At Home in Gravenhurst this Christmas
One of the problems I have as an unretiring, unrelenting old fart of a news-hound, is that I always read between the lines, mistrust what governments say, maintain a suspicion about political motives and I’m wary to a fault some folks say, when a developer walks onto my patch with a claim that my life will be improved if we transform (for lack of a better example) a wetland into a housing development. Call me crazy but there’s a lot of stuff out there to be wary of.....if you want to preserve your home, your nieghborhood, and your sense of healthy proportion. As a reporter/editor for the local press I had no choice but to delve beyond what I was being told, and I have to tell you it was pretty remarkable how much "smoke" was being "blown" in those days. As I am not in front line reporting any more, (I’m on the poo-poo list) I can’t say it’s better or worse now but I’m still suspicious.....particularly when I read a news story and it has a tie-in with a precedent that I worked on years earlier....and I know the reporter is missing the story within. I haven’t been welcome in the community press for some years because I don’t pander to the advertising department or any one else who stands between me and the story that needs to be told. I don’t really mind being black-listed, even by friends I thought I had in the industry....because truth be told.....I’d be fired shortly after being hired because of my knack for kicking the feet out from under complacency. I’m not a white knight......but I think a reporter’s job is to delve and dig not polish the surface and glad-hand a news source. I’ve glad-handed a fair amount myself but it usually wraps up with a kick in the arse for some news source trying to jerk me around with b.s!
While I keep remarking to my wife that I’ve calmed down over the decades, and I’m not researching quite as rigorously as the old days, truth is I probably know more now than I did then simply because I read everything about my home district.....and as an historian to boot, it adds up to a fair amount of involvement in local affairs without any particular mission or employment opportunity to publish my findings. Once and awhile a reporter will call and I will help as much as requested.....and outside of this blog, I add it all up to the fact that I’d still rather know the truths of home and region than be under the mistaken impression,....the bliss of the uninvolved you might say, that all is running perfectly well. It’s not but that’s a personal opinion.
In other ways, I think having a heads-up on current affairs by thoroughly understanding the past, does make day to day stuff a little less stressful......and while I could sit and debate the whole town council on their policies for about two consecutive weeks.....I’ve kind of attained a balance here at Birch Hollow, attained by quite accidentally years ago while being Mr. Mom to our boys Andrew and Robert....now by the way full fledged local businessmen. The truly harry events of a crusty old reporter looking after the day to day needs and "bo-bos" of the wee lads, still trying to make a living at this crazy writing profession, made a lot of outside foibles seem less severe somehow. In fact, after a day chasing after the boys, and breaking up the near donnybrooks over play-things, dealing with the curiosities of local politics didn’t seem quite so daunting and confounding. It has been this way for most of the past two decades yet I still can find reason to abandon complacency now and again, and fuss up that a land-use policy for example.....SUCKS! That said, I can even be complimentary from time to time about the implementation of sound policy and environmental protection. I said some times! Not all the time.
I’ve made this point frequently in this Gravenhurst blog site.......this is my home. This is our hometown. I have enjoyed this residence we call Birch Hollow because of its position next to the cherished lowland, known with considerable affection as "The Bog," and it has been a locale that has helped inspire me to great periods of composition right back to the first months we arrived here after many years of residency in Bracebridge. Believe me, the old reporter used to go nuts on the sidelines in Bracebridge as well.....so it’s kind of a common theme in both towns, for a reporter to want to bust out a big scoop on a political gaff.
This snowy winter so far has already heralded a new agenda of writing projects for the coming year and that’s all I can ask from this humble homestead nestled on the embankment of the enchanted Muskoka woodlands. It’s the kind of setting that calms the reporter in me, and brings out the kinder, gentler old bard.....who is so much happier walking the forest trails, and seeking out the truths of nature, than hound-dogging the politicians who would rather I moved to another planet. Well, I’m here to stay so beware. But it’s a great town to work and reside, and when we made the decision in the late 1990's to move south to Gravenhurst.....while our contemporaries thought we were misguided, it became obvious soon after, that the move was life altering in a most positive and contenting way. I might be hard on local governance and I’m always at odds with some members of the business community for their foibles and unwillingness to get along.....but there’s still no place I’d rather live and work.
From our family please accept sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year, and if you haven’t visited Gravenhurst recently....or ever, make it a plan for the coming year. Feel free to move here.....maybe write a book....set up an art studio....make some new friends in a great neighborhood.
Thank you so much for reading this ever-so humble blog site.