Newfoundlanders and Labradorians came home for Come Home 2022 celebrations and the province welcomed many first time visitors too.  The weather coorperated with record breaking sunshine for one record setting NL  summer.

There was a little something for everyone to enjoy. Wonderbolt Productions celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022, and they dazzled and delighted audiences all summer long. The George Street Festival was a huge hit and so was the Churchill Park Music Festival with both attracting huge and enthusiastic crowds. 

But whether it’s the large concerts on George Street or the smaller gatherings on an outport wharf, it’s been quite a summer to celebrate, Premier Andrew Furey said. “To see this (Come Home 2022) come from a concept to reality, and then to see the return, well the actual numbers speak for themselves,” he said as he launched into some cheerful chatter about the rise in tourism numbers throughout Come Home 2022. And the fun continues through the fall too with Come From Away: The Concert and Tell Tale Harbour yet to be celebrated and enjoyed. 

What was your favourite Come Home 2022 experience? Was it the Stanley Cup or a concert? Was it seeing family or friends or was it a wedding celebration that was delayed due to the pandemic. 

Share your super summer story with us at letters@nfldherald.com 

Charles & Camilla’s 2022 Royal Tour

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived St. John’s on May 17th to begin a three-day Canadian tour largely focused on reconciliation with Indigenous people. 

The couple attended a welcome ceremony at the provincial legislature with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon then it was off to Gov. House and Quidi Vidi.

Photos provided by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, taken by Alick Tsui Photography.

Kellie Loder Proves They’re Fearless

Not only is Kellie Loder selling out shows, but they are selling totally out of merch at these performances as well, they added when The Herald swung by for a chat. “The opportunity to be on a national television show, what that has done for me is amazing. People stop you on the side of the road and people shout at you from their cars. And it’s so positive,” they said of appearing on Canada’s Got Talent. 

 Had reality set in yet? Since being a  national sensation on CGT, so much had changed. “You work so, so hard for so long to get that sort of recognition that when you finally get it it’s a bit wild. Like, I still feel like I’m a small town kid from Badger and now people are wanting to carry my things and bring me water and food and steam my clothes. And I’m like, ‘What’s happening right now?’” 

Loder also felt “different” seeing their face on a NL Herald cover. “I would go to the store and The Herald would always be on the front counter, and I would see different faces every week on the cover and I always wondered if I was ever going to make the cover, do you know what I mean? I always wondered that, even when nobody knew who I was.” Well, now they certainly do! 

Show Your Pride in NL

Irma Gerd made NL proud as one of the contestants of the third season of Canada’s Drag Race. 

Gerd told The Herald that “The amount of support that I’ve gotten from all of Atlantic Canada, not just Newfoundland, has been overwhelming. Just positively overwhelming in the best way.” 

Pride events throughout NL recognized and celebrated the diversity of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community within the province and the Provincial Government sponsored St. John’s Pride Week as a part of Come Home 2022. Sponsored events included Drag on Water held on Saturday, July 23 as well as the St. John’s Pride Parade

Staycation with the OZFM Summer CREW

Kali Kenny and Noah Perchard hit the road in the OZFM Staycation Summer Cruiser and brought the cheer and the joy to many as they travelled the province throughout the summer of 2022.

Kenny told The Herald that being a member of the Staycation Summer Cruiser Team was a “dream come true.” 

The Regatta Returns

For the very first time in Royal St. John’s Regatta history, there was a Women’s Long course race. 

North America’s oldest annual sporting event concluded with repeat champions in both the men’s and women’s races. NTV were winners of the Men’s Championship Race and Hyflodraulic won Stirling Communications Women’s Championship Race with a time of 5:11.

This year’s Regatta saw crowds return to the banks of Quidi Vidi Lake for the first time since 2019.

Jaida Lee Makes History

At 16 years old, Jaida Lee became the first female to compete in Men’s Baseball at the Canada Summer Games in 2022. The teenage baseball sensation and her father, Dave Lee, shared with media how “unreal” the experience was,  included the fact that she got to throw an opening pitch at a Blue Jays game.

Alex Newhook Brings Home Lord Stanley

Colorado Avalanche forward and St. John’s native Alex Newhook couldn’t stop smiling the day he brought the Stanley Cup home to St. John’s! 

The timing couldn’t have been better and fans young and old couldn’t get enough of the party that came with Lord Stanley held during Come Home 2022 celebrations.

About being only the third player from Newfoundland and Labrador to win the Stanley Cup, Newhook shared how he received congratulations from the other two who had done so before he did – Daniel Cleary and Michael Ryder. Newhook cheered along with fans so loudly as he yelled, ’Our fans are the best in the world’ that Newhook seemed to  have lost his voice during part of the Stanley Cup parade.

Was it emotion or cheering along with fans that cause the brief quiet spell? Probably a bit of both, but whatever the reason, it was a grand day in the province and an unforgettable day for Alex Newhook and his family and friends. Congratulations! 

One visit to any area of the province will leave folks saying; why did we stay where we’re to? We should have come where you’re at long ago.

 “It’s been overwhelming, overwhelmingly positive,” says Premier Andrew Furey of Come Home 2022. Furey himself has been touring the province as much as possible himself too, he shared.  

Exactly what NL needed

“It’s just been an incredibly joyous, happy occasion for communities throughout our province. Coming out of the pandemic, this is exactly what people needed. People celebrating life … all rallying around this call to come home. And I couldn’t be more proud with the results from this campaign,” he said.

From Regatta and Churchill Park Music Festival to Monster Trucks, George Street Festival, Tell Tale Harbor and Come From Away, Furey and team have been proudly supporting events held throughout the province.  “This was exactly what the province needed right now. For decades, centuries even, we’ve had a history of festivals in towns and communities. Of concerts, arts festivals and more, but because of the pandemic these things mostly stopped. We needed an injection of enthusiasm to reinvigorate them and I think that Come Home Year 2022 did exactly that.”

Whether it was a large concert or a smaller gathering on an outport wharf, it’s been quite a summer to celebrate. The numbers speak for themselves, he said. 

In auto traffic, the province is up 166 per cent from 2019 and growing. Travellers in general are up almost 300 per cent compared to 2021. “It’s special, it’s emotional and it’s economically beneficial at the end of the day as well,” Furey  said.  

Furey shared he figures he spent one weekend in his own bed this entire summer. “It was really nice to see the hope and optimism and the spirit of Newfoundland and Labrador on full display in many communities – all communities, frankly – around the province,” he said. 

This has always been an incredible place to visit, he added. “It’s really more than just about one year. It’s about reinjecting  enthusiasm and optimism … that will live beyond 2022.” 

The premier says he has been so proud as he’s travelled around. “I’d like to thank everybody for being involved and for embracing (Come Home 2022). We were in communities that normally only have 100 people in it and to see it grow to 300 or 400 people in an afternoon to  celebrate the culture of Newfoundland and Labrador … was just fantastic.  

I’ve been privileged to meet – as well as to thank– many who work in the tourism industry throughout the province of Newfoundland & Labrador that 520-odd-thousand of us are still blessed to call home.

As these tourism angels I’ve encountered worked tirelessly welcoming expats – who easily outnumber those of us who stayed or eventually returned – and come from aways alike during Come Home 2022, one thing in particular kept tugging at my mind and at my heart. 

I left this province myself in 1990 for school, and I remained away for 13 more years. While I was gone, something that always stood out for me personally was how easy it was to make friends or how simple it was to gain employment based mainly on one simple fact: That I was born and bred a Newfoundlander. 

‘greener pastures’

Newfoundlanders who left this province over the decades to escape poverty and harsh conditions for so-called greener pastures up-along spread kindness and humour along with the mortar they slathered on the bricks they slung. 

They helped build cities and erect skyscrapers in cities throughout North America with names many from back ‘ome had never even heard of before. 

Newfoundlanders showcased their hard-working nature and demonstrated their tenacious  spirit as they fought wars for countries that weren’t their own and shovelled foundations that helped over-populate mainland towns and depopulated the outports leaving those pretty, quaint clotheslines filed with colourful flapping quilts and nanny’s knitted trigger mitts that tourism advertisers love – empty.    

But those who left to pave the way helped spread the word that the rest of us Newfoundlanders who might one day come behind a decade or even ten into the future would be just as kind  and talented and hardworking.

There’s simply some things that – for whatever reasons – just never change. Whether it’s the culture or the climate, Newfoundlanders will always be what we have always been: Hardworking and, as demonstrated continuously by tourism operators through Come Home 2022 –  focused on being hospitable.

I spoke with Nicole Power recently and she perhaps put it best. “I feel like being from Newfoundland is my superpower,” she said. Power, who grew up in Middle Cove and is now on the mainland staring in the series Strays, added that anytime anyone finds out she’s a Newfoundlander the ice is instantly broken.

“It’s a testament to who we all are at home and showcases how nice we are as people. The second someone finds out I’m a Newfoundlander they’re over the moon and they can’t wait to tell me how all of the things that they heard before about the kind of people we are are all true,” she said.  Our reputation precedes us, she added, and it has helped pave the way for others like her – myself included – and it’s something to be proud of. 

‘be leaving now, mudder’

A very long time ago some young bayman lad stood on some outport wharf and hollered out across the harbour: “I’ll be leaving now, Mudder,” taking  with him some hard bread along with hard-earned attributes of a life raised on ‘The Rock’ and the legacy that spread ‘round the globe, remaining to this very day, was born.

That very first ‘be leaving’ turned the rest of the world into believers of one simple fact proven time and time again: that Newfoundlanders really are – and will forever be – one of a kind.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing pghent@nfldherald.com

We were in a restaurant in a hotel in Paris. It was the middle of the Republican primaries before that weird election that took Donald J. Trump to a one term presidency.

Wife and I were on a short trip to France. It was part of an organized tour which I hate. There were about 20 or 30 of us and it was all Americans except for wife Judy and me.

Over dinner with one of the American couples the subject of Donald Trump was raised at the table and the couple with us, older than ourselves, wanted to know if I could assure them that Donald Trump would never be President of the United States. I told them with great and very misplaced confidence that the American people would never let someone like Trump be president.

Orange faced oily grifter

Well, how wrong was that! Incredibly all obstacles vanished, and an orange faced oily grifter named Trump became POTUS as they say in news circles. 

It was enough to send you to despair although, luckily, as soon he walked in through the doors of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue Donald Trump began to self-destruct. Through an incredible series of bad decisions by Trump, the Republican Party lost control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and ultimately the White House itself when Democrat Joe Biden beat him at the polls like you would beat a rug in the spring.

Even after Trump’s defeat things turned really ugly after what was an attempted coup in Washington on the 6th of January that did not work. The air went out of Trump’s attempt to cling to power with a whoosh. He may run for President again, but even his hold on the Republican Party has waned and Donald is no longer the “go to guy.”

He was caught with classified secret documents from his presidency stashed away at his Florida golf club with federal agents armed with a search warrant pounding on the door looking to get the material back.

I think Donald Trump is going to jail eventually. He will be a victim of his own ego. He thought he was above the law. Now as he “lawyers up” it must cross his mind between snack boxes and hamburgers that this is one narrative he cannot control.

In a quiet moment he will wonder how it all went wrong so quickly and how he came to be wearing an orange jumpsuit from some federal penitentiary. A friend of mine has one of those “Make America Great Again” hats. He does not wear it anymore. Not a minute too soon.   

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

I was raised to believe in things that are not of this world. The more ‘mysterious’ the better for me and mine. My mom’s father was a bit of a character. A very religious man, he had quite a few superstitions and beliefs that many would consider different. As a farmer and a businessman, Pop followed a way of doing things that he felt worked, so that was that.

There was a sign from above to plant, and yet another when it was time to harvest. You get the picture. It’s interesting to note this, however; as much of a Bible believer as that man was, he was also out there too.

Crossed-off career

Pop ‘crossed-off,’ as they called it back then, or treated other people’s warts and whatnot using a potato that he later buried. The belief was, as the potato rotted in the ground the wart fell off or the healing happened. Pop used to chant a few things as he did this, and one of his last warnings to the potato patient was this: “Believe this will help, or it won’t.” I swear this on both my youngster’s lives – I saw Pop’s magical potatoes work with my very own eyes more than once.

I also get some unique ways from my Nan on Dad’s side of the family too. That woman could tell ghost stories. I still, to this day, believe each and every one. One ghostly figure passed Nan as a young girl on her way home across an ocean path at night and the cool chill made Nan swoon where she stood. 

Others she knew ‘saw things’ that made either their hair turn instantly white or took their ability to speak from them. That stuff happened, b’ys, cause Nanny didn’t lie. Neither does NASA. 

On June 15, 2022, the official Twitter account for NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover shared the news that a piece of trash had been found on Mars. Space junk or evidence of an alien’s bad habit?  Interesting. So, do aliens really exist? 

One of NASA’s astrobiologists, Lindsay Hays, said that while extraterrestrial life has never been discovered, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. In fact one of NASA’s key goals is the search for life out in the universe. 

Just days ago the NASA James Webb Space Telescope shared stunning new images of Jupiter and a haunting audio clip taken from a black hole. 

So, what does all this mean? Are God, superstitions, magical potatoes, ghosts and ETs from outer space all connected somehow? Who knows, but I do know we all keep looking up with wonder from time to time. Just recently a string of lights over top of St. John’s left more than a few livyers astonished. 

Sheerr to the rescue!

While NTV’s Eddie Sheerr later issued a “do not be alarmed,” message on social media, explaining that the lights were not an alien invasion but “most likely (99 per cent chance) just the SpaceX StarLink satellites,” it still was cool – if just for a little – to think otherwise. 

Bottom line; for anything to really exist, you pretty much have to believe it does – or could – right?

Just like my Pop’s wart healing ways. Would the potato-thing have worked if no one believed it could? No one was willing to take the chance, and who could blame ‘em? I’d rather believe in a rotting potato with magical powers than have a wart. I’d much rather believe that a ghost made Nanny faint than to think she had low blood sugar or (gasp) that she was drunk.

That even aliens forget to pick up their bit of tin of milk trash is more fun to think about than space junk. And who knows? There’s a one per cent chance that Eddie was wrong that night and that those lights above the city were visitors from another planet. Believing  it possible makes life a little more thrilling, and there’s nar thing wrong with that.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing pghent@nfldherald.com

We were ripped away from mummies apron strings when we were seven years old. No play groups or such. We were brought to the door of the big concrete school glowering down on Bonaventure Avenue and thrown inside. 

We were greeted by the Irish Christian Brothers, a black robed group of men that were given power over us and power was the right word. There visited upon us smacks across the head, smacks across the face and later punishment by the wail of the strap.

It did not start right away. Seven year-olds were not beaten to be honest. It would be later. I was terrified from day one, but I did good. I didn’t cry. I can still remember the parents gathered outside of the Grade One classroom looking in. I could see my mom. It must have been hard on her too.   She told me later it broke her heart. There were eighty-two children in class. That’s a student teacher ratio for you! 

Some little boys were sobbing. Others were screeching. The Christian Brother in charge then moved to the front of the classroom and closed the door and it shut us out from the outside world. The noise grew.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth. I will bet it was like that when the Titanic went under. 

You must remember this was 1953. The family unit was strong. I do not think I was ever in the care of someone other than my parents till then.  This was the first time I had been away from mom and dad and there I was all alone!  It was all so different and horrible. The décor in the classroom was grim with a twelve-foot ceiling and walls dominated by statues and a giant grey dark painting of an angel with wings watching over two little children crossing a bridge. 

No neighbourhood watch or anything; just dark images to frighten children. Statues all over the place. There were crucifixes and crowns of thorns and things like that to make you afraid. That is the way the whole thing worked, instill the “fear of God” into you.   

I survived. I did well in class. A few beatings both deserved and undeserved. So you will know, the Irish Christian Brother who greeted us did a little time in jail some years later for “interfering” with boys. He is dead now. He was my favourite teacher and always kind to me. I will never figure all this out but at the beginning of the school year I remember the path from there to here and I still think about it.

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

Demonstrations of kindness can come in many forms. From holding a door open for a stranger to letting someone with only a handful of items ahead of you in a grocery store lineup – there’s many ways to spread a smile.

I had one interesting encounter the other day that deserves mention. I was having a difficult few days. Life was not being as kind as it usually is for a variety of reasons – from daily difficulties to individuals who were being less than pleasant. For whatever combination of reasons, it had been a tough few days.  I reached out to a friend, Grace Shears, a woman who knows how to share her light and love with others. My partner also joined us, determined to be part of the solution when it came to turning my dark sky to sunshine once again. 

What started out as a coffee in Pop’s Diner turned into a full blown meal, and we lingered longer than we had planned. While the service was incredible, there was one staff member there, ‘J,’ who had served us in the past and all three of us gathered together on this day knew him a little in passing. 

While we were not sitting at one of his tables, ‘J’ popped by a few times to smile and share a few words in greeting, but there was no indication in the least that he knew why we were gathered or what we were talking about. When it was time to part ways, my partner and Grace argued over the bill. My partner won, and as he went up to the cash to pay, he paused bewildered. When he opened up the check, there were the words … ‘Love you! Meals on me! J.’ 

We tried to find ‘J’ to thank him, but he had gone home for the day. There would be no basking in glory. No hug and no words of appreciation. ‘J’ just paid our bill and went home, looking for nothing in return. While the  talking and the sharing at that table with a friend and a loved one had done some good when it came to lifting my blue mood, ‘J’ had accomplished so much more through this kind and unexpected gesture. It was like a miracle has taken place and we were all left a tad shocked, quite amazed, and a  whole lot uplifted. 

I’ll try to think of ‘J’ as I go about my day more often. While I usually try and work kindness in as much as I can, I’m as guilty as anyone when it comes to slipping sometimes. As we prepare to send the kiddies back to school, now is as good a time as any for an uplifting story, one that sets the bar when it comes to demonstrating kindness to others.

As we send our kiddies out to learn their A,B,Cs this Sept., let’s add a little ‘J’ in there for good measure.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing pghent@nfldherald.com

I was down to Argentia last week. It’s completely different now and I had not been there since the naval base closed. In fact I have only been there a couple of times before. 

Memory is a funny thing. When I first went to Argentia it was by sea around 1960. I was “working” on the cargo vessel Blue Cloud. That was a Blue Peter Steamships ship hauling frozen cod blocks from Witless Bay to Gloucester, Massachusetts. Technically I was employed by Blue Peter, but really I was a guest of the company. 

Signed on as crew

They weren’t licensed to carry passengers, so I was signed on as crew with very light duties. We arrived at Argentia at night in the rain and awoke the next morning to the reality of being in a small American town with the Stars and Stripes flying overhead. We watched military types around our ship. They were all acting purposefully. I had to ask permission to get off the ship and dump garbage in the dockside bin. 

What sticks in my memory was how clean everything was at Argentia. You could eat off the roads and all the military personnel were dressed “neat as a pin.” It was the first time I had really been “somewhere else.” 

To this day I don’t know if we took on cargo or discharged it. We were gone on to Gloucester the next morning. 

There we discharged our cod blocks to a fish processing plant and picked up a mixed cargo to go back to Newfoundland. The cargo included bananas which are shipped “not quite ripe.”

On the way back some bananas were put out on deck in the sun. We had bananas for breakfast dinner and supper. We stopped again at Argentia and dropped off salt beef. I didn’t even know the military ate that stuff. 

Liquor & cigarettes

The next time I was at the base was decades later and I was there to play softball in a tournament mostly in the rain. The Americans were good ball players. I stayed overnight at the bachelors quarter which was Strain Memorial Hall, at one time the second highest building in Newfoundland. Hotel Newfoundland was higher.

The food on the base was great and there was lots of it. Liquor and cigarettes were almost free, and I had a great time. We didn’t win, but we had a nice barbecue. I didn’t set foot in Argentia again until last week.

There was still a familiarity to Argentia. The curved road and the little guard house were still there. A few buildings looked familiar and some bunkers remained, but the area was industrial now not military and it wasn’t nearly so clean.

It was raining last week. All three times I was in Argentia over sixty years it rained.  I remember that.    

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

It’s been an interesting summer, and there’s certainly been much to celebrate. My daughter turned 14 for one thing, and we have had the pleasure of spending many a day together touring the province. 

We’ve had some wild mother/daughter adventures. In Steady Brook, for example, we started the morning off with facials and pedicures at the Salt Water Spa at Marble Inn Resort and by the afternoon we were squealing with fear –and delight – as we tackled ‘The Spider Challenge’ at Marble Mountain. 

A challenge it was, one I’m glad we faced together. There’s videos that will never see the light of day. Still, it was certainly an experience that will stand out for us both, that’s for sure. 

That perfect selfie

That night, as a reward for a hard-day done, (and to calm our rattled nerves) we headed back to the spa to soak up some saltwater therapy. All’s well that ends well, right? We’ve enjoyed adventures on the high seas while fishing for cod and swung from a zip line over Petty Harbour. Now that was exhilarating! We’ve co-captained a paddle board through jellyfish infested waters and squealed with horror as we took turns knocking one another off into a sea of pulsating slime. Bonus points if the jellyfish were already dead when the dumping occurred. 

We’ve hiked and raced our way to see waterfalls and to capture that perfect selfie on top of whatever cliff there was to climb and we’ve gone off-grid a time or two and (gasp) actually had to pull out our phones only for snaps instead of for snapchat. Fun times! 

We’ve slept in lighthouses that captured our imagination and we’ve stayed in tents as well as in the most luxurious settings one could imagine. We’ve slept in the same room and settled in for the night floors apart. My daughter has chased and caught frogs and codfish and she’s read by flashlight in a tent as well as in a hammock over the ocean. 

There’s been lobster pods and lobster cookouts. There’s been boating adventures where she turned green with seasickness, but stuck it out like a champ just so the rest of us could jig our cod quota. She’s sat in a car with dogs on her lap for hours and eaten whatever’s been tossed back over the seat at her when travel demands dictated that meal time meant sliced peppers and cheese from a sandwich bag used – and then reused  –maybe one too many times. 

We’ve picked berries and plucked flowers, grateful to Mother Nature for her bounty, and we’ve peed outside when nature called.

Our time together

Fires in central changed our throw caution to the wind philosophy when it came to adventure destinations and we had to be aware and alert, and caring for our two elderly dogs during one crazy hot summer also meant keeping their needs and wants in mind, too. 

There were unexpected deaths within my friend circle as well as in my family while we were travelling and there were things that had to be shared and discussed and people we had to mourn over. It’s been a summer filled with experiences and growth. For both of us. 

While we might not have literally taken the road less travelled on any of our adventures, the roads we did take certainly led us towards one brilliantly beautiful destination: togetherness. 

At 14, there might not be many more such road trips for us, but my child, oh, the wonderful places you’ll go without me down this road called life. 

I just hope her future travelling partner is as fun and as fearless as she is and that she’ll sometimes think of our times together – spider challenges, seasickness and jellyfish wipeouts and all – and smile. I know I will.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing pghent@nfldherald.com

I was driving out the Kenmount Road the other week and my car dropped into a pothole in the road under construction. It was of Olympic proportions. Is it my imagination, or has that road been under construction for a couple of decades? 

Now it did not flatten my tire or bend my wheel, but it was a nice bump, and I was peeved. “Peeved” is not the word that came immediately to mind, but it will do. 

I was reminded then of another summer day some years ago. We had just had a rough crossing from Dover to Calais and had passed through an outdoor refugee camp outside Calais. The camp was nicknamed “the jungle” and held desperate people mostly from Africa trying to get through Europe to England and a hoped-for better life. They lived in tents and at one time there were as many as five thousand people there. Ultimately that camp was closed, but still people remain in the area. 

Skip back a couple of years from that to another summer and what was the former Olympic site in Beijing, China. My wife and I were there as visitors and there at the Olympic Village lying on the ground on a mat outside the gates was a beggar. This was not like somebody panhandling on Water Street. This poor fellow, who was attended to by another man, had no arms and no legs. It’s a situation almost hard to imagine. He had a little plate in front of him where you could leave an offering. We did just that, but I noticed a couple of touristy types taking pictures. God forgive me, but I so wanted to smash their faces in.

It’s about perspective

A year later in London, England we were rushing to Waterloo station to catch an early morning train from Waterloo to Gatwick airport and there in an underground tunnel at Waterloo was a man asleep on the ground on a piece of cardboard.  He had, what appeared to have been what were his belongings with him, and he was covered by an old tarpaulin.  We passed quietly by at first, but then returned and left a few coins in a cup next to him. We didn’t wake him. We just moved on to our train and our flight from Gatwick and back to Canada. 

What are lessons from all of that? What was learned? Well, it’s about perspective. There’s something about travel that’s very real. We see things that we are not used to and then we return to our comfortable everyday world. It’s true though that once something is seen, it cannot be unseen. 

I feel so very badly about my anger a few weeks ago at a bump on my wheel during a drive up a St. John’s road that was under repair. The lesson though is learned. 

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca