Reflectivesurfaces's Blog

I am a child of the beach.  My grandfather was a lumberman and he owned property all over Bruce Peninsula.  Sauble Beach was a favourite place.  His foresight allowed his children to all have property and my mother and her twin chose this spot on Lake Huron.  Their elder sister had a cottage only a stone’s throw away.  The three sisters spent many happy hours at their cottages and so did their children and grandchildren.  Since I was a child born to middle aged parents and my brothers had flown the coop, I especially benefited from the arrangements. I spent the entire summers at Sauble.  As a result,  I have always needed the water to balance myself and when I dip into those blue-green waves, I feel refreshed.  My feet are in that water, in that place, as of Easter weekend and all the way to Thanksgiving, (sometimes, Remembrance Day, on a good year).  Sometimes there is even ice, but it doesn’t really matter.  I need to feel the sand between my warped toes and the water around me.  My grandfather left a fantastic legacy!

     I am part of the Sandwich generation. You know, that demographic with responsibilities to their children and their elderly parents. I’d imagine that it is not a new concept. In my mother’s day, your parents and in-laws were expected to live with you and receive your loving care when their golden years turned brass.  Sometimes your kids were already out of the house and making their own ways in the world and sometimes they were still there.  What is most remarkable, that was the time before the invention of the motorized washing machine and what I consider to be a very important invention:  the disposal Depends.  The workload would have been incredible.  There was no home care who would come to the home to give you a break.  Only the odd kindhearted neighbour or church member who would offer respite.  It must have been  incredibly stressful.  But still, the women of those generations would soldier on.  Granted, there was less emphasis on the extension of the senior’s life.  Medical technology just wasn’t there yet.  That may a curse or a blessing, depend on your perspective.

I have a mother who has been battling Alzheimer’s since 2000.  Apparently, only 7 percent of the population who have this disease will surpass the 14 year mark.  My mom I think, will be one of that number.  It is the sheer number of her brain cells that have been her best defense.  Anyone who has ever met my mother or have had to do battle with her on a contentious issue, truly appreciates how bright she was.  I use the past tense because she is only a shadow of her former self.  But with her sense of humour intact and her general good spirit, she has been a model patient for her family.  I have had to move her this spring into a nursing home, because my father’s depression/anxiety disorder was spiraling out of control and despite the daily help from his children and nursing agencies, we thought it would help him.  Not so much.  And now, she is a resident of a nursing home.  I have found the lack of my own personal control in this situation to be…stressful.  The nurses now are in the front line of her care.  And I don’t always agree with their strategies.  But time is short in such an institution and the healthcare professionals are often overworked.  So…they have their methods and  I have had mine and never shall the two meet.  But I still am making the half hour round trip almost daily, or at the very least, every other day.  My jelly remains…squished.

It is the yuletide and the nights are long and the days cold.  Hasn’t it been an exceptionally greedy year, this year?  What?  Greed isn’t part of Christmas?  Is that new?  Unfortunately probably not.  But in Ontario and even Canada at large, we are seeing an increase in the “give me” ‘s.  From teachers to hockey players, owners of teams and heads of Ministries,  the hands are extended out fully and the fingers are even wiggling a little.  Every group gives lip service to “we are doing this for the good of the whole”, but I have to admit, I don’t believe it.  And I believe in Santa!

I have listened to commercial after commercial that profess that whatever agency has their hands out and fingers waggling, are doing it for the rest of us.  With the teacher’s union, it is the tagline “if we don’t stand up against unfair legislation, what does that teach your children?”  I don’t know….if you don’t like it, you don’t have to do your full job anymore.  Same philosophy as “I’m taking my ball and going home.”  The real issue, the loss of banking sick days for indeterminate time periods and the right to be able to strike, is being lost in the muddying of the political waters.  “It is for the children”, is the rally cry.  If the lesson was to teach my kids that money is the most important factor in education, considered lesson learned!  Teachers did not put comments on report cards because the union suggested it.  But it wasn’t mandated.  So it was done, I assume, at the discretion of the individual.  And I applaud those who “took the road less travelled” and actually completed the report cards in the manner they should be.  Because, when I was in a class, I didn’t have a “choice” in filling out report cards.  It was part of the job.  Or so I mistakenly thought.  And the call to work to rule?  Only a week old.  So why were there no clubs, organizations, assemblies since September?  Oh….just because.  So glad I am using my tax dollars to teach my kids that doing a job to the very best of your abilities is for dummies!  “Gimme more”.  That should be the battle cry of our children!

Not the private sectors should be so proud!  The best example is the greed of the hockey players and owners this yuletide.  When did anyone think playing hockey would be a career that would last over 10 years?  In the old glory days of hockey, when men didn’t seem to care they had all their teeth, hockey players, even the top ones, had jobs (gasp) in the off-season.  They were barely paid enough to live, but they lived to play.  Now….if I’m not bring a million dollar salary, I can’t live like that!  And the prices at the arenas have blown up!  A regular person cannot afford to take a family to a NHL game anymore.  From the concession prices to the very ticket cost itself, it has become something for the “well-to-do”.  So…what did that teach my kids.  Well….money is a VERY important thing.  It outstrips anything you may love doing.  Money is what makes our world go round.  Gimme more.

So, should we really be concerned as parents and citizens of this great land by this bowing to the almighty dollar at this time of year?  The YouTube videos of children having shocking meltdowns because they didn’t get what they wanted when they wanted it?  Or not as many as they would like.  “Gimme more”.  I guess not.  They are only following the examples of their heroes. 

Good thing the colours of Christmas are already green and red.  If you don’t see more green, you will soon be seeing red!  Ah….greed at its finest!!