Having an elevated level of mindfulness is not the typical default setting of the psyche in teenaged boys, particularly when on summer vacation from school. Most tasks are completed without significant forethought as to the vicissitude of possible outcomes because, unless there is nudity involved, or a new bike, surfboard, or video game, the adolescent’s…
On Thursday evening, March 12, 2020, I sat in a cold hockey arena watching my son’s speed-skating practice while working on the final chapter (which was actually the first chapter) of my book, My Coworkers Think I’m A Pro, when I had the feeling we were being attacked by a swarm of killer crickets. It…
Parkinson’s Law is an old aphorism which basically means that work will expand to fill the time allotted. In other words, no matter how much time (within reason, of course) we leave to complete a task, we will get that task done. For most of my life this notion has served me quite well, though…
Back in the 1980s, among the myriad activities we engaged in as early teenagers, there was paddling. Specifically, those of us lucky enough to have discovered the Otterburn Boating Club, trained hard at making flatwater sprint canoes and kayaks go as fast as possible, and, as a result, we were pretty good at it too. …
In the Spring/Summer of 1995, a companion and I took a hippie dippy, don’t wash for days, eat baguettes exclusively, backpacking trip through Europe to ‘find ourselves’. Truth be told, it was I who was on a quest to figure out who and what I was supposed to be or become (spoiler alert: I didn’t…
In August 1978, my family took a summer trip to Northern British Columbia to visit my aunt and uncle. I remember being very excited for the trip not only because it was far away and would require several flights (one being on a small plane), but also because I was going to get to spend…
“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform”. ~ Roy T. Bennett The principal at the school where I teach dropped this quote at the bottom of the agenda for our most recent staff meeting, causing my eyes to glaze over as my head began to…
When I was a Physical Education student at McGill University, I lived in run-down apartment about five kilometres from campus. The flat itself was in a seedy, inexpensive ghetto of Montreal called St. Henri (it has since been gentrified and is actually quite expensive and chic), and rather than take the Metro each day, I…
Let me begin by stating that I am Canadian which means that I will not hesitate for a second to throw down and engage in an all-out fist fight (known up here as a Donnybrook) for the last chocolate-glazed doughnut (notice the spelling) at Tim Hortons. Of course, I will apologize afterwards, but the doughnut…
I don’t have the fanciest smartphone in the world, or the smartest (in fact when my students see me pull it out, they tend to chuckle), but it does have one feature that I do quite like. Every week it reminds me of what I was doing around the same time the year before. A…
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