinewoods Gospel Chapel in Angus Ontario. Pinewoods had its roots in the Plymouth Brethren Church but Pinewoods has evoled through persistent and diligent study of scripture to a bible centered church very different from the Plymouth Brethren. As many people have asked me to say where I got such a good basis in biblical knowledge I thought it only fair to give Pinewoods that credit. Below is a brief write up on the Plymouth Brethren, you will note that through out the history of the church they stressed learning, and teaching. This is the most important feature of the Plymouth Brethren that Pinewoods has retained IMHO.


Founders and Notable Persons in Plymouth Brethren Church History

1. Anthony N. Groves
2. Edward Cronin
3. Francis Hutchinson Original Seven
4. William Stokes So Called
5. John G. Bellett
6. J.N. Darby
7. E. Wilson

Edward Irving
B.W. Newton

Concepts of the Brethren

Ground of Gathering
Corporate worship
Priesthood of all believers
Apostasy of the established church
Milleniumism, Post and Pre-Milleniumism
Individual anti-Christ
(virtually unknown amongst Protestants till Darby’s writings)
Substitutionary atonement.
Practicle Godliness
Infalibility of scripture
No creeds and no name.

Notable Events

1825 Dr. Edward Cronin and Edward Wilson begin meeting Sundays for Breaking of Bread (based on Matthew 18:20)

1830 Darby leaves the priesthood

1832 B..W. Newton invites Darby to speak at Ebrington St. Plymouth assembly

Darby Bible

1845 Clericalism at Ebrington St. Plymouth
Newton espouses Post-
-milleniumism.
Darby effectively excommunicates Newton and Ebrington assembly.

1845 Beginnings of the exclusive brethren
Darby vs Muller.

Further divisions: Darbyites, Newtonites,
Mullerites, Granitites, Kellyites,
Stuartites, Ravenites, and Taylorites

Key Verses
______________________________________________________________________________

Matthew 18:20
Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.

1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body.

1 Corinthians 12:27
Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.

1 Corinthians 10:17
For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made righteousness of God in him.

Colossians 1:20
And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.

History Notes

From Unity to disunity is probably the best way to describe the history of the brethren church.
First it has to be pointed out that there is no real Plymouth Brethren church in an of itself as the brethren hold no creed and no name. They strive to be as close to what they believe to be the New testament church as they can.
A Movement is the best possible description of the Brethren.. The origins of the movement can be traced back to the dissatisfaction that had arisen in the Church of England during the late 18 century, that same dissatisfaction that had produced the Campbellites and the Glasites. Like the Campbelites the Brethren were antisesordotal and stressed a degree of libertarianism. The movements origins can be seen in it’s founders. The founders predominantly came from inside the Anglican church itself. While there are seven recognized founders of the movement there are four that have made a major impact on the movement by their teachings. The Plymouth Brethren are noted for the scholastic nature of their assemblies and that is the reason why teachers played such a major role. The movement also can be said to have been influenced by the social disparity between rich and poor ..

The movement began as a group of scholastic clerics that meet to study pray and break bread on Sunday as they believed the first Christians did in the new testament church. This Four member group consisted of Anthony N Groves, John Darby, Edward Cronin, John Bellett and Francis Hutchinson. Each of these men had considerable influence on the development of the movement and arguably the devolution of the movement.


One of the earliest sources of what could be called Plymouth brethren thought was Anthony N. Groves. Groves his convictions lead him to the conclusion that there was something wrong with society an he set out to make a difference in a personal way giving most of what he owned to the poor and volunteering for foreign missions. He studied at trinity college in Dublin in order to prepare himself for a mission to the east notably to Baghdad. In his frequent trips to Dublin he came in contact with a select group of men with somewhat the same thoughts on biblical doctrine. During this period he experienced several major set backs that lead to his in ability to finance his schooling ( a burglary stool his tuition) From this Groves determined to continue his mission decide to go as a laymen . This development arguably changed his mindset on ordination and he began studying scriptures independently . He became convinced from his readings that believers baptism was a necessity and accepted baptism prior to his departure for missionary work . After the ceremony a friend came to him and said “of course, you must be a baptist now you are baptized” to which groves replied with what is now seen as a general Plymouth brethren attitude toward denominations, and the unity of the brethren..
No I desire to follow all in those things in which they follow Christ; but I would not, by joining one party, cut myself off from the others. Then taking up the ring on which his keys were hung, he said, “if these keys were to hold by one another, all would go if one fell; but as each of them is attached to this strong ring, so should we each take hold of Christ, not of any of the systems of men and then we shall be safe and united: we should keep together, not because of any human system, but because Jesus is one.
It would seem that with this new tenant Groves break with the church was complete but that of the other members of their study and fellowship group weren’t. Darby in particular had not come to

Darby

The most notable member of the Brethren was John Nelson Darby . Darby was born into a upper class English family whose family home was Leap Castle Offally.. An expression of this upper class position is seen in John Nelson Darby’s middle name which came from his uncles long time friend Lord Nelson. Fitting to his position Darby attended Trinity College in Dublin to study law, graduating at age 19. In 1825 he was ordained as an Anglican deacon and quickly made his way up to the rank of parish priest in Wicklow Ireland. After 2 years Darby became dissatisfied with the Church of England he in association with Anthony N Groves, Edward Cronin, John Bellett and Francis Hutchinson, began to preach the apostasy of the church. The apostasy they saw was the distance the church had come from the new testament church model Darby question the tenants the church treated as truths. He believed that the passion of Christ (the Crucification and resurrection) was not a simple act of sacrifice but an act of Substitutionary Atonement as he said the sacrificial death of Christ “is the sole ground of remission .... and there is none without shedding of blood ... and that by which Christ has made peace; Col 1:20 By this Darby saw that without this substitution man must bear the guilt of his sin and the punishment as well. This is something that brought Darby and the brethren much criticism. Writing in 1897 Rev. Edward Hartley Dewart described the beliefs of the Brethren as “herseys ... {and} contrary to Scripture and reason.” he directly attacks the Brethren’s substitutionary atonement saying “I object to this theory of atonement because Gods claims on us were not of the nature of a debt; and Christs work of atonement was not a commercial transaction.” He goes on to say that “this view results from forcing a coarsely literal interpretation on figurative statements.” The accusation of over literal interpretation may have some weight as the Brethren strongly adhere to the concept of the infallibility of the scriptures and would rather err on the side of literal then exclude any part of scripture.

The Origins and Nature of Public Education in the Province of Ontario: Universal Social Control

By Wilhelm (Bill) Arends


The Origins and Nature of Public Education in the Province of Ontario: Universal but not Egalitarian

The story of public education in the province of Ontario, extends back to the pre-confederation period, but it was at the beginning of Confederation that the nature of the system was being defined. It is difficult to fully understand the system of education during the latter part of the nineteenth century, as the structure of the school system was still in its infancy.
The education system from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century was in a stage of transition. Ontario’s universal education system would grow from a very informal one in the mid-nineteenth century to a very structured one. Domestic schooling was the most common type of schooling up to the middle of the century. This system was to drastically change as Ontario entered the confederation era.
The system that developed was structured to meet the needs of society according to a protestant upper class model. Therefore the structure of the system that developed was one based on upper-class Protestant ideals. Egerton Ryerson and the universal school system would forever change education in Ontario and give it a protestant upper class structure that was far from socially representative of class.
Alison Prentice in her book the School Promoters: Education and social Class in Mid-Nineteenth Century Upper Canada points out that Education history in Ontario was written by “schoolmen” and followed the American model that used a “congratulatory approach.” The two authors that Prentice sees as exemplifying this style of history are J. George Hodgins and J. Harold Putman. Putman’s first major work centered around the character of Egerton Ryerson it was entitled Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada. In this work he clearly states the objective of his writing as “to give a succinct idea of the nature and history of our Ontario School legislation [and] this legislation is so bound up with the name of Egerton Ryerson that to give its history is to relate the work of his life.” This great man centered approach though negates the fact that society helped to create the system as much as Ryerson the man. Society imposed forces on education that would inevitably change its character as much as the efforts of Ryerson. Marvin Lazerson in his article “Canadian Educational Historiography: Some Observations,” writes that “Ryerson’s role as historians are coming to understand, was to both help build a new system and to accommodate to social trends over which he had little control.” In a letter to Bishop Bethune Ryerson states that “My own humble efforts to invest our school system with a Christian Character and spirit have been seconded from the beginning by the cordial and unanimous cooperation of the council of public Instruction and without that cooperation my own individual efforts would have availed little.”
The growth of schooling in Ontario was not simply a byproduct of Ryerson’s efforts but due to the growing school house phenomenon. Domestic schooling predominated the first half of the nineteenth century. Many of these domestic schools or home schools were a means to supplement a family’s income, but often they had roots in religious societies and churches. As Johanna Selles points out in her article “A girl at Cheltenham: The Diary as an Historical Source” domestic religious education was commonly practiced by the Quakers which organized in “private households.” Susan E. Houston and Alison Prentice expand on this in their book Schooling and Scholars in Nineteenth Century Ontario, stating that the Quakers and the presbyterians also practiced domestic education but had developed a more formal school house centered education. In 1816 the Quakers had built their own school house and the presbyterians were not far behind in this education innovation, building their own school house in 1817. The trend toward a more formal approach to education was well under way.
The Common School Act of 1816 had allowed for government grants to towns villages or townships that wanted to set up their own schools, but had not endorsed a public educational system envisioned by Ryerson. Ryerson’s call for universal education was not to improve a student’s chances for advancement but to mold his or her behavior to a preconceived norm. All students were to be taught a set curriculum regardless of their class or ethnicity hat fit Ryerson’s upper class preconceptions of education and its purposes. This purpose being to a large degree a form of social control. He saw Christianity and morality as the key to good human conduct, and education as a means to that end. In an Editorial in the Christian Guardian Ryerson stated that “moral theory becomes a viable norm for human conduct only when it is integrated in and grounded on the all-encompassing truths of Christianity.” This belief was by no means unique to Ryerson as he was simply expressing opinions that were endemic to the educational system that existed before confederation. The Regulations on the constitution and government of schools in respect to religious and moral instruction, prescribed by the council of public instruction for Upper Canada, up held at the time a very Christian position. The regulations stated that “As Christianity is the basis of our whole system of elementary education, that principle should pervade it throughout.”
Ryerson’s chief accomplishment as Superintendent of schools from 1846 to 1876 was to centralize education in Ontario. He was to leave the system of trustees in place but removed their authority to a degree. Putman points out that Ryerson’s chief task was, that he “lessened local, and strengthened central, control, and did it so gradually, so wisely, and so tactfully, that local prejudices were soothed and in many cases the people scarcely recognized what was being done until the thing was accomplished.” Robin S. Harris in his work entitled “Quiet Evolution: A study of the Educational System of Ontario, believes that the system of education created by Ryerson was basically complete by 1867 but was simply a “ground floor.” Harris States that for Ryerson “it required twenty years of steady effort to build the ground floor, but by 1867 the job was essentially done.” Harris points out that while societal forces were influential in shaping the school system “ it was Ryerson who organized, related, and defined the basic elements and who provided the philosophic ideas which gave the developing system cohesion, inner consistency, and fulness.”
Ryerson’s biographical information sheds light on how societal influence helped to contribute to his construction of the School system. He was a Methodist Minister and the son of a United Empire Loyalist. He was the first editor of the first Methodist newspaper in Canada The Christian Guardian and the principal of the first college with university powers in Canada, the Methodist Upper Canada Academy. These experiences were to shape Ryerson’s views on education as he helped to shape the educational system of Ontario. His background as a Loyalist was to produce a particular direction to his ideas on education. Ryerson’s family having come from America, retained aspects of American ideals. As J. Donald Wilson points out in his article The Ryerson Years in Canada West, “like his American counterparts, Ryerson looked on the school as a vehicle for inculcating loyalty and patriotism, fostering social cohesion and self-reliance, and insuring domestic tranquility.” Patriotism according to Ryerson was inherent in the education system and lack of attention to this aspect of education could present problems for domestic tranquility. In a 1847 report to the Assembly of Canada Ryerson showed how strong his belief in this object of education was. He blamed American influences on Education for some of the radicalism that led to the 1837 rebellions. He stated that “in precisely those parts of Upper Canada where . . . United States schoolbooks had been used most extensively, there the spirit of the insurrection in 1837 and 1838 was most prevalent.” Ryerson tied the ideals of religion and order together. He believed that social order that had been rocked by rebellion required the lessons of religious sanctity to bring it back together. As Prentice states “The ‘world of men’ as Egerton Ryerson called it, seemed evil, Chaotic. The movement to send all children to school was, above all, a movement to bring Sanctity and order to human affairs.” Ryerson’s goal was to improve the mind of Children for religious reasons as well. Prentice points out that “The mind [Ryerson] argued in the 1870s was that which man had ‘in common with the angels and with God.’ ” According to Prentice Ryerson saw that “While political economy, science and education were important, they were meaningless if strictly secular.”
Drawing From Census data Michael B. Katz in his article, Who went to School, uses the employment of servants to determine economic and class distinction in early Ontario. His research shows that “there is a direct association between the employment of Servants and economic rank [and] the proportion of children attending school generally increased with the number of servants in a family.” The middle class morality that was therefore preached in schools stressed a life style of sobriety free of sin, and this moral education was endemic to Ryerson’s system of education. He believed there was “no guarantee that a man’s conscience would lead him away from the paths of Sin, for moral law was not innate, [and] could only be introduced to the mind by Christian revelation, and thus by Christian education.” Ryerson endeavored to include this Christian moral education into the New Provinces system of education. In a report on the Systems of popular education on the continent of Europe, in 1868, Ryerson concludes that examples of Christian education in Europe should be the model for education in Ontario. He states that “on the creation of legislature, and the inauguration of a new system of government, it seems appropriate to review the principles and progress of our system of education . . . [and] to be second to no country in our plans to secure . . . [the] blessings of a sound. Christian education.”
The System of Education that therefore developed was based on what upper class society believed to be needed to produce good moral Christian citizens, based on upper-class Protestant ideals. Katz in his article though does not see Ryerson’s attempts as highly successful and states that they did not alter the morals of the students to produce better class students. Katz states the “expansion of educational facilities reflected rather than altered the relations between social and ethnic groups.” Egerton Ryerson and the universal school system would make education in Ontario a protestant upper class tool that was far from egalitarian or representative of the students culture and ethnicity which sought to teach.



Bibliography

Prentice, Alison. The School Promoters: education and social Class in Mid-Century Upper
Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1999

Putman ,J. Harold. Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada. Toronto: William
Briggs, 1912

Selles - Roney, Johanna. “A girl at Cheltenham: The Diary as an Historical Source.” In
Historical Studies in Education. Vol. 3. No.1 (Spring 1991), 93 - 103.

Houston Susan E. and Alison Prentice. Schooling and Scholars in Nineteenth Century Ontario.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988

Ryerson. Egerton to Bishop Bethune, 13 July 1872. In Historical and Other Papers and
Documents Illustrative of the Educational System of Ontario, 1855 - 1872, Forming an
Appendix to the Annual Report of the Minister of Education. Ed. J. George Hodgins.
Toronto: L. K. Cameron, 1911. P. 71.

Lazerson, Marvin “Canadian Educational Historiography: Some Observations” in Egerton
Ryerson and His Times. Eds. Neil McDonald and Alf Chaiton. Toronto: Macmillan,
1978. pp. 3-8.

Egerton Ryerson, editorial in The Christian Guardian, 18 January, 1832, p. 116, c. 3.

Regulations on the Constitution and Government of Schools in Respect to Religious and Moral
Instruction, in Historical and Other Papers and Documents Illustrative of the Educational
System of Ontario, 1855 - 1872, Forming an Appendix to the Annual Report of the
Minister of Education. Ed. J. George Hodgins. (Toronto: L. K. Cameron, 1911) 58.

Harris, Robin S. Quiet Evolution: A Study of the Educational System of Ontario, Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1967
Wilson , J.Donald “The Ryerson Years in Canada West”. In Education in Canada an
Interpretation. Eds. E. Brian Titley and Peter J. Miller.(Calgary: Detselig Enterprises,
1982. pp. 61-109.
Wilson, J. Donald“The Pre- Ryerson Years” In Egerton Ryerson and His Times. (Toronto:
Macmillan, 1978) pp. 9- 42.

Katz, Michael B. “Who Went to School” In Education and Social Change. Ed.Michael B. Katz
and Paul H. Mattingly. New York: New York University Press. 1975. pp.271- 293

Ryerson Egerton “Report on the Systems of Popular Education on the Continent of Europe ,
1868" In Historical and Other Papers and Documents Illustrative of the Educational
System of Ontario, 1855 - 1872, Forming an Appendix to the Annual Report of the
Minister of Education. Ed. J. George Hodgins. Toronto: L. K. Cameron, 1911. pp. 248-
278.

Considerations When Buying a New Vehicle (2005)

CR Good Bets

These are the best of both worlds: vehicles that have performed well in Consumer Reports road tests over the years and have proved to have several or more years of better-than-average overall reliability. They are listed alphabetically.


Acura Integra
Acura MDX
Acura RL
Acura RSX
Acura TL
Buick Regal
Chevrolet/Geo Prizm
Chrysler PT Cruiser
Ford Crown Victoria
Ford Escort, ZX2
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Honda CR-V (SUV)
Honda Odyssey
Honda Prelude
Honda S2000
Infiniti G20
Infiniti I30, I35
Infiniti Q45
Infiniti QX4
Lexus ES300, ES330
Lexus GS300/ GS400,
GS430
Lexus IS300
Lexus LS400, LS430
Lexus RX300, RX330
Lincoln Town Car
Mazda 626
Mazda Millenia
Mazda MX-5 Miata
Mazda Protegé
Mercury Grand Marquis
Mercury Tracer
Mitsubishi Galant
Nissan Altima
Nissan Maxima
Nissan Pathfinder
Subaru Forester
Subaru Impreza
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Avalon
Toyota Camry
Toyota Camry Solara
Toyota Celica
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Echo
Toyota Highlander
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota Prius
Toyota RAV4
Toyota Sequoia
Toyota Sienna
Toyota Tundra


CR Bad Bets

Be especially careful when considering these models. They have shown several years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability in their 1997 to 2004 models. They are listed alphabetically.

Audi A6
BMW 7 Series
Chevrolet Astro
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet Express1500
Chevrolet S-10 (4WD)
Chevrolet TrailBlazer
Chrysler Town & Country (AWD)
Dodge Dakota (4WD)
Dodge Grand Caravan (AWD)
Ford WindstarGMC Envoy
GMC Jimmy
GMC Safari
GMC Savana 1500
GMC Sonoma (4WD)
Jaguar S-Type
Jaguar X-Type
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Land Rover Discovery
Lincoln Navigator
Mercedes-Benz C-Class (V6)
Mercedes-Benz CLK
Mercedes-Benz M-Class
Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Oldsmobile Bravada
Oldsmobile Cutlass
Plymouth Neon
Pontiac AztekSaturn Vue
Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen
New Beetle
Volvo S80

Everyday Delussions or why - I AM BILL

Everyday delusions

How we see ourselves and see others are the most common everyday delusions. I know a lot of people that think of themselves as complex when they appear to be almost stereotypes for certain social groups. I suspect this is a defence mechanism because there is a degree of self loathing in the personality of a lot of people. “I can’t be a Jock, all jocks are self centered dorks.”

My personal self loathing is nerdiness. To me a nerd is someone that dresses up as Worf to go to a star trek convention, or can talk for hours about the merits of “the spice.” Aside from Scifi a nerd also can be a bookworm or a fan of Cher who makes model cars at age 41. However, I have a library in my apartment; I still occasionally build models (ships planes etc…) Somewhere in my library I have the plans for the starship Enterprise, and I wear a tie to work even though my director doesn’t. I watch star trek (any of them)am I a nerd? Maybe.

So is it really important what boxes we put ourselves into or what boxes other people put us into? The answer is simple , NO. Putting yourself in or out of a box is simplifying yourself or defining yourself by standards that will inevitably limit who you are. I may be a nerd by my own definition or by the definition of others but does that make me a better or worse person? No. To think of people outside of these boxes improves us and can better our lives. How? I have a friend who has a treky licence plate but no one would call him a nerd because he is also a foremost authority on Classical studies. If I met him at a trek conference would I think of him as a great thinker, or would I put him in the nerd box? I have a friend that plays in a punk band, but is one of the best government policy analysts in Canada. If I was to place either of these individuals in stereotype boxes before I got to know them would I actually have taken the time to get to know them? If punks tend to be anarchists and as my associate is a punk do I want to associate with anarchists?


My actions do not define me, my words are not all of me, and my clothes do not make me. I am many things and none should be abhorrent to me. I am a nerd in some ways, I am simple at times and complex at others, I have jock tendencies I am a feminist male, who has some sexist tendencies. All these things are part of me they are not me.

In truth “I AM BILL”

God is a Whip-poor-will

Ever get that odd feeling something is calling you. I know its probably my subconscious mind reminding me that I did not visit my Grandpa often enough before he died and that my uncle Vern is not getting any younger, but the oddest combination of things came together today.

I was driving home and I thought I heard a Whip-poor-will, it turned out to be a sound coming from the music in the next car. My mind wandered again as it does on the dull urban shuffle home, and I thought I hadn't heard a whip-poor-will in years and would have to look and see if their range had changed as urban sprawl had taken over their nesting grounds (dried leaves on edges of fields).

At lunch I did some websurfing and ran across another Blog run by an Arends family, that was totally unrelated to me, but it got me thinking about Uncle Vern and Tanta Inga who I used to visit when I stayed at my grandparents in Fort Erie.

So when I got home tonight I began by googling whip-poor-wills and found that the range had, as I thought, moved to northern Ontario and not one bird had been seen in Southern Ontario in years. I miss the evening cry of the whip-poor-will it reminded me of my childhood. Then as I looked to see if there were any sightings at all in Southern Ontario I discovered one birders report, that mentioned hearing a whip-poor-will off Gilmore road in Fort Erie, the same road my Grandparents had lived on for years. I couldn't help but think that the bird must have been on the edge of the country club golf course that my grandmother worked at for years.

So was it a coincidence, my conscience telling me to visit Uncle Vern or the still quiet voice I so often ignore. Well God I'm listening I think I will go visit Vern and Inga sometime this spring.

Don't Sit Up Straight

Aching back? Don't sit up straight, study says

Updated Mon. Nov. 27 2006 1:03 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

A new study is making it easier to ignore your mother's sage advice on sitting up straight.

In fact, the stick-straight posture is bad for your back, researchers say.

The best posture is actually a 135-degree angle, which would mean one would sit at their desk leaning backwards slightly, according to new research presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

This position takes the pressure off the spinal disks in the lower back, researchers say.

"A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal," said Waseem Amir Bashir, author and clinical fellow in the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Alberta Hospital.

more . . .

Pneumonia Sucks

Photoshop Van Gogh

Things are simply impressions
before my morning coffee.















Including
----Me----

Bill The Hooker

Bet you didn't know I was a Hooker in Vermont?











Michelle and I came across a Shaker (almost defunct Christian sect) heritage site in Vermont and there was a display of Shaker crafts going on that day. Who knew I would make a good Hooker. Rug Hooker that is. :-)

The Marginalized Contribution of Amerindians to The Society of New France.

The Marginalized Contribution of Amerindians to The Society of New France.
By Wilhelm (Bill) Arends


Amerindians in the History of New France were to a large degree marginalized. Their history has been at times treated as a side issue to the overall history. Past histories of the period have made more of the French and English impact on the continents history with only a passing mention of the Amerindian contribution. They were only mentioned if they participated in European progress. The marginalization of Amerindian history is a by product of the non-Amerindian authors that wrote the History of New France.
An entirely Eurocentric approach to Indian Policy does not supply a thoroughly equitable history of Amerindians in New France. Historian J.M. Bumsted in his introduction to Cornelius Jaenen’s article on The Meeting of the French and Amerindians in the seventeenth Century points out that this Eurocentric history is now changing. Bumsted states that “while it was once common to deal with the history of European settlement as if the native people scarcely existed and hardly mattered, most modern scholarship now recognizes the importance of those who lived in North America before the intrusion of Europeans.” A close look at the Indian Policy of New France and Amerindian actions shows how Amerindian interaction shaped France’s policy toward Amerindians. Religious issues also helped to shape European and Amerindian relations In New France to a large degree.
While Historians have argued that Amerindians were pawns in the competition between European nations over the continent of North America, new social historians have attempted to show that The interaction between Amerindians and the French colonist was a more symbiotic one. This relationship produced marked effects on New France’s Indian Policy.
Historian Bruce Trigger points out in his work The Indians and The Heroic Age of New France, “historians have been anxious to trace the origins of New France and because they view the Indians as a lost cause , have tended to dismiss or underrate the role played by the Indians in the early historic period.” Trigger states that historians have treated Amerindians as “having no history of their own.” He utilizes social science studies and in particular anthropological and Ethnological study to show that “ contrary to conventional interpretation, the history of New France prior to 1665 was overwhelmingly shaped by the Indians throughout.”
Though to say that New France did nothing to shape Indian culture, would be to dismiss the interactions of a materialistic versus a partially-materialistic culture. Trigger argues that as materialism gained a foot hold in North America, “A growing demand for furs led to warfare between different Indian groups which enhanced the power of chiefs who were successful traders.” This growth of trade was actively participated in by the Amerindians. They were not simply passive participants as Trigger points out “they were not unknown to manipulate factors of supply and demand in their own favour.” To say that this was totally a European development though would negate that Amerindians had no idea of material value. One aspect of Amerindian culture that demonstrates a concept of value is their approach to murder and compensation. While as Trigger points out that murder was the cause of many “blood Feuds or . . . intertribal warfare. . . there was a strong desire to avoid the destructive consequences of such behavior.”” Therefore as he states there was “an effort made to replace blood feud with compensation paid by the group to whom the murderer belonged to that of his victim.” The material nature of compensation in this context demonstrates that the Amerindians had a sense of value and the fur trade was not a far leap from their traditional way of life. The interaction between the Amerindians and the French was so great that Trigger concludes that “Their wishes had to be taken account of by any Europeans hoping to have successful dealings in the region [and] this suggests that the central focus of Canadian history prior to 1665 ought not to be its European colonizers but its native peoples.”
In another book more focused on the social aspects of Amerindian life and specifically the life of the Hurons Trigger expands on this Amerindian focused history. In The children of Aataentsic : A history of the Huron People to 1660, Trigger argues that a “reassessment” of Amerindian history is required. He states that this reassesment should be one “in which events are interpreted from a Huron [or Amerindian] perspective rather than from a French or Dutch one.” Trigger believes that “relations between Indians and Europeans in early Canada were very different from those farther south.” In the south the Europeans were more concerned with separating the Indian from his land. The acquisition of land was of far less importance in the North as Canadian Geography would help to make the land far less valuable. As Trigger notes ‘ It is clear, however that for a long time relations between Amerindians and whites in the territory on and bordering the Canadian Shield, were very different from what they were in the United States.” The fur trade played a greater role in French Amerindian relations and helped to shape France’s Indian policy. Trigger demonstrates this position by stating that:
“it was far easier for the white man to buy these furs from experienced Indian trappers than to hunt for them himself: hence as long as furs remained abundant and fetched a good price on European markets, a symbiotic relationship linked the indian hunter and the European trader.

Trigger believes that this relationship is best studied using ethnohistory and Anthropology. Recording aboriginal ways of life altered by European contact helps to bridge the gap between the “prehistory period studied by archaeologists [and the] recent period.” Because of the diminished nature of Indian cultures such as the Hurons. Anthropological studies of existing Iroquois helps us to understand the Hurons. As Trigger states “Iroquois culture can be used with caution, to gain better insight into the total configuration of Huron culture and hence to understand Huron behavior as it [was] reported by the French.”
Historian William J Eccles in his book France in America, like other historians tends to treat Amerindian history as a part of French history in America, but includes a much more detailed account of Amerindians thus giving their role a greater importance. Eccles includes Amerindians as a part of the economic and religious history of New France, outlining their contribution in his chapter on Merchants and Missionaries1632-1663. He examines the interaction between Amerindian and missionaries, in a more detailed fashion to show how this interaction led to a more humane Indian policy. What he accomplishes that other historians do not, is to link religion to Indian policy and show the logic behind its development.
Eccles states the importance of religion during the period was on the rise as there was a “religious revival that swept over France during the first half of the century” The Amerindians would both benefit and suffer from this religious fervor. As John Halkett In 1826 wrote in his work , Historical Notes respecting the Indians of North America with remarks on the Attempts made to Convert and Civilize Them, notes that:
In Canada, the French missionary entered upon his task with the fervour of a zealot, and often closed it by suffering the fate of a martyr. But after all, what was the result? Did the missionaries of New France, after one hundred and fifty years of zeal and exertion, leave behind them a single Indian tribe whom they had actually converted to Christianity? . . .as far as improvement of the Indian race was concerned the labour was thrown away.

Eccles cites the growth of religious orders during the period as contributing to positive Indian relations. New orders such as the Sulpicians, the Oratorians, and the Compagnie de St. Sacrement, were established in this wave of religious fervor. One of the prime goals of these orders was as Eccles states to “convert the pagan in all parts of the world,” and he notes that “Canada was one of the chief beneficiaries of the movement.” The main purpose of missionaries in New France thus became the conversion of the “pagan Indians,” to Christianity. The missionaries and the church helped to include the Amerindians more fully in the society of New France. The charter of the original Company of New France that was responsible for the colonization of New France, included a very specific clause respecting the rights of Amerindians in the society of New France. As Eccles points out:
Clause XVII declared that any Indians who embraced Christianity and became practicing members of the Roman Church were, without any further formality, to be accepted as French subjects with all the rights and privileges appertaining, including the right to settle in France, whenever they wished and acquire and dispose of property there as would a subject born in the Kingdom.

While Eccles notes that no Amerindian would take advantage of this privilege, he praises French Indian policy on the grounds that “no other European colonizing power advanced such a civilized concept.” This civilizing quest of the missionary orders was as the Journals des Jesuites, states to establish “a new Jerusalem blessed by God and made up of citizens destined for heaven.” This new Jerusalem on the banks of the St. Lawrence as Eccles states was “to further the great work: the conversion of the Indians nations to Christianity.”
Eccles like Trigger shows how Amerindians already had a materialistic based culture. Eccles states that the Hurons “Long before the French appeared on the scene . . . . had been a trading nation exchanging their surplus corn for Tobacco, dried meat, native copper and other goods from surrounding tribes.” While supporting the idea that the Amerindians were pawns in the European quest to control the resources and economy of North America Eccles believes that Europeans simply used Amerindian rivalries to their own benefit. He states that “although the enmity of the Iroquois and Huron Confederacies antedated the arrival of Europeans on the scene, the economic rivalry for control of the beaver trade between the French on the St. Lawrence and the Dutch on the Hudson certainly intensified it.”
Another conventional historian is George F.G. Stanley. Stanley in his book New France The Last Phase 1744-1760, like most authors treats Amerindians as a side to the History of New France. Stanley attempts to show how Amerindians were used as pawns in the struggle between the French and English in the seventeenth century. Stanley points out that as the war progressed an active policy of Amerindian involvement was encouraged. Stanley states that:
The Canadian Commander at Detroit, Longueuil, [complained] . . . bitterly of the activities of American traders who were, he said, telling the Indians that the French would soon be driven from the country and that only the English would be able to supply them with the goods they required.

This was propaganda that Stanley believed had some effect, as Governor Chevalier Claude de Beauharnois noted in his dispatches that areas in contact with American influence showed a “lack of enthusiasm . . . to takeup the hatchet against the Americans when war broke out.”
While Stanley argues that the intrigues of the warring parties were more significant than the economic factors there is a strong argument to be made for both approaches. He contributes to the social history of Amerindians during the period by highlighting the importance of material trade and how it was effected or used to control Amerindians during the French English conflict. The outbreak of war in 1744, place constraints on Amerindian and French Trade as Stanley notes “the interference with French shipping at sea made it harder for them [the French] to obtain the trade goods upon which their influence over the Indians so largely depended.”
Cornelius Jaenen in his work, Friend and Foe: Aspects of French-Amerindian Cultural Contact in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, outlines new approaches to Amerindian history. He states that :
Several new approaches to the initial contacts between Europeans and Amerindians and to the Amerindian background to Canadian history have been suggested . . . The contributions of a variety social scientists - anthropologists, Archaeologists, ethnohistorians, psychologists - and other specialists - linguists, medical doctors, geographers, psychiatrists - are shedding new light on old problems for historians.

In examining Amerindian culture at the time of contact with Europeans he finds that not all contact experiences were identical as he notes “did not the French become more dependent upon the native population than the English settlers to the south.” The French were as Jaenen states, first introduced to Amerindians through the writings of Gonzalo Oviedo y Valdez in 1555 and 1568. Oviedo portrayed the Amerindians as a savage people with “Ni Foi, Ni Roi, Ni Loi” (no faith no King No law) in all accounts truly pagan. The reaction that the French had though was to treat them as human rather than sub human as other colonizing powers had. This belief can be seen as an outcrop of their faith. Pope Paul III in his bull Sublimus Deus affirmed that Amerindians were “truly men . . . capable of Understanding the Catholic Faith.”
Therefore the missionaries as Jaenen points out would “accept, in general the common humanity of the natives and in some cases this view gave them an important advantage in propagating their doctrines.” As an example Jaenen cites that it was reported in 1683 by Father Allouez that “among the Miamis and Illinois . . . the natives preferred the French to other Europeans. Alluoez writing about the English opinion of natives states that:
I think that these are the English, from whom They receive no tokens of friendship, and who take no trouble to instruct them. In fact, those heretics pay no heed to their salvation, saying that they took upon Them only As beasts; and that Paradise is not for that sort of people. [Alluoez believes that] The father did not fail to show them that he was animated with very different sentiments toward them; that he looked upon them as men, in Whom he recognized The image of a God who had created them, who had died for them, and who destined them to the same happiness as the Europeans.

Even though the Hurons, New France’s chosen Amerindian allies would be exterminated by the Iroquois of the six nations to the south, the missionaries in their own estimation accomplished their goals. It might appear that the missionaries were not be able to save the Hurons as we see it, but from a Jesuits perspective because of their strong belief in the next life they did. As Eccles says “the missionaries succeeded in their aim of saving the souls of at least half of the Huron Nation and were satisfied that although the victims had been lost to this world, they had been saved for eternity in the next.”
Contrary to the traditional view of Amerindian history social historians have been examining more closely the history of New France from a Amerindian perspective. Cornelius J. Janen in his article The Meeting of the French and Amerindians in the Seventeenth Century, argues that people in the seventeenth century misunderstood the Amerindians because they looked at them from a eurocentric perspective. Jaenen writes that “Few aspects of French Colonization in North America have been more commented on and less understood than the meeting of Europeans and Amerindians.” Jaenen does not accept that Amerindian relations where based on the fact that the French “embraced and cherished the Amerindians” as noble savages. Jaenen sees that :
When lofty objectives were translated into political directives, such as the orders given the Vice-Regent, the duc de Montmorency, ‘to seek to lead the natives therefore to the profession of the Christian faith, to civilization of manners, an ordered life, practice, and intercourse with the French for the gain of their commerce . . .’, the economic motivation emerged.

Jaenen questions the motivation of missionary zeal without actually criticizing the missionaries themselves. He believes that “the religious activities should be seen within the larger framework of cooperation between church and state in the New World to build a new society and to incorporate the Amerindians in that well ordered, institutionalized, hierarchical, French and Christian Society.” This assimilation was for economic and social means as much as for the saving of Indian souls. Jaenen sets forth the for example the Veritables Motifs of the founders of Montreal that state:
. . . and if once reason obtains the advantage over their old customs, with the example of the French, which they esteem and respect, inciting them ti work, it seems that they will set themselves straight, withdrawing from a life so full of poverty and affliction, and that they will take their place beside the Frenchmen and Christian savages . .. “

He criticizes this statement though as it “indicates two fundamental errors: firstly that the aborigines admired and wished to imitate the European way of life; secondly, that Amerindians were vagabonds and Idlers.” Jaenen sees this as exemplary of “lack of understanding involved in the meeting of two culturse.” The Jesuits while attempting to make french men out of the natives though did not lose sight of the superiority of their position. One such Jesuit father as Jaenen noted stated that “these savages were indeed given to understand that the French did not resemble them, and were not so base as they . . .” While clause XVII of the Charter of the company of New France had given The Amerindians certain basic rights of land ownership and citizenship as Jaenen points out this was not totally an equitable situation. He states that “Amerindians were not truly given the same rights and privileges as Europeans,”There were separate seigneuries and villages(known as reserves since their inauguration in 1637) for Amerindians, separate military treaties, separate churches for converts, separate wards in hospitals, and separate schools for their children.” This separation though did not effect the gradual interweaving of Amerindian and French Culture as Jaenen notes :
The process of accommodation was one of Americanization or Barbarization, not of Frenchification and civilization. The french traders adapted to the Amerindian way of life; the militiamen learned to fight in native fashion; the colonist adopted native foods, clothing and transport; the missionaries continued to learn the Amerindian dialects . . .[but] the French, possessing insufficient men, money, and materials to create an irreversible impact, were unable to assimilate the Amerindians and build a stable new society.

We can see by the writings of current historians that the perception of Amerindian history has changed Amerindians in the History of New France are no longer being marginalized. Their history is therefore not treated as a side issue to the overall history. Even though there are more works on the French and English’s impact on the continents history more than simply a passing mention of the Amerindian contribution is included in modern scholarship. They participated in European progress and at times shaped it to meet their economic requirements. The religious influence of the missionaries has been scrutinized and reinterpreted. The result of this revision of Amerindian history in New France has been the production of a much more equitable but still tragic history of the Amerindian people.

Social Historian and Maternal Feminist ?

L. M. Montgomery A Product of Her Time,
Social Historian and Maternal Feminist
By Wilhelm (Bill) Arends

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, is the defining novel of Prince Edward Island. The novel may produce a somewhat sugar-coated version of the truth but none-the-less produces an accurate image of life in turn of the century rural Prince Edward Island, with its good points and bad. Montgomery did not attempt to make the Island a total paradise, but does not dwell on the negative, because after all this is a novel for primarily aimed at young women of the time. Montgomery though was a very good observer of human behavior. The characters she created were a product of their times, with all the aspects of that societies’ social behavior, both good and bad. Even though most of the issues that predominated history at the time are only superficially dealt within the novel the connection to the culture of the time is clear. While Montgomery would go on to write a whole series of interesting and influential works, this novel is the one that best describes turn of the century Prince Edward Island. The novel while often described as a “simple but delightful book” has great insights into Island culture if examined carefully. Montgomery a product of turn of the century Prince Edward Island, in the novel Anne of Green Gables has not only produced a work of literature but, an interesting social history of rural Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery was definitely a product of Prince Edward Island she was born to Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner MacNeill on November 30th 1874 in the rural town of Clifton Corner. In Montgomery’s day the academic careers of women were limited and Montgomery who loved writing chose a profession that would allow her to develop this academic nature and in June of 1894 she obtained her teachers’ license. Anne of Green Gables was written in 1908 as Prince Edward Island was on the verge of great changes. The legislature was obviously worried that the age of machines would negatively effect the island. As They passed laws to prohibit the use of machines in the countryside, Montgomery was capturing this delightful rural nature of Cavendish county Prince Edward Island that the province was attempting to preserve. Forbes and Muise point out in their text The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation, Montgomery’s Novel “depicts the traditionalism of the church and family in rural Prince Edward Island.” Montgomery though was not totally approving of all the aspects of Rural Prince Edward Island.
She was concerned with depicting reality within her novel while not offending anyone, as she says in her diary “” I cast ‘moral’ and ‘Sunday school’ ideals to the winds and made my ‘Anne’ a real human girl.” In Montgomery’s world asylums were still used to house orphans, women were restricted to the home, temperance was seen as the way to improve society and Maternal feminism was becoming a force to be reckoned with. All these aspects of life were included in Anne’s story. To say that Montgomery was free of social ills though would be naive and even some aspects of her own social failings can be seen in the novel.
Montgomery in her diary defines herself as having the “misfortune to be a born conservative, hater of change and to live my life in a period when everything has been, or is being turned topsy turvey” Like all conservatives Montgomery was susceptible to prejudices of her day. In the beginning of the novel Marilla Cuthbert is discussing with Mrs. Lynde the choice that Matthew and her have made to foster an orphan that is a “born Canadian” This section of the novel not only shows the racist tendency of her class but also connects the novel concretely to the period. When choosing a boy Matthew and Marilla have an in-depth discussion which Marilla relates to Mrs. Lynde, she says:
There’s never anybody to be had but those stupid, half grown little French boys; and as soon as you get one broke into your ways and taught something he’s up and off to the lobster canneries in the States. At first Matthew suggested getting a Bernado [sic] boy. But I said ‘no’ flat to that. ‘They may be all right - I’m not saying they’re not - but no London street Arabs for me, ‘Give me a native born at least. There’ll be a risk, no matter who we get. But I’ll feel easier in my mind and sleep sounder at nights if we get a born Canadian.

While Laura M. Robinson in her book L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture argues that this is a means of creating “Canadian Identity” within the novel, it would be more likely that the Cuthbert’s reserve was more a product of prejudice on the part of Montgomery. If it were simply for reasons of Canadian identity then why would the Cuthbert’s not have wanted a French boy. It is important also to note that Matthew suggested a Bernardo Boy as an option. Bernardo Boys or, Home Boys were part of a scheme to find better lives for urban children from the crowded city streets of Europe, by bringing them to North America. The scheme though did little more than provide cheap labour for the rural areas of Canada. This can be seen even in this novel as the whole point of the Cuthbert’s getting a boy was to help the aging Matthew around the farm. Even this can be seen as a type of class oriented prejudice. As Owen Dudley Edwards and Jennifer H Litster state in their article “the End of Canadian Innocence: L.M. Montgomery and the first World War” the Cuthbert’s decision was not a preference to establish Canadian identity in the novel but a “prejudice against Bernardo boys.” If as Adreinne Clarkson has claimed “Avonlea . . . opens it arms to welcome the newcomer.” then the newcomer had better be a natural born Canadian like Montgomery’s Anne.
Also Anne’s world suffered from a degree of Misogyny that becomes evident in the novel.The reaction to this misogyny though was one that would have egalitarian problems of it’s own. According to Erika Rothwell in her article “L.M. Montgomery and Maternal Feminism” Montgomery through the character Anne“identifies herself with maternal feminism, a powerful branch of the women’s movement in turn-of-the-century Canada.” Maternal Feminism advocated the nurturing nature of women not an egalitarian feminism that promoted equality. They saw themselves as playing much more of a role in society than women were allowed, but not an equal role to men. As Historian Veronica Strong-Boag states “women themselves, like virtually everyone else in Canadian society, identified their sex with a maternal role.” This “natural occupation” could thus serve as a barrier to the “destabilizing elements in Canada,” whatever these may be.
One of these destabilizing elements that appears in the novel is the devil of alcohol. Alcohol by the standards of maternal feminists was one of the main causes of family strife. Maternal Feminists saw it as one of their responsibilities as the nurturing element of society to protest, and attempt to eradicate the evils of alcohol. While Marilla is, a brewer of Current wine, the dangers of this become apparent as Anne inadvertently intoxicates Diana. More importantly though in the novel, Montgomery shows the danger of alcohol through the character of Mr. Thomas. Montgomery does not recount the sordid details of family abuse, as that would not be appropriate for a child’s novel. Anne uses the hateful experience of the alcoholic Mr. Thomas as a yard stick of bad experiences. She claims that the insults of Mrs. Lynde hurt her more than “Mrs. Thomas’ intoxicated husband” ever did. The dangers of alcohol as maternal feminist see it is its resulting effect on the family, this is expressed in Mr. Thomas demise as he falls in front of a train thus depriving the family of a bread winner.
Maternal feminist stressed the importance of the nurturing nature of women. Women were responsible for the family unit and anything that fell within that realm was theirs to protect. The decisions that Anne makes seem to follow this pattern. While it may seem that Anne is independent in many ways, the constraints of being a woman in maternal feminists view limits her actions. Anne is therefore subject to the nurturing role of women. Carole Gerson points out in her article “Dragged at Anne’s Chariot Wheels:’ The Triangle of Author, Publisher, and Fictional Character” that Anne had to make the “mature choice to assume responsibility and conform to community norms with regard to both class and gender.” One of the most important figures in the Maternal feminist movement was Lady Aberdeen head of the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) who promoted the nurturing nature of women and spoke of mothering as the “Grand woman’s mission.” Therefore the natural role of women as mothers forced Anne to stay home and take care of Marilla rather than take a university scholarship. Gerson argues that Montgomery was not a totally dyed-in-the-wool maternal feminist as she does not totally follow what would have been the norm in women’s literature at the time and, “resisted the conventional closure of Marriage.” at the end of the novel. As Rothwell notes “Montgomery’s vision of maternal feminism is steeped in realism. Not all the mother figures in Green Gables are ideals.” and “undermines the political vision of maternal women as centers of . . . pure reformist motives [and]. . . traditional moral values.” This realism as Rothwell points out was what made Montgomery :
an astute Social Historian and Maternal feminist who kept her finger upon the pulse of Canadian women’s experiences. She powerfully knit into her fiction the events, circumstances, beliefs, experiences, and realizations that were of moment in the living history of Canadian women. [ thus creating] . . . The tapestry of maternal feminism in Canada.”

L. M. Montgomery even in her personal writings seems to be a complex character as Roberta Buchanan shows in her article “Reflection piece- ‘ I wrote Two Hours This Morning and Put Up Grape Juice in the Afternoon’: The conflict between Woman and Writer in L. M. Montgomery’s Journals.” She sees that Montgomery was torn by the “conflict between woman as writer and homemaker; and her desire to conform to social expectations of femininity.”
While Montgomery does attempt to be as accurate as possible her historian skills may have been a bit lacking. In the episode where Anne attempts to dye her hair she describes the man who sells the dye to her as a “German Jew ... Who was working hard to make enough money to bring his wife and children out from Germany.” The problem with this may be in a social misconception of identity , as many Lebanese peddlers were mistaken as Jews. David Weale in his book A Stream Out of Lebanon: An Introduction to the Coming of Syrian/Lebanese Emigrants to Prince Edward Island, recounts the tale of one who was tired of explaining the difference between jews and Assyrians to one customer that he would tell the children to “tell your mother the old Jew is here.”
This discrepancy only proves that Lucy Maud Montgomery was simply a product of turn of the century Prince Edward Island and even Weale admits that this misconception of Ethnic identity was common. Lucy Maud Montgomery through the novel Anne of Green Gables, has shown herself to be an accurate witness to the social condition of Islanders. She has portrayed the rural islanders with both their strengths and weaknesses as fairly as possible. The novel while being predominantly a work of fiction is an interesting and accurate social history of rural Prince Edward Island. The aspects of Maternal feminism, Racial misconceptions and even prejudices that find their way into the novel give us interesting insights into Montgomery’s world.

Bibliography

Buchanan, Roberta .“Reflection piece- ‘ I wrote Two Hours This Morning and Put Up
Grape Juice in the Afternoon’: The conflict between Woman and Writer in L. M.
Montgomery’s Journals.” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel
and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Callbeck,Lorne C. The Cradle of Confederation Unipress: Fredericton 1964.

Clarkson Adrienne. In Laura M. Robinson, “ ‘ A Born Canadian’: The Bonds of Communal
Identity in Anne of Green Gables and A Tangled Web,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian
Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1999

Edwards, Owen Dudley. and Jennifer H. Litster, “The End of Canadian Innocence: L.M.
Montgomery and the First World War,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed.
Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Forbes E. R. and D. A. Muise, The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation Fredericton: Acadiensis
Press 1997

Gerson, Carole. “Dragged at Anne’s Chariot Wheels:’ The Triangle of Author, Publisher,
and Fictional Character,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel
and Elizabeth Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly, “L .M. Montgomery and the Shaping of Canadian
Culture,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth
Epperly. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables, Toronto:McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1968

Robinson,Laura M. “ ‘ A Born Canadian’: The Bonds of Communal Identity in Anne of Green
Gables and A Tangled Web,” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene
Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Rothwell, Erika. “Knitting Up the World: L. M. Montgomery and Maternal Feminism in
Canada” L. M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture, ed. Irene Gammel and Elizabeth
Epperly Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999

Weale,David. A Stream Out of Lebanon: An Introduction to the Coming of Syrian/Lebanese
Emigrants to Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown: Charlottetown Institute of Island
Studies, 1988

Brave New World?

Once upon a time I could actually write things that interest me. That is before I became a cog in the great governmental machine. Here is an old essay I dug up and it surprises me that it is better than I remembered it..







Machines and Stability:
In a ‘Brave New World’
by Bill Arends


The slogan of Huxley’s Brave New World is “Community, Identity [and] stability” (Huxley 1). On the eve of World War Two, Huxley saw the growth of German totalitarianism, and the growth of science. With science and control being the prime movers of society, Huxley made a logical connection between the two. He thus created a world where to create stability, science served control, and man became its victim. Ford is the embodiment of the machine, the pseudo-God of Huxley’s Brave New World, and the symbol of science in action. The machine is the only civilizing aspect of society, as the character Bernard says “these people have never heard of Our Ford, and they aren’t civilized” (Huxley 98).
Nell Eurich in Science in Utopia, analyses the role and position of Science in utopian and dystopian literature. According to Eurich, Huxley believes “science and technology should be used and controlled by man: Man should not be enslaved by them” (259). Science in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is the back bone of society. As Huxley states in his Foreword to the novel, the theme of Brave New World is “The advancement of science as it effects human individuals” (Huxley IV). The science of social control is, the means to which society has turned to create a stable state. Social control is applied in a mechanical way, to create a mechanical world. While other writers have interpreted Huxley’s Brave New World as showing the “absurdity of utopian dreams’(La Bossiere 290) it is possible that Huxley did not create his Brave New World as an example of “absurdity,” but more as a warning about the dangers of enslavement by science and control. Therefore an exploration of aspects of social stability, through the science of mechanical social control will prove that Huxley, was more concerned with science’s threat than the absurdity of its abuses.
It is also viable to argue, that the savage reservation offered a kind of stability based on the acceptance of life, death, and a recognized social order. While society on the reservation creates a sense of stability through voluntary acceptance, society off the reservation creates stability by enforced acceptance. The world is programmed like a machine and functions in a mechanical way. The machine like nature of life is enforced, even sometimes violently as Mustapha Mond proudly tells his students “eight hundred Simple Lifers were mowed down by machine guns at Golders Green”(Huxley 44). The individual life becomes unimportant to the machine like whole.
The simple life idea, where man lives in a natural state is easy to villainize in a society of manufactured humans that never grow old, and die only to be recycled as a source of phosphorus. The human simply becomes an element in a social machine, and the human corpse as part of this machine is, “socially useful even after [death]” (Huxley 65), in fertilizer plants making plants grow. In essence the body truly feeds the machine in Huxley’s distopic society. While Huxley’s society is highly stratified, each part is only valued by its usefulness, and in the end “All men are Physico-chemically equal ” (Huxley 65). Like cogs in the machine as Lenina remembers from her hypnopaedic programing “Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without anyone”(Huxley 66). As much as a cog is a slave to the machine, so are the people in Huxley’s Brave New World. In turning man into an element in a machine, the machine has turned man into a slave to itself
The world governed society, attempts to overcome worrisome aspects of life through science, and removes the fear of them, creating a false stability. Thus stability is created by removing fear as much as possible, and not by simply accepting that fear is inevitable. The attractiveness of the character John Savage, to the citizens of this brave new world, shows how Stability is marginal in the society. The Factor that science can’t fully control is man himself. Even with the removal of difference, difference still attracts society, as the citizens descend on Savage in a living “Swarm of helicopters” (Huxley 236) as moths to a flame.
One question that still arises is, why Mustapha Mond allows Savage to remain in society as long as he did. Savage’s suicide at the end of the novel leaves one to assume that little has changed or will change, society has become too great to be influenced by the individual. Stability is linked in Huxley’s Brave New World to science which attempts to create maximum efficiency, by reducing society to a type of social functioning machine. In the face of this massive and growing machine the individual has been eliminated, even if man’s innate nature shows some signs of life.

Huxley also saw the machine as becoming the replacement for God, and not the tool it was meant to be. In his personal letters we find that this view was not only an interpretation of his work, but his real intent. Writing to Simon Blumenfeld, Huxley states that he was “ greatly struck recently by a Russian film [called] ‘Earth’” (Huxley in Begnoche p 52) in which was the anti-religion slogan “there is no God. Alas, there is always a tractor or something else to take his place.”(Huxley in Begnoche p 52) In the Russian film Huxley observes how the tractor is worshiped as a God. In His Brave New World Huxley is not simply placing Ford as a god, but the Idea of the machine as the god. The assembly line that was characteristic of Fords means of production is seen in Huxley’s Hatcheries and Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning Rooms. The machine is the product of science in Huxley’s mind, and the machine is the tool that science uses to make man in its own image.
The development of a religion of science and the machine, in Huxley’s opinion dehumanized society. His work was not simply a novel of what could happen if we let the absurdity of unlimited scientific progress continue, but a warning of what he saw as possible. As Krishan Kumar points out in his book Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times, the period in which Huxley was writing was the “classic era of the Utopia in the negative”(Kumar 224). He describes the times as the “devil’s decades”(Kumar 224). As brutal dictatorships, and the rise of state social control appeared on the European continent, it would be hard to imagine that Huxley would not be influenced by this depressing trend. The rhetoric of the rising German totalitarian state can be seen in the first pages of Brave New World, as Huxley refers to his conditioned children as, not all “pink and Aryan”(Huxley 16). As Frederick Turner points out in his article “Future Shocks,” “there is no better guide to worried regard of the future than Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.” (Turner 21) As science was finding greater and greater ways of eliminating mankind, and better ways of controlling him and conditioning him, as Pavlov was suggesting that programing could improve a species there was obviously need to worry as Huxley believed.
Again in Huxley’s personal writings we see that this uncontrolled scientific progress, was of grave concern if not morbid interest to him. In his letters to Author E.M. Forster we find one account of his unique awareness of the frightening progress of science in a somewhat amoral world:
Bertie Russell, whom I’ve have just been lunching with, says one oughtn’t to mind about the superficial things like ideas, manners, politics, even wars - that the really important things, conditioned by scientific technique, go steadily on and up . . . in a straight un-undulating trajectory. It’s nice to think so; but meanwhile there the superficial undulations are, and one lives superficially; and who knows if that straight trajectory isn’t aiming directly for some fantastic denial of humanity?
Aldous Huxley to E.M. Forster, 17 February 1935. (Kumar 224)

The denial of humanity and deference to the machine are aspects that would be hard to avoid in Brave New World. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, this flattery can be seen in Huxley’s society which sounds and behaves like a machine. In the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, life imitates the rhythmic nature of the machine as “ The Dynamos purred in the sub-basement, the lifts rushed up and down. On all the eleven floors of Nurseries it was feeding time” (Huxley 132). It is interesting to note that Huxley’s society, the glorious machine like world, is also programed like a machine, a computer that is continuously instructed in the betterment of itself. Every evening the youth of the society are given repetition after repetition, of words of wisdom designed to make them function better in society. It would have been hard to imagine that Huxley foresaw computers, when he was writing but it would seem he could see the nature of the machine age as it developed along this path.
Even with this development though, Huxley saw the superficially undulations personified in mankind. These undulations are arguably personified in the person of John Savage. This is not to say that Huxley believed that a ‘brave new world’ was not possible but, simply that undulations such as John Savage where not a bad thing.
Aspects of a mix of science and control can also be seen in the Central London Hatchery, with its science of eugenics, the Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning rooms, and the solidarity services that replace religion in this machine like world (Huxley 16). This machine world, uses science as Sybil Bedford points out to, “dominate people by social, educational and pharmaceutical methods” (Bedford, 249). The drug Soma the universal instiller of happiness in the world feeds the machine. In this new world it is Happiness rather than truth and beauty that matter[s] (Huxley 208) It is “universal happiness [in Huxley’s distopia that] keeps the wheels steadily turning”(Huxley 208).
Not all writers of Huxley’s time agreed with his negative view of the world. The progress of science was not universally viewed as a bad thing and in truth some saw it as beneficial. H.G. Wells while he was apprehensive about the future as his Novel The Time Machine would attest to, was not wholly convinced that it was science that was the problem. Kingsley Martin, recalls Well’s reaction to Huxley’s Brave New World, in which he states;
I remember his talking to me about Aldous Huxley, whom he regarded as the degenerate descendant of a noble grandfather. He spoke with bitterness of Brave New World; it was blasphemy against the religion of science. It suggested that knowledge might be the path, not to the modern Utopia, but to a new kind of servile Hell. (Kumar 224)

This servile hell was obviously not something that Well’s saw as the progress of science. To writers like Wells science was as he stated the path to a “modern Utopia”(Kumar 224) not the evil distopia of Huxley’s Brave new World.
Other writers of the day had impressions of just how science was going to save civilization. This religion of science, this worship of the machine, was not simply something that Huxley created within his own mind. J.D. Bernal in his book, The World, The Flesh, And The Devil, published in 1929 had already foreseen the things that Huxley was writing about, but saw them in a much more positive light. For Bernal science was the savior and saw that “scientists would have a dual function: to keep the world going as an efficient food and comfort machine, and to worry out the secrets of nature for themselves”(Kumar 238). Huxley, with his conditioned and programed society would hardly argue with this fact, but did not see it as positive, as we have seen he saw it as dehumanizing and in the novel he shows it as destructive.
Huxley goes one step farther in saying that science its self becomes self defeating, as control grows in a society. While to Huxley’s programmed citizens, “Science is everything”(Huxley 205), as Mustapha Mond points out, science is “dangerous; [in society] we have to keep most carefully chained and muzzled”(Huxley 205). If science solves all problems and frees mankind to live in a utopic condition, what is mankind to do. Mond states, and with a degree of truth, that labour saving devices are not entirely good, “For the sake of the labourers; it would be sheer cruelty to afflict them with excessive leisure”(Huxley 205). A science that can’t solve the problem of the human element (and never will) is as Mond points out as “dangerous as it’s been beneficent”(Huxley 207).

With Science as the means, stability as the end, and happiness as the path it would appear that Huxley’s Brave New World, is putting the cart before the horse. He thus creates a world nightmare in which ignorance and drug induced happiness create a stable world, that neither degenerates nor progresses. This condition is kind of like a car in neutral, stable but somewhat useless, and entirely pointless. Humanity in this Brave New World achieves nothing, feels nothing, and in essence does nothing. The product of this society is the total dehumanization of mankind.

Huxley’s Brave New World may be an ‘absurdity’ but it is more a warning about the dangers of enslavement by science and control. Social stability through the science of mechanical social control is as we have seen more of a social nightmare than a Utopia. If Wells was truly thinking that a religion of science, was something to be praised , then Huxley has created a successful argument in defense of the opposite. Once truth was eliminated it would seem in Huxley’s Brave New World so was humanity, and all that remains is the machine.

Bibliography

Bedford, Sybill. Aldous Huxley. New York: Harper and Row. 1974.

Eurich, Nell. Science in Utopia. London: Oxford University Press. 1967.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. London: Flamingo. 1994.

La Bossiere C. R. “Sunken Atlantis and the Utopian Question.” Science-Fiction Studies. 4
(1974): 290-297.

Begnoche, Suzanne R. “Aldous Huxley’s Soviet Source Material: An Unpublished Letter.”
English Language Notes. 34.3 (1997) 51-57.

Varricchio, Mario. “Power of Images/Images of Power in Brave New World and Nineteen
Eighty-Four.” Utopian Studies. 10 (1999) 98

Turner, Frederick. “Future Shocks.” Reason. 31 (1999) 20-27

Kumar, Krishan . Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
1987.

2005 Mount Washington Collage

We took the hard trail.

How does one parade a sacred cow?

Sacred Cows

There are in each of us sacred cows that we protect with a passion that can be destructive to any who should try to slaughter them. The problem with Blogging in a community that includes friends and relatives is that we must be very careful to hide the cow completely so others are not aware that cow is being protected. So we build walls around the issues and are very careful not to talk about the cow should the machetes come out. I suspect that we all have such beasts in our metaphorical mental barns.

Some people are aware of my sacred cows (I have several) my question is how does one parade a sacred cow without getting its head chopped off, or endangering those that might attempt to chop off a rump or rib? Of course I am talking in metaphors as I don’t own a Machete but I have a pretty sharp tongue. That said, there are times I regret using my verbal Machete and times I don’t.

So again How does one parade a sacred cow?

Park Cleaning Can be Painful

Ever had to pose for a photo sooooo long that you feel your face is going to freeze in a permanent fake smile?

I'm not sure if I am smiling or grimacing in pain.

Privacy

Just a quick note - I have unpublished this blog so just the current participants and those I invite can veiw it, as it has some more personal details. Please don't share it. If you would like to share it let me know and I will send the invite if I trust the person you are proposing to share it with.

Our New Hampshire Vacation - Day 3 - Sunday Sept 17 2006

Installment #3

A Stinky Puppy, Tame Birds and Plans for Kilimanjaro.

The next morning we woke to the smell of cooking breakfast, making us feel that the $80 per night to stay in the hut might have been a good idea. We ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and carrot cake (left over - from the night before) and headed down the trail. Our objective was to get as far as we could before we had to turn around. I figured that leaving at 8:00AM we had until 6:30PM (sunset) and thus we would have to turn around at about 1:00 or 1:30 PM.

The trail was gentle at first but rose quickly as we came up to Mt Pierce. We passed the couple from the camp that had the two Malamute dogs. The male had a saddle pack loaded with about 20 pounds and the female had a nasty flatulence problem so it was either race to keep ahead of them or let them get farther ahead. As Michelle and I like to take our time we let the stinky puppy get far far ahead. The summit of Mt Pierce was relatively easy to get to and at the top I purposely searched out the Geological society benchmark to take a picture of it. I eventually found it but the mark had been so abused it was almost impossible to make out the elevation. It was nice to be above the tree line as we could now take off our caps for a while. Michelle was talking to the folks that run the AMC Hut and apparently the area has a tick and Limes disease problem, so we had to keep our hats on anytime we were in the woods. Also the breeze made the humidity somewhat more bearable.

As we passed to the next part of the ridge of mountains we caught a glimpse of the next summit Mount Eisenhower. When we hiked down to the saddle between the mountains clouds started to fill the Notch below us. Before the entire valley filled with clouds we had a great view of the Mount washington hotel in Bretton Woods, then within seconds the clouds covered the valley and began to spill over onto the Eastern slopes of the range. We literally walked thrrough the clouds as they spilled between the summits and onto the other slope of Eisenhower. The peaks of the mountains were visible through the clouds and the clouds looked like lakes of snow. As fast as the clouds came they tumbled over the Mountains and disappeared in the warm weather on the other side. There was one brief scramble as we approached the summit for about three metres we were on our hands and knees climbing a crevice like slope. When we got to the summit there was a crowd of hikers lazing in the sun. We met a couple of hikers coming the other direction that were locals but avid hikers. They talked about the best hikes in the area and we talked about hiking in general. One hike they described was one they took in the 90's to mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.. It seems that unlike everything that is said about it the hike is not that difficult but requires some acclimatisation due to thin atmosphere from the height of the climb, and doing it slow is a requirement by the guides. They gave us a good contact address to hire guides and such.. They also had a beautiful husky which licked our camera as Michelle tried to take a picture. Interesting picture ! After a brief stay at the summit and a few rolls of film later, we headed down the other side. The trail branched in several directions and we decided to take the trail around the other side of Mount Eisenhower on the way back. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. There was no wind and the sun beat down on us as if it was mid summer. We hiked as quick as we could to get back to the saddle trail that headed back the way we came. When we came around the mountain the wid had picked up and we had some excellent views of the valley that we had missed due to the clouds on the way up. We hiked until we came to the summit of Peirce an stopped briefly for a snack, which we shared with a crowd of Grey Jays, which the Americans call Canadian Jays. Admittedly it is nice to have such a gregarious creature with the Canadian moniker but I have never heard them call this before. They swooped an landed near us one even took some crumbs directly from Michelle’s hand. As we headed back down the trail leaving our feathered friends to eat the remaining crumbs we left behind the sun started to get lower and the entire look of the trail changed. I was concerned that we might have taken the Crawford path trail instead of the trail to Mizpah hut but things became more familiar the farther we hiked. The trip down was far faster than we thought. With the exception of one slip we made it back in record time. Michelle seems to have developed a sizable bruise and I suspect it was from the trip down. When we go it back we were tired but not totally exhausted. I guess I was feeling my age as I voted to hang around the Hut and not try to tackle the Webster Cliff trail as Michelle suggested but given the length of time it took for the sun to set I suspect we could have easily made a quick trip to the cliff face and back before sun set but it was nice to relax and let my muscles heal before we headed back down the next morning. We ate a very disappointing dinner of dehydrated fettuccine and Black bean and corn chowder. The fettuccini was awful but the bean chowder wasn’t bad. That said when you are sleeping in a tent bean chowder is not a good idea. Enough said I hope. We stayed up late talking to some of the hikers and exchanging some Scouty stories and then called it a night. Luckily my sleeping bag had dried during the day and it was a much warmer nights sleep.

100 Reasons Why I love Michelle

Can you tell me 100 reasons you love your partner?
Here are 100 for mine but I could go on.

1. She listens to me even when I’m boring
2. She has the most amazing hazel eyes I have ever seen.
3. She encourages me when I need it
4. And knows when I am just being lazy.
5. She will hike on even when she hurts worse than me
6. Chocolate is one of our favourite foods
7. She cares what I think about her clothes
8. She cares how I dress (which is cool no one else has)
9. She never quits
10. She loves all seasons
11. She hikes
12. She bikes
13. She Snowshoes
14. She eats my cooking
15. Even when it’s BAD
16. History does not bore her
17. She is rarely as grumpy as me when she is tired.
18. She likes little children and small animals
19.To her Cuddling is a hobby.
20. She lets me sleep in on Saturday
21. She loves to cook
22. She loves to travel
23. We do most things together
24. We share allergies
25. She’s practical
26. She does not suffer fools well
27. She likes hot dogs
28. She can draw.
29. She likes my dated folksy taste in music
30. She likes Disney movies
31. She looks good in an evening dress
32. She looks good in Jeans
33. She looks good in most things
34. She doesn’t like Stephen Harper, Tony Blair or George W Bush
35. She may even vote NDP
36. She loves Christmas
37. She loves Thanksgiving
38. She dresses up for Halloween
39. She loves hot tubs and spas
40. If it's cute she likes it
41. Freckles rock (need I say more)
42. She talks as much as I do (most time unless she is mad at me)
43. She can take a good photo of me
44. She gets excided about vacations
45. She has dreams
46. I’m in some of them
47. She trusts me
48. She has faith in me
49. She believes in herself
50.She keeps learning
51. She has dimples when she smiles
52. She loves roses
53. She sends me roses
54.We like the same TV shows
55. She reads a lot (but sometimes reads novels more than once - I don’t understand that)
56. She loves the stuff toys I buy her
57.She doesn’t like stinky perfume
58. She smells nice
59. She misses me when I’m away
60. She has a great voice
61. She recycles everything
62. She likes “Great Big Sea”
63. She loves Jazz
64. She loves walking in the rain
65. She loves to swim
66. And looks good in a swimsuit
67. Romance never bores her.
68. She loves to dance
69. She loves to camp
70. She loves nature
71. She has an amazing smile
72. She is loyal to her friends (even when they are being stupid)
73. Her favourite colour is yellow
74. She likes parties
75. She speaks French (that’s sexy)
76. She understands me If anyone does
77. She looks good in a T shirt (just a T shirt)
78. She is not afraid of much (except some heights)
79. She faces her fears
80. She is beautiful even when she is sad.
81. She loves Kites
82. She loves to play
83. She is young and refuses to act old.
84. Even when surrounded by old fuddy duddies like me
85. Her teeth are as white as new snow.
86. She will try most things once
87. She never loses her sense of wonder at natural beauty
88. She likes breakfast in bed
89. She will cook breakfast in bed for me
90. She’s spontaneous
91. She is whimsical
92. My arms fit nicely around her waist
93. She loves Hugs
94. She is a great kisser
95. Holding hands is not an option, it is an essential
96. Sharing comes naturally to her
97. She has a great laugh
98. She’s kind
99 She’s enthusiastic
100. She Loves me.