GUERNSEY 2009 REMEMBERED

Reminiscing is an occasional enjoyment. The older I become, the further back one can travel for stories, that is, as long as one’s memory delivers. In 2009, Christine and I spent seven weeks in France, one week of which was spent on Guernsey Island in the English channel between Britain and France. Christine’s paternal family (Langlois) originated here. A French speaking island, is unique in that only native born citizens may own land on the island. The wealthiest of people from offshore may only be visitors. One can actually walk around the island if the stamina is there. But for a pittance you can travel all day on the punctual buses. We stayed at a high cliff resort overlooking the channel, looking east to France. Robert and Gloria Langlois, (Christine’s brother) met us there. Perhaps a once in a lifetime joy-filled experience.

OFFSHORE SCAM

Offshore Scam

Nothing right now is vanilla.

It's dark in the midmost part of night.

Phone rings - a long distance call from Manila.

I've been dreaming and I'm up tight.

Accented voice greets me with cheer.

He's called to warn me and to help me.

Seeks calmly to convince me to have no fear

Why then call at twenty past three?

A technician, he's detected

That I'm hacked by an Eastern caller

So now my bank account will be affected,

I risk losing every dollar.

"Let me access your home notebook,"

My glitch he assures me he will fix.

I won’t be this guy’s sucker, is my outlook,

I will not let him play his tricks.

© Ron Unruh, 2014 

An Orangeville ON man recorded such a call 

TREES ARE FOR CLIMBING

Photograph: Tim Laman/Getty images

I was a boy when trees were tall
and I could climb with ease.
High in the limbs though I was small
At home in tops of trees.

This space did not require a friend
Was not a place to share,
How to climb up or to descend,
Only to say beware.

Up there were stories of my mind,
A novelist was I.
I the hero, the dazzling kind
With empires in the sky.

All stories end and so did mine,
Not wasted time at all,
A bold step to maturity,
When childhood trees were tall.

© Ron Unruh, November 14, 2014

See kids need the adventure of risky play.

INSIGHTS ABOUT SEITZ

Insights about Seitz

From his daily demesne of erudition
perceptibly dazzling he is, a scholar,
At ease among strident intellects,
studious inquiry igniting his love
for wisdom, ancient purview of koheleth,
Assembler of insights in proverbs
and the knotty interplay in song of songs
and ecclesiastes with its experienced
pronouncement of humanity's failed
faculties before a constant creation.

© Ron Unruh

Nov 13, 2014 - I penned this last evening following my audit of a lecture by Dr. Christopher Seitz, "A Canonical Reading of Ecclesiastes." He is Senior Research Fellow, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto.