H/T: Don Laird: “The beauty of Canada…..a few feet of film shot yesterday in British Columbia, a few dudes with a video camera or two standing on a beach and a few friends dropped by to rub themselves on the beach rocks, like they have done for centuries in places like Robson Bight….
Enjoy….”
Hello there…..its me again…….Don Laird…
This is why I love my country as much as I do, its been a wonderful ride and journey for over 50 years, and its worth fighting and dying for, its worth passing down to our grandchildren unmarred by the lunacy and excrement of barbarians and savages.
I left home at a very early age and spent decades wandering, traveling and generally bumming around.
I sailed through many of these areas off the coast of British Columbia back in the late ’70’s with the the Canadian Coast Guard, on a ship called the CCGS Alexander Mackenzie. We would see these killer whales all the time along with sea lions, seals, porpoises and a stunning array of birds and wildlife. Seeing cougars, bears and wolves swimming across large channels from island to island wasn’t uncommon either. All of this combined with the sunrises, the sunsets, the mountain vista, the storms…..it was pure magic for an 18 year old punk.
I wrote a small ramble years ago called “Of Gifts and Reasons Why”, written in response to people who would ask me why I joined the Canadian military.
Here is a quote from that, as it relates to my…..thankfully, oh so very thankfully, misspent youth and chronic juvenile delinquence….
…….”Many times I’ve been asked why I served in the military and many times I’ve not had the answer. I’ve considered the question, years after my service, and this is my answer.
For me it was a chance, an opportunity, to say thank you for all that I’d enjoyed over those years. To step up and fill, albeit for a brief time, a space in the “thin red line”. To express my gratitude to those men who served their country before me and who never returned to their wives, children and families. To tell those men of the freedom I’ve enjoyed. To tell them of my misspent youth, of the wanderings that consumed me in those young years and that, thankfully, still do to this day.
To tell them of nights lying beneath a blanket of stars and the days guiding American hunters through the mountains of northern British Columbia. Of clinging to the gunwales of a jetboat as we fought the current of the Finlay River through Deadman’s Canyon. Of standing on the edge of a cliff and locking eyes with a hawk that hung suspended on a thermal so close I could almost touch it and then, watching as it peeled away and disappeared. Of the laughter and camaraderie of friends ‘round a campfire at days end. Of riding the freight trains from coast to coast, living the stories I’d read as a young boy of the drifters during the Great Depression. Of hitchhiking from the Arctic to Mexico and almost everyplace between. Of plunging through the storm tossed seas of the Hecate Straits off the coast of the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Of the roaring silence and indescribable beauty of the Arctic. Of seas of gold, waves of wheat across the prairies in August. Of the Loon’s mournful cry drifting across a northern Ontario lake. Of the Rocky Mountains, cathedrals of stone, rivers of crystal at their feet. Of the grizzly bear, majestic and silver tipped, feeding on berries. Of the wolves that followed me for miles as I walked a highway south of Rainbow Lake. Of the creak and groan of tall timber during a summer storm, my arms outspread and face lifted to meet the rain of the same. Of the sudden rise and dance of a trout caught on my line. Of forests ablaze with colour beneath azure autumn skies. Of the crunch of snow beneath my feet on a Yukon trail at 50 below zero. Of sunrises and sunsets the description of which mere words would sully. Of all the kind and generous souls I’ve met on this journey called Life. Of all these gifts and so much more”……..
If you ever have a chance to come to Canada, please do……..and take the road less traveled……meander, wander, stumble about aimlessly…….it will leave a mark on you soul for the rest of your life.
Regards, Don Laird
Dogtown Bastard
Alberta, Canada