Canada Slim and the Napanee Sadness

Landschlacht, Switzerland, Sunday 13 December 2020

There is a creative essential I have learned:

“Don’t wait until you know the meaning of life to get started.“

And there is a secret I have learned:

One day a famous artist, who was much younger than he is now, picked up a call from a collector who had acquired one of his early paintings on the secondary market.

Having kept the work in storage ever since, the collector only recently discovered that there was a small area of cracked paint in the corner of the canvas, which did not look so good.

Before returning the painting to storage, the collector thought he would contact the artist and ask him whether, for a modest fee, he would repair the damage.

The artist said yes.

A few days later, the painting arrived at the artist’s studio.

Still in its wooden packing crate, the art handlers heaved the large-format painting up against a wall and removed the front panel so the painting faced outwards and could be worked on.

Looking at the painting, the artist realized two things:

First of all, he didn’t like the work any more.

It was not how he remembered it.

Secondly, in order to repair the damage, the artist decided he might as well rework the entire surface and blend in any cracks, making them less visible.

Over the course of the day, he applied layer after layer of fresh paint, turning a monochromatic abstract work into a representative image of a cow in a field.

Not even a good representation.

The next day, the art handlers retunred to the artist’s studio, closed the crate back up again, and the painting – now completely different – was carted off to storage.

Years have since passed and the artist has yet to hear from the collector….

From the blog of Mitch Teemley, Saturday 6 June 2020:

“It is easy to vilify names, faces and images.

Online.

On social media.

In the news – real, fake or a mix of both.

The only way to know the truth is to know someone.

To listen, to learn and to care for them despite what we thought we knew.

May we ignore the sound bites and discover the real, hurting, angry misunderstood people in our midst.

Only then will there be true healing….”

Kingston to Napanee, Ontario, Canada, Thursday 9 January 2020

The news was not good this day.

• Islamist militants killed over 25 Nigerian soldiers in an attack on an army base in Tillabéri Region, Niger. 63 militants were also killed in the ensuing shootout.

• US, Canadian, British and Iraqi officials said they believed the plane crash near Tehran in which 176 were killed yesterday was likely caused accidentally by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, while Iran says it was due to “mechanical failure“.
• The New York Times released a verified video obtained from an Iranian citizen showing the plane being struck by what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile.
• In a news conference, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was “too early to draw definitive conclusions” that the downing of the plane was an “act of war”. Trudeau also condemned Iran’s attacks on US bases in Iraq.

(On 8 May 2018, the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, reinstating sanctions against Iran. 

Iran’s oil production hit a historic low as a result of these sanctions.

Above: JCPOA Iran nuclear deal agreement in Vienna. From left to right: Foreign ministers/secretaries of state Wang Yi (China), Laurent Fabius (France), Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Germany), Federica Mogherini (EU), Mohammad Javad Zarif (Iran), Philip Hammond (UK), John Kerry (USA)

According to the BBC in April 2019, US sanctions against Iran “led to a sharp downturn in Iran’s economy, pushing the value of its currency to record lows, quadrupling its annual inflation rate, driving away foreign investors, and triggering protests“.

Iranian officials have accused the US of waging hybrid warfare against the country.

Above: Flag of Iran

Tensions between Iran and the US escalated in May 2019, with the U.S. deploying more military assets to the Persian Gulf region after receiving intelligence reports of an alleged “campaign” by Iran and its “proxies” to threaten US forces and Strait of Hormuz oil shipping.

US officials cited intelligence reports that included photographs of missiles on dhows and other small boats in the Persian Gulf, supposedly put there by Iranian paramilitary forces.

The US feared the missiles could be fired at its Navy.

The US began a buildup of its military presence in the region to deter what it regards as a planned campaign of belligerency by Iran and its non-state allies to attack American forces and interests in the Gulf and Iraq. 

The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and Kata’ib Hezbollah were targeted by US airstrikes, claiming their proxy belligerent role on the orders of Iran.

Above: Flag of the PMF

Above: Logo of the Kata’ib Hezbollah

In June 2019, Iran shot down an American RQ-4A surveillance drone, sharply increasing tensions and nearly resulting in an armed confrontation.

 In July 2019, an Iranian oil tanker was seized by Britain in the Strait of Gibraltar on the grounds that it was shipping oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions.

Above: Strait of Gibraltar (Spain on the left / Morocco on the right looking east to the Mediterranean Sea)

Iran later captured a British oil tanker and its crew members in the Persian Gulf.

Both Iran and the UK later released the ships.

Meanwhile, the US created the International Maritime Security Council (IMSC), which sought to increase “overall surveillance and security in key waterways in the Middle East“, according to the US Department of Defense.

The crisis escalated in late 2019 and early 2020 when members of the Kata’ib Hezbollah militia, which is part of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, allegedly killed an American contractor in an attack on an Iraqi base hosting American personnel.

In retaliation, the US conducted airstrikes against Kata’ib Hezbollah’s facilities in Iraq and Syria, killing 25 militiamen.

Kata’ib Hezbollah responded with an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, which prompted the US to deploy hundreds of new troops to the Middle East and announce that it would preemptively target Iran’s “proxies” in Iraq.

Days later, the commander of IRGC’s Ouds Force Oasem Soleimani and PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were both killed in a US drone strike, resulting in Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pledging to exact revenge on US forces.

The US deployed nearly 4,000 troops in response to the tensions and Israel heightened its security levels.

On 5 January 2020, Iran ended its commitments to the nuclear deal and the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution to expel all foreign troops from its territory.

Above: Coat of arms of Iran

The US and Iran nearly entered into an open conflict on 8 January 2020 when the IRGC launched missile attacks against two US / Iraqi military bases housing US soldiers in retaliation for the killing of Soleimani, a rare direct Iran–U.S. confrontation and the closest to the brink of war between the two nations in decades.

Upon initial assessments of no US casualties, the Trump administration curtailed tensions by temporarily ruling out a direct military response but announcing new sanctions.

It was later revealed that more than a hundred US troops sustained injuries during the attacks.

Above: Satellite image, showing the damage to at least five structures at Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq in a series of precision missile strikes launched by Iran

During the crisis, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down after departing from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport.)

• A bus crashed in Iran’s Mazandaran Province, killing at least 20 passnegers and injuring 24 others.

Above: According to a May 2017 report by the Tehran-based newspaper Financial Tribune, over 20,000 people are killed and 800,000 injured annually in road accidents in Iran

• Judge Ghassan Ouiedat, a Lebanese prosecutor, imposed a travel ban on former Chairman of Nissan Carlos Ghosn after he was summoned over an Interpol warrant issued by Japan seeking his arrest on financial misconduct charges.

Above. Carlos Ghosn

• The UK House of Commons voted 330 – 231 to pass the Withdrawl Agreement Bill authorizing Britain’s departure from the EU at the end of January 2020.

Are we on the brink of another war?

Is Ghosan innocent as he claims or a thief and a fraud as he is accused?

Is Britain going to continue with its insane decision to leave the EU?

Lots of questions fill my mind as the train pulls into Kingston’s VIA Rail station in the Cataraqui suburban area.

The station is staffed, with ticket sales, baggage check, snack bar, vending machines, telephones, washrooms, and wheelchair access to the station and trains.

There are two tracks, one of which is accessed through a tunnel.

Short-term and long-term parking is available on the east side of the station.

A taxi stand is located on the north side of the station.

At the platform Big J S, Queen V S and cabbie A are waiting.

A (a friend of the S family) is not there to drive me to Napanee, but she is working the station today.

The Napanee sadness has begun and I am not even in Napanee as yet.

A is one of those people in my life that I must accept because those I know more intimately accept them.

I think everyone has folks like A in their lives and I am sure that I am like A as other people see me.

I never know how to respond to A, for truth be told A is a bit too plebian for my liking.

She speaks her mind, her opinions are fixed and she does not belong in my life any more than a goat belongs in a banquet hall.

But I say nothing of this to A, Big J or Queen V, for A is good-hearted despite her manner.

I feel the Napanee sadness, which is that feeling of not belonging to the place where I am, despite the longing to fit in.

Above: Dundas Street, Napanee

We drive into Kingston to pick up Princess K S (Big J and Queen V‘s only child) at the apartment she shares with a roommate and K‘s cat.

The apartment is a dark, dank disaster zone of dirt and decay, feline feces, feminine frenzy and chaotic clutter.

I look at the Family S and I am saddened.

Big J is age-weary, Queen V is frumpy, Princess K tragic.

They once again strike me as a sad and sorry travesty of lost potential.

But I wonder are they truly as I see them or am I putting my own doubts and fears upon them unjustifiably?

Either way I feel that I have stumbled into a pathetic purgatory of lost souls seeking salvation.

You look like… a perfect fit,
For a girl in need… of a tourniquet.
But can you save me?
Come on and save me…
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone.

‘Cause I can tell… you know what it’s like.
A long farewell… of the hunger strike.
But can you save me?
Come on and save me…
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone.

You struck me dumb, like radium
Like Peter Pan, or Superman,
You have come… to save me.
Come on and save me…
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
But the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone.

Come on and save me…
Why don’t you save me?
If you could save me,
From the ranks of the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who suspect they could never love anyone,
Except the freaks,
Who could never love anyone.

I want to love this family whom I have known for much of my life (and certainly Princess K‘s life).

I feel I want to help and yet I am held back by an inner voice that cautions me not to judge others, not to tell others how to live their lives by my standards.

K‘s cat M is pushed into a cat carrier which she (the cat) does not like.

The car faithfully ferries us out of town along King’s Highway #2.

King’s Highway 2, commonly referred to as Highway 2, is the lowest-numbered provincially maintained highway in Ontario (there is no numbered Ontario Highway 1) and was originally part of a series of identically numbered highways in multiple provinces which together once joined Windsor, Ontario to Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

Formerly the primary east–west route across the southern portion of Ontario, most of Highway 2 in Ontario was bypassed by Ontario Highway 401, completed in 1968.

Virtually all of the 837.4 km (520.3 mi) length of Highway 2 was deemed a local route and removed from the provincial highway system on 1 January 1998, with the exception of a 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) section east of Gananoque.

The entire route remains driveable, but as County Road 2 or County Highway 2 in most regions.

County Road 2 takes us through Loyalist Township and the towns of Odessa and Ernestown.

Odessa, originally named Millcreek, was renamed in 1855 by its postmaster to commemorate the 1854 British siege of the Black Sea port at Odessa in the Ukraine during the Crimean War (1853 – 1856). 

Above: Images of Odessa, Ukraine

The village is home to Ernestown Secondary School, which services about 650 students from Loyalist Township (formerly Ernestown Township), Napanee and Stone Mills.

Ernestown Secondary School (ESS) is a Canadian public, comprehensive school located in Odessa.

The school services about 450 students from Loyalist Township, Napanee and Stone Mills.

The town is in the eastern Ontario county of Lennox and Addington approximately 24 kilometers west of the city of Kingston.

The school offers classes for students in grades nine through twelve and is a member school of the Limestone District School Board.

The school motto at ESS is Amor Doctrinae Floreat (Let the love of learning flourish.)

Above: Ernestown Secondary School

As we drive through Odessa, I think of how similar-looking this school is to Laurentian Regional High School where I did my secondary studies in Lachute, Québec.

Both were built in the 1960s and one almost wonders if they were designed and built by the same architect.

My thoughts turn to Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands) and ESS alumni Aaron René Doornekamp, born in Napanee of Dutch heritage.

Doornekamp is a professional basketball player for Iberostar Tenerife of the Liga ACB.

He was one of the greatest players in the history of the Carleton University Ravens men’s college basketball team (2004 – 2009). 

Above: Logo of the Carleton Ravens

(In men’s basketball, the Ravens have won 15 of the last 18 national men’s championships, more than any top division college in Canada or the United States.

The Ravens went on an 87-game winning streak from 2003 to 2006.

They also had a 54-game home winning streak.

The Ravens finished 2nd in the World University Basketball Championships in 2004.)

Doornekamp is also a member of the senior Canadian men’s national team.

At a height of 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) tall, he can play at both the small forward and power forward positions, with power forward being his main position.

I wonder:

Had my folks been not so stingy with letting me join the basketball team in Lachute (10 km away from where we lived in Marelan, which meant having to pick me up by car and fuel costs money) would I have had a sports career as successful as Doornekamp’s?

Like Doornekamp, I too towered over my classmates (6 ft 5 in) and still tower over the heads of many.

Did Doornekamp experience similar emotions to mine in his school years?

Above: Logo of my alma mater, Laurentian Regional High School

After finishing his college career, Doornekamp signed his first pro contract in Italy, with Pepsi Caserta (Campagna, Italy – the toe of the boot that is the Italian peninsula). 

He played three years with the club.

Above: Logo of Pepsi Caserta

While sidelined with injury in the 2012 – 2013 season, Doornekamp was the assistant coach of the McMaster Marauders men’s basketball team.

Above: Logo of the McMaster Marauders, Hamilton, Ontario

In August 2013, he signed with the New Yorker Phantoms Braunschweig (Germany).

In June 2014, he parted ways with them.

Above: Logo (2006 – 2014)

(New Yorker, despite the American-sounding name, is a German clothing retailer headquartered in Braunschweig that primarily addresses the target group of 12- to 39-year-olds.)

On 29 June 2014, he signed with the German club Skyliners of Frankfurt, for the 2014 – 2015 season.

He won the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Europe Cup’s 2015 – 2016 season championship with the team.

In June 2016, Doornekamp left Germany, to sign with the Spanish team Iberostar Tenerife.

He won the Basketball Champions League’s 2016 – 2017 season championship with the team.

He was also named to the BCL Star Lineup Best Team.

Above: Logo of Iberostar Tenerife

On 27 June 2017, Doornekamp officially opted out of his contract with the Spanish team.

The same day, he signed a two-year contract with Valencia Basket.

On July 8, 2019, Doornekamp re-signed with Valencia Basket for another season.

He re-signed with Iberostar Tenerife on 15 July 2020.

With Canada’s senior team, he played at the following tournaments:

• the 2007 Pan American Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

• the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Athens, Greece)

• the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship (San Juan, Puerto Rico)

• the 2010 FIBA World Championship (Istanbul, Turkey)

• the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship (Mara del Plata, Argentina)

• the 2013 FIBA Americas Championship (Caracas, Venezuela)

• the 2015 Pan American Games, where he won a silver medal (Toronto)

• the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, where he won a bronze medal (Mexico City)

Doornekamp was married on 13 July 2013, in Burlington, Ontario, to Jasmyn Richardson.

The couple has two children.

Above: Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario

I wonder:

Beyond height, would Doornekamp and I have much in common to talk about if our paths ever crossed?

Is Doornekamp’s home in Tenerife filled with trophies and medals and memorablia of past athletic achievements like my sprinter cousin’s home?

How must it be for Jasmyn and their children?

Another ESS alumni is Adnan Virk, a Canadian sportscaster for MLB Network and DAZN. 

He previously worked for ESPN and TSN.

Virk also produces and hosts the weekly podcast Cinephile with Adnan Virk show covering cinema news and interviews with entertainment celebrities, as well as co-hosts the football podcast The GM Shuffle with former NFL executive Michael Lombardi.

Virk was born in Toronto to Zakaria and Taherah Virk, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan.

In 1984 the family relocated to Kingston, then in 1989 to Morven, a small town just outside Kingston, where his parents owned and operated a gas station and Zack’s Variety store. 

After graduating from Ernestown Secondary School, where he played basketball and soccer, Virk studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Above: Logo of Ryerson University

From 2003 to 2009, Virk hosted several programs on The Score and was an associate producer for Sportscentre at TSN.

Above: Logo of the Score (2002 – 2013)

He was also the co-host of Omniculture and Bollywood Boulevard at Omni Television.

In 2009, he joined Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) as a host and reporter for Raptors TV, Leafs TV and Gol TV Canada.

In April 2010, Virk joined the ESPN family of stations in Bristol, Connecticut.

After joining ESPN, he became one of three main anchors for Baseball Tonight.

During 2014 spring training, he began calling play-by-play for an ESPN affiliate.

In the baseball off-season, he hosted SportsCenter and Outside the Lines.

He would also fill in for Keith Olbermann on Olbermann.

Above: Keith Olbermann

He was the host of a movie podcast Cinephile on ESPN. 

In addition, he was also the main studio host for ESPN College Football and also hosted College Football Final.

On 3 February 2019, Virk was fired following an investigation regarding leaks of ESPN information to the media.

Virk and ESPN later agreed not to pursue litigation against each other.

In March 2019, it was announced that Virk would host the new MLB studio program ChangeUp for DAZN, a subscription streaming media service based in London.

In addition, Virk appears on MLB Network. 

He also hosts boxing events.

Virk was born to a Pakistani Canadian Ahmadi Muslim family and considers himself a practicing Muslim.

He lives in New Jersey with his wife Eamon, whom he married in 2007.

They have four sons.

ESS has spawned not only athletes or those who cover athletic performance, but as well Gord Downie (1964 – 2017) of the Tragically Hip, and Brett Emmons of the Glorious Sons were alumni of this school in the middle of Nowhere.

(The Tragically Hip’s final tour’s final concert was held at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, on 20 August 2016, and was broadcast and streamed live by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) on television, radio and on the Internet.

It was viewed by an estimated 11.7 million people.

Even I, living in distant Switzerland, heard about this final concert and the demise of Downie to brain cancer on 17 October 2017.)

Above: Gord Downie, 2013

Thoughts of Doornekamp and Virk, Downie and Emmons, remind me that a person can rise above their origins no matter how humble the start.

The township offices and fire hall on Odessa’s Main Street do not suggest fame and fortune nor do they whisper much of a world far beyond Loyalist Township.

There is nothing to my Canadian eyes in Odessa, Ontario, that suggests the exotic.

The quiet streets of Odessa do not feel pregnant with promise.

Above: Odessa’s Main Street

There is a small fairground.

An Ontario Provincial Police detachment serves Highway 401 and home to the Tactics and Rescue Unit of Eastern Ontario.

The water supply of the community of Odessa within the Township of Ernestown was studied in 1972, which led to the planning of infrastructure improvements.

The highest point in the village is the water tower.

Visible for several kilometres in all directions, the water tower has been outfitted as a wireless communications facility.

The village bills itself as “home of the Babcock Mill“, which historically was powered by Millhaven Creek which runs through the heart of Odessa.

The Babcock Mill planing mill and basket factory is the last standing mill, of three, at this Odessa historical site.

Known for its “Babcock baskets”, you can see where John Babcock’s designed and patented basket-making machinery in the early 1900s.

Built in 1856, this historical three-mill site once included a woolen mill (on Factory Street) and a saw mill.

 Above. Babcock Mill

Napanee is a town of nearly 16,000 people, but it feels smaller than that stat.

Napanee is approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi) west of Kingston and is the county seat of Lennox and Addington County.

It is located on the eastern end of the Bay of Quinte,  a long, narrow bay shaped like the letter “Z” on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.

The Bay, as it is known locally, provides some of the best trophy walleye angling in North America, as well as most sport fish common to the Great Lakes.

The bay is subject to algal blooms in late summer. 

Zebra mussels as well as the other invasive species found in the Great Lakes are present.

The Quinte area played a vital role in bootlegging during Prohibition in the United States, with large volumes of liquor being produced in the area, and shipped via boat on the bay to Lake Ontario finally arriving in New York State where it was distributed.

Illegal sales of liquor accounted for many fortunes in and around Belleville.

Tourism in the area is significant, especially in the summer months due to the Bay of Quinte and its fishing, local golf courses, provincial parks, and wineries.

The first recorded settlement in the area of Greater Napanee is Ganneious, an Iroquois village, settled temporarily by the Oneida from 1660 to 1690.

The village was located on or near the Hay Bay area and is one of seven Iroquois villages settled on the northern shores of Lake Ontario in the 17th century.

The exact location of the village has not been determined.

The area was settled by Loyalists (Americans during the American Revolution who did not wish to stop being British subjects) in 1784.

Napanee was first incorporated in 1854.

The first Loyalists settlers arrived at Adolphustown on 15 June 1784.

Their landing spot and site of the first Loyalist cemetery in the area has been preserved by the Loyalists.

Napanee developed at the site of a waterfall, the head of navigation, on the Napanee River, where early industry could utilize the power potential of the River.

Above: Napanee Falls

The River (25 km / 15 miles long) transported logs from the interior north (up past the village of Colebrook) of the town. 

Sawmilling, gristmilling and other farm service industries were established.

Napanee was first known as Clarksville after Robert Clark, who built a grist mill there.

Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, practised law in Napanee.

Above: Sir John A. Macdonald (1815 – 1891)

Napanee’s downtown core (along Dundas Street) is also lined with historical buildings dating back to the 1800s.

The Town of Greater Napanee’s Self-Guided Historic Walking Tour provides locations and information on these sites as well as other historical locations nearby.

At 180 Elizabeth Street, the visitor can find a ball of wood fiber paper.

This ball at the Allan Macpherson House (Lennox and Addington Museum) was preserved by John Thomson after his first successful attempt to duplicate the wood pulp process he had learned in the United States before settling here.

In 1872, on the Napanee River, Thomson built the first mill in Ontario designed to make paper from wood pulp only.

Also in the Museum is a British army lieutenant’s account of a 1784 trip up the St. Lawrence River from Sillery (near Québec City) with Napanee’s first white settlers, a group of Loyalists.

The Museum is a many-windowed Georgian mansion built in 1826, reflecting the affluence of its original owner, Allan Macpherson, the town’s first industrialist.

Furniture includes a Regency couch and a Sheridan love seat, both dating from 1830.

Above: Interior of the Macpherson House

Half-cousin to first Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, Allan Macpherson operated the grist and saw mills at Napanee Falls starting in 1818.

For almost three decades, Macpherson was one of Lennox and Addington’s most civic-minded and politically active entrepreneurs.

He created fine-quality flour shipped to Montreal and England and became Postmaster at Napanee in 1820. 

Macpherson’s gentry-inspired house, built north of Napanee Falls, remained in the family until 1896, long after he had returned to Kingston.

In 1962, the Lennox and Addington Historical Society began a visionary labour of love to restore this home to its 19th century character.

True to its roots, the Macpherson House has been restored to its original splendour both inside and out. 

The Macpherson House now functions as additional gallery space for the Lennox & Addington Museum and Archives.

Above: Allan Macpherson House (Lennox & Addington County Museum and Archives)

Two blocks away is a privately owned house that was the Red Tavern, built in 1810.

The white-columned town hall dates from 1856, the courthouse from 1864.

Above: Napanee Town Hall

Above: Lexington & Addington County Courthouse, Napanee

Gibbard’s, the oldest furniture factory in Ontario, has operated since 1835.

For over 180 years, the Gibbard Furniture Factory has been an iconic landmark in Napanee.

It’s a focal point for the town that’s rich in history.

Honouring this legacy, it has been transformed into a highly anticipated waterfront community where contemporary amenities enhance the charm of small-town simplicity.

With retail opportunities and a platform for local gatherings, Gibbard District is more than a residential space where every suite is just steps away from a private kayak dock.

It’s a vibrant hub for families, friends, and neighbours, one where they can share the moments that make lasting memories.

Built on a historic foundation, Gibbard District is a local destination that will inject energy and opportunity into Napanee.

Above: Gibbard’s District

Napanee unfortunately shares the fate of far too many towns in Ontario.

Step away from its historic quarters and you find yourself in zones of shopping malls and fast food joints, gas stations and repair garages.

The S Family lives just beyond this zone.

We have burritos at a Quesadas before heading to their trailer home.

(Does Napanee have a local dish?)

J and V and K and I share a common problem of being heavier than we should be.

We also share the seductive sorrow of turning to things that help us only if we allow them to.

We are unwell each in our own way.

We fear that which we cannot define.

For V and K it is the uncertainty of the unknown.

I fear familarity and the fetters that fealty forces upon its followers.

K‘s phobias are more real than reality.

K is unmotivated to change her clothes, to change her ways.

Her fears paralyze her.

For J it is the fear of not being of use.

J needs to be needed and he has always remained the loyal servant in their Majesties’ service.

J is nearly 20 years my senior, V is 14 years older than I, K is a little over half my age.

And yet J still caters to V and K, when he is at an age and body condition that suggests he should finally be the one who is pampered.

I understand J only too well.

I will surrender to aging only when I am physically incapacitated and unwell to fend and fetch for myself.

Neither J nor I plan to exit life without a struggle.

But I see the tolls of age upon his face and frame and in his movements.

Problem is he has been of such use, such utility, that I fear that their Majesties may find themselves unable to function without him should J fall and not rise again.

His love for his ladies is too great in that their reliance on him has diminished their abilities to become self-reliant.

He is butler, valet and chauffeur.

He lifts the heavy objects, he does the dirty deeds, he is man about the house.

He remains through his pension the breadwinner of this collective.

I have always been impressed by J’s quiet strength, his unending devotion to the damsels that are his destiny.

I have always marvelled at men who presevere despite every incentive to quit.

J is Endicott.

Endicott’s up by 5 o’clock
Endicott’s givin’ it all he got
Endicott’s job is six to nine but
Endicott’s home by nine O five
Endicott helps to cook the steak
Endicott helps to wash the plates
Endicott puts the kids to bed
Endicott reads a book to them

(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)

Endicott loves Tribena sole
Endicott puts her on a pedestal
Endicott’s wish is her command but
Endicott don’t make no demands
Endicott’s always back in time
Endicott’s not the cheatin’ kind
Endicott’s full of compliment
Endicott’s such a gentleman

(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)

Cause I’m free
Free of any made-to-order liabilities
Thank God I’m free
Cos it’s hard enough for me
To take care of me, oh-oh

Endicott’s carryin’ a heavy load
Endicott never really ever moans
Endicott’s not a wealthy guy but
Endicott pays the bills on time
Endicott’s got ideas and plans
Endicott’s what you call a real man
Endicott always will provide ’cause
Endicott is the family type

(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)

Cause I’m free
Freer than a pirate on a frigate out at sea
Thank God I’m free
Driftin’ all around just like a tumbleweed, oh-oh

Maybe I need me someone
Someone who isn’t undone
Maybe an older woman
Will tolerate me
Maybe that certain someone
Older and wiser woman
Maybe the perfect someone
To satisfy me

Endicott keeps his body clean
Endicott don’t use nicotine
Endicott don’t drink alcohol
Endicott use no drug at all
Endicott don’t eat any sweet
Endicott don’t eat piggy feet
Endicott’s frame is mighty strong
Endicott make love hard and long

(Why can’t you be like Endicott?)

Endicott loves Tribena sole
Endicott walks her to the sto’
Endicott likes to hold her hand
Endicott’s proud to be her man
Endicott stands for decency
Endicott means formality
Endicott’s the epitome
Endicott stands for quality

Endicott
Endicott
Endicott
Endicott

I’ll never be, I’ll never be like Endicott

Said I’m not.

I’ll never be, I’ll never be like Endicott.

No Endicott in me.

There are three things (and three fingers pointing back at myself) men need to understand if they are to get it right with women:

1. Standing up to your wife or partner as an equal without intimidating her or being intimidated by her.
2. Knowing the essential differences in male and female sexuality and so mastering the art of the chase
3. Realizing she is not your mother and so making it through the long dark night

Most modern men, myself included, when faced with their wife’s anger, complaints or general unhappiness, simply submit, mumble an apology and tiptoe away.

(Which, of course, is still preferable to being the kind of man who handles his differences with violence and intimidation.)

If most modern men grumble, they do so into their beards.

For the most part we act conciliatory and apologize for being such dopes.

“I’m sorry, dear!“

“Yes, She Who Must Be Obeyed!“

Everywhere, you look around,the “husband as a lovable dope” is an agreed-upon type.

But real life doesn’t work like the comics, TV shows or movies.

Millions of men who adopt this stance find that it rarely, if ever leads, to her happiness or his.

Women with dopey husbands are not happy.

Actually they become more dissatisfied, more complaining.

Some psychologists suggest that, often without even realizing why, the henpecking behaviour escalates – for a simple reason.

Deep down, they say, women want to be met by someone strong, as strong as many of them have to be outside the relationship.

They want to be debated with, not just agreed with, for they are not always right (despite what they may say or think).

(To be fair, they are often right.)

Women hunger for men who can take the initiative sometimes, make some decisions, tell them when they are not making sense.

It’s no fun being the only adult in the room.

How can a woman relax or feel safe, when the man she is teamed with pretends to be weaker and softer than he can be, just for the sake of peace and harmony between them?

So many strong, capable women who once they finally find the sensitive, caring New Age man they thought they wanted now find themselves bored stiff with his complacency.

Above: Scene from Bedazzled, where Elliot Richards (Brendon Fraser) is rejected by Alison Gardner (Frances O’Connor) for being too sensitive

So many decent men are able to say to their women:

“I feel your pain.

I consider your life as important as mine.

I will take care of you and comfort you.”

So many men give so much of themselves to their relationships and in the process lose the self that she fell in love with.

They can no longer say what they want and stick to it.

It is that sense of resolve that drew her to him.

It is that sense of resolve he sold out for peace with her.

One of the things that marks out a mature man versus a male still not there is the discovery that women are as human as men.

Sometimes they are dead right and sometimes completely wrong.

Women are not devils (though they certainly have their moments) nor angels (despite how angelic they may appear, despite how divine they look).

They are mere normal, fallible human beings.

Being married means a man must keep his head on straight.

So many men just drift along and let women decide everything.

Marriage is not an excuse to stop thinking.

A woman can be as wrong, as immature, as perverse, as prejudiced, as competitive, or as bloody-minded as any man can.

Sometimes a man and a woman will see things differently because men and women are different.

What is right for her may often be wrong for him and vice versa.

Women often don’t understand men,

(Hell, often we of either gender don’t understand ourselves.)

You have to keep negotiating, for avoidance will not bring harmony.

To have a happy relationship, a man has to be able to state his point of view, to debate, to leave aside hysteria, to push on until something has been resolved.

To be fair, it is frightening to find strength, to speak up for oneself knowing that this may lead to confrontation with someone you fear losing.

But all that is gained by retreat or automatic compliance she that she enjoys having the upper hand and being able to manipulate her man into doing what she wants, until this becomes so facile that it becomes boring to her and futile for him.

It is not that a woman wishes a man harm (well, not always) it is just that boundaries need to be set in regards to what to what she can or cannot do regarding what is his responsibility to himself.

Often it is enough to say:

“Hey, you are crowding me.“

“Don’t make up my mind for me.“

“Let me choose my own clothes.“

(Good luck with that last one, lads!)

“When my King is weak, I ask my wife or children what is the right thing to do.

I have had strange adventures in buying sweaters.” (Robert Bly)

It is a mistake to think that a perfect marriage is harmonious, sweet and loving.

If a couple is happy 100% of the time, chances are someone is lying,

The passionate, heated European-style marriage has more going for it.

Carl Jung said:

“American marriages are the saddest in the whole world, because the man does all his fighting at the office.”

Above: Carl Jung (1875 – 1961)

Conscious fighting is a great help in relationships between men and women.

When a man and a woman are standing toe-to-toe arguing, what is it that the man wants?

Often he does not know.

He wants the conflict to end, because he is afraid, because he does not know how to fight, because he “doesn’t believe in fighting“, because his boundaries are so poorly maintained that every sword thrust penetrates to very centre of his soul.

Men are afraid because they sense that both men and women have the capacity for blind rage which achieves nothing.

“I have had it with men!“, she says.

“Women!“, he cries, “Can’t live with them, can’t live without them!“

Such frustration, to need someone so much and yet…..

All men hate all women some of the time and all women hate all men some of the time.

There is a long history of male-bashing by women and female-bashing by men.

But boundaries must be set to ensure that this hate is not more than is deserved.

We must fight, debate and be true to ourselves, otherwise our closeness is merely an act.

But in fighting, we must show great restraint and respect for one another.

Above: Audrey Woods (Julianne Moore) / Daniel Rafferty (Pierce Brosnan), Laws of Attraction (2004)

And it is here where the outsider to someone else’s relationship knows not how to react.

I judge the Family S by my own standards.

I don’t see them as they may see themselves.

I see them as I wish they were, not as they are.

I see the present moment, not the events that led them here.

I feel that their situation is sad.

Too much TV watching, too much game playing, too little reading, too little exercise, lives unlived.

I find myself repulsed, for I see this potential in myself and I silently scream against this.

The trailer home is small and I am relegated to a fold-out sofa within a space cluttered by the unnecessary stuff that people eagerly collect, more to possess than to have permanent purpose.

K‘s cat does not seek my company.

V‘s cat and I share the warmth of the sofa bed.

No words are needed between us.

The cat demands nothing from me but respect and restraint.

I expect the same from the cat.

It is peace in our time and a silent night.

I read the Napanee Beaver, hoping it will distract me from my depression.

I learn that:

• Saturday 4 January saw Napanee’s first major snowfall of 2020

• a fellow named Ernie will celebrate his 90th birthday in ten days’ time

• Greater Napanee water rates could rise by 2.1% this year

• bus charters and Thai massages and financial advice and all manner of goods and services are available in Napanee

• the Napanee roller-rink celebrated its grand opening on Friday 3 January in the old arena

• Life Labs experienced a cyber-attack, YOUR information is out there!

• there are church services this week at 16 different churches for one God only, pick your own road to redemption

• opinions are expressed that women’s hockey does not get the same amount of respect as men’s hockey

• Drew Daywalt’s My Tooth Is Lost and Cassandra Clare’s Ghosts of the Shadow Market and John E. Douglas’ The Killer Across the Table and Julie Andrews’ Home Work: A Memoir of my Hollywood Years and Jojo Moyes’ The Giver of Stars are well worth a read (according to the county’s friendly librarians)

• eight public notices indicate that the town hall is still functioning in 2020
• 42 properties are available to purchase NOW
• hockey deserves at least four articles in a weekly newspaper (This is Canada, after all, eh?)
• the Lennox Community Theatre is holding auditions (The Dixie Swim Club)

• the Lennox Agricultural Society is holding its annual meeting (I wonder what they could possibly discuss: “Hey, Joe, how was your harvest on the back forty?“)

• the Ontario SPCA’s Lennox & Addington Branch in Napanee is ready to spay and neuter your pets (Look at Marlon, a six-year-old domestic shorthair in the cropped photo. I wonder how he feels.)

• scooters, firewood, new and used appliances, barn repairs, livestock, boilers, water softeners, dog grooming, cars and trucks, rooms at the retirement home, apartments, real estate, mortgages, firearms courses (What do you want?)
• five cards of thanks, six memorials, 15 obituaries (and a partridge in a pear tree)
• the same classified page offers both baby photos and cremations, life and death encapsulated in simplicity

• A & W offers teen burgers, chubby chicken burgers, bacon & eggers, mozza burgers, three-strip combos….its own products, its own coupons, its own jargon (How do teenagers and chubby chickens find themselves sacrificed and sandwiched?)

• tours from Kristine Geary’s Fully Escorted Maple Leaf Tours to Myrtle Beach, NYC, Atlantic City, Nashville, Memphis, Cape Cod, DC, Newfoundland, the Caribbean, Alaska, Bermuda, Hawaii and mysteriously the words “Come From Away“, which confuses me…..shouldn’t it be “go away“?

The cat purrs and lies across my chest.

Reading rendered impossible.

Lights out.

The purring before the loss of consciousness.

Napanee, Ontario, Friday 10 January 2020

Another sad day in the news and too much time on my hands to read it:

• After Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was downed by an Iranian missile, Iranian authorities rejected this theory.

At a news conference on Friday, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation (CAOI) chief Ali Abedzadeh repeated his view that a missile was not the cause of the crash.

“The thing that is clear to us and that we can say with certainty is that this plane was not hit by a missile,” he told reporters.

“As I said last night, this plane for more than one and a half minutes was on fire and was in the air, and the location shows that the pilot was attempting to return.“

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had received intelligence from multiple sources indicating the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, adding that it was possible that this was unintentional.

“This reinforces the need for a thorough investigation,” he said.

“Canadians have questions and they deserve answers.“

Victims of the crash included 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians and 11 Ukrainians as well as nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany.

But he said it was too early to apportion blame or draw any conclusions and refused to go into detail about the evidence.

(It isn’t clear whether the loved ones of the 82 Iranians, the 11 Ukrainians and the nationals from Sweden, the UK, Afghanistan and Germany deserve answers.)

• A bombing claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS / ISIL) at a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, killed at least 15 people and wounded 18 others, three days after a motorcycle bombing in the city killed two.

Above: Flag of Pakistan

A suicide bombing took place inside a Taliban-run mosque located in Ghousabad neighbourhood during Magrib (first morning) prayer in Quetta’s Satellite Town area. 

The bomb had been planted inside a seminary in the mosque. 

Among the dead was a Deputy Superintendent of Police, the apparent target of the attack, along with 14 civilians.

At least 19 others were injured.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing.

They said the bombing caused 60 casualties, including 20 dead.

(It is so easy to forget that those who cause death and destruction in the name of Islam often target more Muslims than non-Muslims.

No matter how often the name of God is used, its use does not make an act of violence godly.)

• the Iraqi cleric and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani condemned both the US and Iran over the escalation of conflict in Iraq, saying it shows blatant disregard for Iraqi sovereignty and the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Above: Ali al-Sistani

A lot of war talk, a lot of sabre-rattling, a lot of innocent blood waiting to be spilled by young folks sacrificed in the name of nations, represented by leaders who remain far from any chance that they themselves are in danger.

Fear-mongering, defence of country, words like honour and glory, lives betrayed so the powerful can maintain or increase their power.

What baffles me is that we are supposed to believe that Iraq is a threat to the USA.

Above: Location of Iraq

Let’s compare, shall we?

Military power ranking: US #1 / Iraq #53

Population: US 329 million / Iraq 40 million

Manpower: US 144 million / Iraq 16 million

Fit for duty: US 119 million / Iraq 13 million

Military personnel: US 1.2 million / Iraq 165,000

Reserve forces: US 360,000 / Iraq 0

Tanks: US 6,287 / Iraq 309

Armored vehicles: US 39,000 / Iraq 4,700

Self-propelled artillery: US 992 / Iraq 44

Towed artillery: US 864 / Iraq 120

Rocket projectors: US 1,056 / Iraq 30

Air strength: US 13,400 / Iraq 327

Fighters: US 2,362 / Iraq 26

Attack aircraft: US 2,831 / Iraq 59

Transport aircraft: US 1,153 / Iraq 24

Trainer aircraft: US 2,853 / Iraq 78

Helicopters: US 5,760 / Iraq 179

Naval strength: US 415 / Iraq 60

Frigates: US 22 / Iraq 0

Destroyers: US 68 / Iraq 0

Corvettes: US 15 / Iraq 0

Submarines: US 68 / Iraq 0

Patrol craft: US 13 / Iraq 25

Mine craft: US 11 / Iraq 0

Oil production: US 9.3 million barrels / Iraq 4.4 million barrels

Oil consumption: US 825 million barrels / Iraq 19 million barrels

Oil reserves: US 142.5 million barrels / Iraq 36.5 million barrels

Labour force. US 160.4 million / Iraq 8.9 million

Merchant marine: US 3,611 / Iraq 77

Ports / terminals: US 33 / Iraq 3

Roads: US 6,586,610 km / Iraq 44,900 km

Railroads: US 224,792 km / Iraq 2,272 km

Airports: US 13,513 / Iraq 102

Defence budget: US $716 billion / Iraq $6 billion

External debt: US $17 trillion / Iraq $73 billion

Foreign gold: US $123 billion / Iraq $48 billion

Purchasing power: US $19 trillion / Iraq $680 billion

Nuclear warheads: US 4,000 / Iraq 0

By the numbers, which country is the greatest threat to the other?

I may not find the idea of the theocratic government of Iraq a comfortable notion, but let us not paint the US as an innocent victim.

Above: Imam Ali Mosque, Najaf, Iraq: One of the holiest sites in Shia Islam

• An 11-year-old student opened fire at his school in Torreón, Mexico, killing a teacher and wounding six others before committing suicide.

At least two people have been killed and six injured after an 11-year-old boy entered a school in northern Mexico with two handguns and opened fire.

The shooting took place on Friday morning in the city of Torreón, in Coahuila state.

Above: Images of Torréon, Mexico

One of the dead was reportedly a female teacher, with some reports suggesting she had been the shooter’s target.

The other was the shooter, who police said had killed himself.

A graphic photograph published by Mexican news outlets showed what appeared to be the body of a young boy splayed out in a pool of blood, with a handgun lying on the ground.

Police chief Maurilio Ochoa told reporters six people had been wounded – five schoolchildren and a teacher – with two in a “delicate” condition in hospital.

Ochoa said the shooter was believed to have entered his school with two weapons: a small-calibre handgun and a high-calibre weapon.

The boy’s parents and grandmother, with whom he lived, had said they had no idea how he acquired the guns.

“This is really regrettable,” Ochoa said, as anxious parents gathered outside the school’s entrance.

He suggested backpack searches might be needed to prevent future tragedies.

Torreón’s mayor, Jorge Zermeño, told reporters the causes of the attack were still unclear.

“They tell me he was a boy who had very good grades, who lives – lived – with his grandmother and who certainly suffered some kind of family problem.”

He added:

“It is very serious, so, so sad, and lamentable to see a primary school student do something like this.”

In an interview with the Mexican news channel Milenio TV, Zermeño called the shooting an “atypical situation” that did not speak to the “peaceful society” that was Torreón.

“This is a city that likes to work and likes to live in peace,” he said.

Above: Jorge Zermeno

Coahuila state’s governor, Miguel Ángel Riquelme, told reporters there were suspicions the shooter had been influenced by a video game called Natural Selection.

Above: Miguel Ángel Riquelme

Before carrying out the shooting the boy – who has not been identified – reputedly told classmates:

“Today is the day.”

Despite suffering some of the world’s highest murder rates, school shootings of the kind that blight the US remain relatively rare in Latin America.

• Thousands of people protested in Australia, calling for the resignation or ouster of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, accusing him of negligence over the Australian bushfires.

The Sack ScoMo protests, organised by Uni Students for Climate Justice, were held in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne — where the rain did little to dampen the mood of the large crowd.

They went ahead despite calls from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Victoria Police who expressed concern that police would need to be pulled away from bushfires to monitor the large crowds.

Above: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews

A sea of umbrellas could be seen along the steps of Victoria’s State Library and protesters spilt across Swanston Street and towards Melbourne Central Station.

Some used megaphones to speak to small groups who sheltered from the rain.

T-shirts, selling for $40 each, read F*** SCOMO.

Placards help by protesters read:

“We deserve more than your negligence.”

“This is ecosystem collapse.”

“We can’t breathe.”

Protesters told news.com.au they were pleased with the turnout.

“There are so many people here, despite the weather.

It proves that people really care about the cause and are tired of waiting for action,” one young woman said.

In Sydney, thousands more gathered outside Sydney Town Hall to hear from speakers.

Organisers Uni Students for Climate Justice wrote on Facebook they want to “make the climate criminals pay” and “keep up the pressure”.

It comes as NSW authorities warn of a “long night” with almost a dozen fires flaring up across the state.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said besides the two new fires, everything else was playing out as forecast with the hot and windy conditions on Friday.

But she urged communities remain vigilant.

“In essence, we know it’s going to be a long and difficult night,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We won’t know the extent of the impact of these fires until early tomorrow morning.”

Above: New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian

Starting from September 2019, fires heavily impacted various regions of the state of New South Wales, with more than 100 fires burnt across the state.

In Victoria, large areas of forest burnt out of control for four weeks before the fires emerged from the forests in late December, taking lives, threatening many towns.

Significant fires occurred in South Australia and parts of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Moderately affected areas were southeastern Queensland and areas of southwestern Western Australia, with a few areas in Tasmania being mildly impacted.

On 12 November 2019, catastrophic fire danger was declared in the Greater Sydney region for the first time since the introduction of this level in 2009 and a total fire ban was in place for seven regions of New South Wales, including Greater Sydney.

The Illawarra and Greater Hunter areas also experienced catastrophic fire dangers, as did other parts of the state, including the already fire ravaged parts of northern New South Wales.

Above: Images of 2019 – 2020 Australian bush fires

The political ramifications of the fire season have been significant.

A decision by the New South Wales government to cut funding to fire services based on budget estimates, as well as a holiday taken by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, during a period in which two volunteer firefighters died, and his perceived apathy towards the situation, resulted in controversy.

Above: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison

• Author and self-help guru Marianne Williamson dropped out of the US Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Williamson said that her lack of elective office experience does not disqualify her from being President.

She implies that not having held office before is, in part, what makes her uniquely qualified.

She stated that the belief that only experienced politicians can lead the US is “preposterous“, arguing that experienced politicians led the US into unfounded wars, extreme income inequality and environmental harm.

Above: Marianne Williamson

She has called for her expertise in empathy, differentiated thinking, and political vision to be valued on par with elected experience and cited President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 statement that:

“The Presidency is not merely an administrative office.

That’s the least of it.

It is preeminently a place of moral leadership.”

Above: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)

“Throughout her campaign, Williamson talks more about ideas than plans.

Some people might see that as an inability to lead, but when inciting the darkest parts of humanity helped win the previous election, trying to appeal to the light side doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.

She’s doing her best to move the conversation to one of peace and love instead of anger and division.

What is so laughable about that?

Campaign promises – plans for Medicare, plans for how to curb climate change – are great.

But promises without a fundamental shift in thinking will simply become empty promises.

Williamson is trying to teach us that our mind-set needs a new baseline, one of true empathy, so that it becomes impossible to deny people basic health care, so that Americans would never for one second think that separating breastfeeding mothers from their infants at the border is in any way acceptable.”

(Kerry Pieri, Harper’s Bazaar)

Williamson believes that the Presidency of Donald Trump inspired increased visibility and political participation of White nationalists and is therefore unique and requires “more” than past political experience to be defeated:

When we look at the role that emotion plays in White Nationalism, the role of emotion in those movements is undeniable.

Hate is powerful and hate is contagious.

And it is not enough to meet it simply with an intellectual analysis or rational argument.

The only way you can defeat them is by overriding them through an equal force is exerted when people are awakened to those positive feelings and positive emotions.

Williamson stressed that she meets all the requirements to be President as laid out by the US Constitution and implied that those who dismiss candidates without elective office experience are elitists impeding the country’s democratic process and values.

She has appealed for a process that excludes media favouritism in favor of bringing forth candidates to voters, allowing those candidates to “do their best” and then “allowing voters to decide for themselves through their own intelligent analysis“.

If the Founders wanted to say ‘That Presidential candidate needs to be a governor or a senator, or a congressman or a lawyer,’ then they would have.

But they didn’t, because they were leaving it to every generation to determine for itself the skillset that that generation feels is most necessary in order to address the challenges of their time.

I think we need more than someone who’s just qualified because they understand how Washington works.

We need someone today who understands how “we” work.

And I think my 35-year career gives me those qualifications.

I must admit I am torn between the idea that if any American wants to be President desire should be enough, and the importance of political experience.

• The Tunisian Parliament votes to reject a cabinet proposed by Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli.

President Kais Saied has ten days to select someone else to build a new government.

I can’t imagine forming a cabinet is easy.

Above: Flag of Tunisia

Above: Location of Tunisia

• Omani statet television announced the death of the Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said al Said (79).

At the time of his death, Said was the longest serving head of state in the Middle East and Arab world.

Above: Qaboos bin Said al-Said (1940 – 2020)

The high military council of the Sultan of Oman’s Armed Forces called on the Omani royal family to convene to name a successor to the late Sultan within three days.

A three-day period of national mourning was declared.

Above: Flag of Oman

Above: Location of Oman

I compare my life with world events since I arrived in Napanee:

• There is little risk of being attacked by anyone.
• I fortunately knew no one aboard Flight 752 nor in the Iranian bus crash.
• I have no stake in the future of Nissan nor have I ever met Ghosan (or anyone famous for that matter).
• I have no stake in Brexit though I do think it is a bad idea.
• I knew no one in the Quetta bombing nor in the Torréon shootings.
• The bush fires in Australia are interesting and global warming affects the globe, but beyond this I am uninvolved.
• The US elections are interesting, but I am neither an American nor a resident in America.
• Politics elsewhere in the world are worthwhile watching, but folks in Tunisia and Oman care little about what a Canadian residing in Switzerland thinks.

Instead I watch with sadness the activities of the family S.

Happily, Big J is not as obsessed with games and TV as the females in the place.

In the early afternoon J and I walk to A & W.

I had forgotten how much I missed A & W root beer.

A few hours later I retrace our steps to the creek J had showed me and then treat myself at the local Denny’s.

In the evening, cabbie A with her daughter S show up and more games are played.

S is like my cousin Steve, a natural winner in any competition.

It is easy to love folks like Steve, except when competiting against them.

Being winter, it is difficult to play tourist in Napanee.

Being five years apart and away from the family S means escape must be done in a manner that does not offend.

There is a great irony that dominates my thoughts before the cat and I return to the sofa bed.

I am leaving as planned tomorrow for Toronto.

Above: Images of Toronto

It will again be years before I see the family S again (barring disease or disaster unforeseen).

I am simultaneously relieved and anxious to be leaving.

I love these people and yet they fill me with sadness.

So much wasted potential, I think.

They are my soul’s mirror.

I am discomfited.

Napanee to Kingston, Ontario, Saturday 11 January 2020

48 hours it has been between arrival and departure at the station.

I loathe myself and my eagerness to leave.

Before we packed J, V, K, her cat and I into the family car, I gave prefunctionary presents of what I had on hand that I acquired and carried since my return to Canada nine days ago.

It is a drizzling grey day that matches my mood.

My mood lifts at seeing Canada geese in a Kingston park.

Shouldn’t they have already flown down south?

We drive by the Kingston Penitentary, still impressive, still imposing.

Above: Kingston Pentientary

Somewhere on the way we stop for milkshakes (in January!).

At the convenience store next door, I buy today’s Kingston Whig Standard newspaper and two magazines on writing (something to read on the train ride to Toronto).

As K‘s cat needs medical attention (It won’t eat as it should.) I am left alone at the station one hour before departure, a farewell that felt forced, I fear my face telegraphed my feelings.

As I wait for the train, I eat the sandwiches that Big J made me last night (ham and cheddar upon leaves of lettuce between slices of dry bread).

I hope that the Napanee Sadness will eventually fade.

All I know is that as much as I love the family S, as much as they are my family, I do not belong with them.

The skies are grey, within and without.

Sources: Wikipedia / Google / YouTube / http://www.lyrics.com / The Napanee Beaver, 9 January 2020 / Reader’s Digest Explore Canada / Steve Biddulph, Manhood / Frank Bodin, Do it, with love / Thomas Girst and Magnus Resch, 100 Secrets of the Art World / Esther Vilar, The Manipulated Man