When I was a boy of three living in a small Saskatchewan town, my parents operated a small coffee shop. Behind the shop was a gravel road and a small open well. One day as my memory serves me I was looking into that well when a farmer in a pickup truck
drove by, stopped and seeking to protect me, said, “if you fall down that well, you will be bagiki.” No one knew what bagiki meant, but certainly its intended meaning was clear. Throughout my childhood and now well into adulthood that word has served the extended family as a descriptive for something, more than unpleasant but nasty, negative, very bad.
That story is among a number of children’s stories I have written, and this Christmas I drew illustrations for a small three story book called Bagiki which we gave to each of our children’s families. Christine got T-shirts for each of the grandchildren with the words "You will be Bagiki" printed on the front and at a key point in our gift exchange on Christmas Day, Grandma and Grandpa and the five grandchildren left the room and came back with T-Shirts on and handed out the gift books.
The old year is almost over and the new year about to emerge. My wish among many more is that no bagiki comes your way but that you have a Happy New Year.
(The New Year Link is the countdown meter. Mine is set to Vancouver time. You can customize it.)
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