Sick in Sudbury

On our way home from the east. Spent the night in Sudbury. Spartan motel with a sullen and unresponsive landlady. Seems to fit a grimy mining town. Not impressed! Ann has grabbed a touch of pneumonia; I found a dry cough, sore throat and complaining stomach. More not impressed!

Been dreaming all night of writing mixed with travel. Seemed to make sense at the time, but a bizarre jumble in fading retrospect. Clearly sick dreams. Ann and I took turns coughing, checking the time. Long night; now about 5 a.m.

Otherwise, everything is fine. Car still running, uneventful journey so far. Next stop Thunder Bay tonight, hope to be home about Wednesday supper time. Not too much communication till then—I don’t type and drive; probably a law against it anyway.

The fog of driving and sickness obscures future objectives; it’s all about now. I’m assuming God is still mixed up in all this. Looking forward to better contact with Him and you in time, and restoring my normal, if truncated, clarity! All in His time.

Bridges

Driving across Canada, road works slowed us up at regular intervals, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. While hold-ups are frustrating, I noticed that most of them occurred on bridges. Driving over a bridge is a bit like flying—no firm ground underneath if anything goes wrong.

With bridge collapses occurring in Montreal in recent years, and sudden closure of the Mercier Bridge due to gusset plate corrosion in the last few days, my daughter says she is afraid driving the overpasses in Montreal.

Rust in a steel structure, especially in a humid environment is always a hazard, and apart from replacement, remedial work is difficult. Concrete bridges fail because concrete, not according to specification, shrinks and allows moisture to attack the steel reinforcing. The reinforcing bars may not be placed correctly or even missing, reducing ability to support the structure.

Some bridges have a forest of scaffolding holding up the ends of bridges restricting the flow through. Some overpasses have rusting reinforcing steel showing where concrete has spalled off, and some patching looks amateurish—perhaps temporary? But, despite the delays, I’m only too happy to see remedial work being done on road bridges across the country.

It makes me think of the repeated and failed systems of thought put in place to replace Christianity. I recall feeling a greater sense of security growing up in England during the Second World War. Western society then was a Christian culture; unlike today when what we believe is an chaotic smorgasbord of self generated Ideas.

It struck me that these decaying bridges are symbols of the bridges of life. Too often, we ignore the warning s that life is out of control until it collapses. And again, too often, it is patched up with the same tired old ideas that caused the breakdown in the first place.

Bridges back to a secure life, even in a world of chaos can only be found in a return to our creator. He has provided all that is necessary to renew life in the sacrifice of His Son for our failure. I don’t understand why his offer is continually rejected for the concocted ideas of our own .

Signs of Hope?

I suspect that after the riot arrests in Vancouver this week, the cries of police brutality will again ring out from the hooligans that trashed much of downtown.

General thuggery and mayhem is apparently the right of delinquents who seek to indulge in it, and experience suggests it is doubtful any justice of a simple “punishment that fits the crime” variety will be meted out.

However, the response of citizens to clean up the mess is a clear indication of disgust at the senseless vandalism by the general population, but a also desire show care and respect for the city and its businesses. It is also a slap in the face for the distorted adolescent behaviour that caused it.

But perhaps, it is the tearful apology by one of the perpetrators that brings the greatest hope. It appears others are following. Genuine remorse and repentance is in short supply, and any indication of it is one small step for humankind.

Family

My blogging is erratic this week as Ann and I are travelling and lack of time and internet interfere with our schedule. But as we visit family, I continue a journey of surprise. First, I do not understand why family relationships should be so close. After all, they are individual persons like anyone else, why should we be attracted to them more than others.

Of course, there are some, perhaps many, families that live at enmity with one another, and there are friends who become as close as family. But we all sense the priority that family has in the world’s pecking order and fighting or ignoring family members is not the way it should be.

In fact, family ties are created by God to illustrate the relation of members of the Trinity with each other, but also God’s relationship to us; He longs for us to be part of his family. Feuding families are the anomaly that illustrates our fallenness.

Second, I did not expect the enjoyment that Ann and I receive from our family. From just the two of us, our direct family and spouses now number about twenty. I say about twenty, for others are on the way! And for someone like me who doesn’t plan life far ahead, family, however natural it is, comes as a surprise.

Why do Ann and I drive 3600 kilometres across Canada, or fly regularly to England and New Zealand? Certainly not for the sake of our health, which occasionally precludes such trips. But the warmth and pleasure we receive far outweighs any inconvenience.

I suppose the greatest surprise is that family members are as pleased to see us as we are to meet with them. After all, they did not ask to be part of our family, but we are responsible for them and their progeny. But to be close to them reinforces our closeness to God who gave us life.

I do not know if those who do not have family mourn for the loss, or whether they are unaware of it. What I do know is that becoming a child of God provides a relationship and security that is ultimately beyond the joy received from earthly families.

Cross Canada Memories

We are currently in a motel in White River, Ontario. It is about 2/3rds the way around Lake Superior heading east. The drive though north western Ontario always reminds me of our first trip across Canada—only a part of it—from Montreal to Calgary.

We had disembarked from the old SS Ryndam the day before. We spent the night in a pension on Dorchester, the first night of our new home in Canada. That was in July 1965. The kind landlady said to leave our girls—7 and 9 if we wanted to take a stroll and buy a snack.

We wondered if we had done the right thing—we were in a new country, didn’t know a soul; would the girls be safe there? We weren’t used to the Montreal madness, tires squealing, horns blaring, and strange characters on the streets.

As it happened, we and the girls were quite safe in Montreal, perhaps not so true today—a cop may shoot you, probably accidentally, but the result is the same! The following day we boarded our train for Calgary. The car section afforded seats by day and bunks at night. We had the top bunk, and the girls were below.

Our first introduction to the size of Canada was to enter the forests of NW Ontario the first evening, to sleep all night as the train travelled, and to wake up to the same forests of NW Ontario. We have driven most of these forests again this week, as we have for several years past.

But back then the privacy of the coach section at night gave us the opportunity to make love the first time in our newly adopted country, right in Winnipeg station about 10.00 p.m. the following night. That was not the last time we wondered about our move to Canada, nor made love as our expanded family attests.

But the beauty of Canada will always be the attraction for travelling this vast country. Not sure if we’ll see it all before we go to a more glorious place—if that’s possible. Perhaps heaven will be a repeat of the most beautiful things we have known on earth. If so, it will not be a disappointment.