Robin's Hope - A Canadian Observation

Such sentiments as this make me really sad. I felt the same when reading George Grant's <i>Lament</i> first time; just like I felt real anger when reading David Orchard's <i>Fight for Canada</i> (so much so, that I've still got to read the last two chapters). Responsible government is supposed to give us governments that represent the good of the community - I almost despair at the cupidity and stupidity of our public persons, whether in Canada, the UK, or Australia (New Zealand seems to being doing OK for the moment).

The situation is sad. We keep hearing that it isn't this or that person's fault, or that nature is to blame for our woes. It isn't what life throws at us that is within our power, but our reaction to it is.

So I was inspired by the little robin who has been coming to my front steps for 5 years now. The first year they worked like mad and built a nest, but they weren't very careful and it was teetering off the edge they built it on. A strong wind came a long and it was destroyed. The next year they were back and they rebuilt from the old mess of twigs. I watched as they patched it with mud, it was quite solid and in went the eggs, until a very large crow landed on the eaves, stuck its long beak around the corner and smashed all the little blue eggs. They were out on my front lawn screaming their guts out. I cried. My husband put up an piece of blue plastic(an old egg crate, sure looks like hell, not good for the real estate market, but who cares?) to protect them from predators. Then the 3rd year came and about 4 babies were hatched. 4th year 5 babies and this year 3 beautiful little chicks are stretching their wings under my front porch, today they are about ready to leave the nest.

It is the most encouraging thing to watch. The mother doesn't do this all alone. There is a team that builds the nest, feeds the young etc. So it took two failures before they had success. They don't have the intelligence to ask why, nor do they have time to complain much. They build and rebuild. We need to do the same, regardless of how many times they smash our nest egg, or how many forces of nature hit us, we can never lose hope. Robin's hope is my hope!

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

<p><b>Very good!</b> The Oh Canada part got me... I moved from BC to Alberta last year and miss my Beautiful BC immensely. My brother who, still lives in BC, is always talking about the big push to log off the beetle infested wood, (he's all for it) but I can't help but think that it's all just a ruse to get the public on board with raping our forests. I know there is a beetle problem but I also know that it was caused by global warming and exacerbated by gov't neglect - they cancelled the fall & burn program which is the best way of dealing with it - and that by transporting the beetle infested logs down the highways, they are merely spreading the beetles as they come out of the logs to fly off and find new trees to infest.</p> <p>Anyway, if you use Google Earth and look almost anywhere in the province, you see the devastation to the forests. I used to work in the forest industry, and have always been a proponent of "sustainable forestry" but my definition of that is obviously different from that of the BC gov't.</p> <p>As I said, I miss BC a lot and will be going home in a few years but I wonder now what I'll be going home to.</p><p>---<br>Canada for Canadians