A note for those who are not aware. I am a columnist for some local newspapers in southern Manitoba. I have written for the papers since 2010 and contribute three general interest columns a month. The primary paper is The Winkler Morden Voice which you can find here and explore archives – www.winklermordenvoice.ca
Harnessing Chaos 
Hello, Peter. This column you submitted has provided me with an interesting learning path. When I first read it, what came to mind is the various ways in which Canadians try to simplify what it means to be Canadian which, in reality, is very complex. Your column, for example, becomes a crystallization point for your readers. For others, this does not happen. The taking of Vimy Ridge for many Canadians was part of act of war which they abhor. They likely have no idea who Avril Lavigne, Jim Carrey or Mike Myers are and don’t care to know. That being the case, in Canada, we have a built in toleration continuum. We may live within twenty feet of someone from a completely different cultural or framework and never talk about our differences.
What came to mind as I was thinking about this was a few writers from the 1980-1990’s who have written about what it means to be Canadian: Pierre Berton (Why We Act Like Canadians); John Ralston Saul (Reflections of a Siamese Twin); and Andrew Malcolm (The Canadians). I ordered these books on-line and received them last week. In particular, John Ralston Saul articulates what I have noticed for many years: We are all willing victims of mythology: partial representations of reality. And we live and have our being in those mythologies hardly noticing that all around us are others who live and move and have their being in completely different mythologies. My impression from reading your column is expanded and clarified through John Ralston Saul’s impressive essay.
Another image that came to mind from John Ralston Saul’s Siamese Twin metaphor is from a 2003 film called “Stuck on You” starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear. A pair of conjoined twins move to Los Angelos so that one of them can pursue and acting career. A comical moment is when one of the twins is rehearsing in front of an audience while the other is reading a book joined to his hip. That is what it is like, I thought, to be a Canadian. We recognize that we are part of polyglot of ethnicities yet we hardly explore what the other is interested in. I keep coming back to this initial impression.
What is of particular interest to me as I think this through is the idea that God is Love and those of love are born of God and know God. I have been exploring this through the Orthodox idea of Theosis. Everyone has some idea of what love is. Their impression may be totally selfish but they have an idea of it. They may be able to imagine what greater love is or that there could be something eternal about love. If they pursue that, they are moving along the path of union with God or Theosis. That journey transcends gender, race, or social status. And the more we understand that God is love, the freer we become and the more we participate in the divine nature, as the apostle Peter put it. As I turn around to my conjoined twin and begin to take an interest in them, I learn more about myself and God.
The other day as I was going about my work day, a Sikh driver made a delivery. I enjoy using the Sikh greeting Sat Shrih Akal when I meet some one from the Punjab province in India. He asked me if I knew what it meant. I do. I explained that it means True is the Eternal. It means that the eternal in me calls out to the eternal in you. He said that God is everything. He is like the ocean and we are like drops of water. As I was reading about Theosis recently the author used this metaphor, as well. Our union with God is like the union of a drop of water with the ocean all around us.
After my Sikh friend left, I remembered a poem by Rumi:
I SEE MY BEAUTY IN YOU
I see my beauty in you. I becomea mirror that cannot close its eyes
to your longing. My eyes wet withyours in the early light. My mind
every moment giving birth, alwaysconceiving, always in the ninth
month, always the come-point. Howdo I stand this? We become these
words we say, a wailing sound movingout into the air. These thousands of
worlds that rise from nowhere, howdoes your face contain them? I’m
a fly in your honey, then closer, amoth caught in flame’s allure, then
empty sky stretched out in homage.
This is where we can go as Canadians simply by taking an interest of our beauty in others. Let me say “Thank-you” for the crystallization of these thoughts from reading your column.
John Brand
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