New Horizons by Max Roy

  Swallowing Canada Whole                Courage And Resilience It takes the perspective acquired only with time to enable us to fully appreciate our past deeds of derring-do. My instinct that we required time and space alone together , my Bride and I, to solidify our union that had us leave all our Canadian familiars, abandon assets and possessions, and, in our early seventies, take off for unknown territory. Where from came the confidence that we could weather those material sacrifices? Where from came the courage to tackle the unknown at such an advanced age? Wherefrom came the courage and resilience? And, there we were again, starting over, bright young eighty-year-old spirits, ready for new-old adventures when we arrived in Canada,. After a decade exploring old ground intensely cultivated for many millennia in Europe, and specifically in Ireland, we returned to places closer to our origins. In Europe, things seemed to be ground more fine, rougher edges smoothed over, with

                                              Teetering On The Edge Do I really want you to feel badly as we approach the holidays and the New Year? Shouldn’t I tell you about the brave new future awaiting all of us? Goldarn it! Just can’t! Do you feel it? I think I do, and it feels really scary! Will we continue to make progress as an international society, united in actions that benefit all nations, all people? Or will we descend toward a survival of the fittest, (strongest?) world regime? Only with all of us working together can we tackle the big questions, finding the answers that will be more likely to enable humans to survive on this planet. What are the signs and symptoms of the challenges we currently face, the indications that the road we are taking point to bad choices? Where did we come from to get to here? After World War II, in 1945, U.S. leaders, using the enormous military power they had amassed with their Allies, encouraged the founding of international bodie

  “He Who Is Not Busy Being Born Is Busy Dying”* The truth contained in this statement is difficult to contradict. In the lives we humans lead we are always being challenged by the events we encounter. If we respond to these challenges by growing who we are in some way, then we are in those ways, small or large, being altered, become larger than we were before. Inevitably as we go forward, we shed parts of ourselves even as we grow new parts. If we do not make efforts to add new dimensions as we go forward, we must, try as we might, shrink our sum total. Isn’t that a kind of dying?   As we age and surrender parts of our lives, sometimes shifting responsibility to others, we become sensitive to this issue in ways that carry even more weight. And as age advances, we confront these realities with even greater force. Indeed, our efforts to keep growing in as many ways as we can, become, more and more, a conscious struggle. We truly feel the full import of the thought expressed by Dylan