The most Canadian thing I have ever done

Hello Everyone,

Apologies for the late post. Easter Friday found me away from my computer.

I find most conversations about Canadian identity extraordinarily tedious. They usually consist of a broad list of generalizations and self-flattery. Donald Sutherland was asked about it when he was on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and replied with this joke: a British, a French, and a Canadian soldier were captured during the war and taken to be executed. Given one last request, the British man asked for a good cup of tea. The Canadian asked for 15 minutes to talk about Canadian identity, and the Frenchmen asked to be shot before the Canadian. I identify with that sentiment. I like my patriotism unspoken.

And I'm breaking with it to write this letter, so the story below is really about the second most Canadian thing I've ever done. The first being this post itself. -------------

I once had a conversation with a first generation immigrant to Canada from the Caribbean. It was in late August and I was complaining about the heat, and joked that I would nonetheless be looking for it come the end of winter. He remarked that where he was from, most people enjoyed long, long periods of hot weather, but did not adapt well to rapid changes in climate. He had observed that Canadians, those of us here for generations at least, adapted quite quickly to changes in weather, but tired of any one kind if it stayed for too long. It's a natural result of living in a land with extremes in temperature variation, except for places like Victoria but who ever really counts them? Many people comment on an 'authentic' Canadian experience, and mention things like hockey or the great outdoors, or more morbidly, our health care system. But not everyone plays hockey or rides a moose to work like I do. I think our experience of weather is a more unifying factor. Specifically, our complaints about it. And so it was today, the first warm, not even hot, day of the year. It was awesome biking into work in the morning, the sun shining on my face. I wore running shoes, not the heavy boots I was wearing only a week or so ago. No heavy sweater, just a t-shirt under my windbreaker. It was great. Then this afternoon, I stepped out of my building to visit a different part of the campus and my first thought when I got out into the harsh, beating sun was: "Man, I'm sick of this heat. It's stifling."

wes

#Attemptathumour