Was watching Prairie Giant, the Tommy Douglas Story on TV this week. Near the beginning there was a clip of the early settlers coming to Saskatchewan, or maybe this country in general, and someone read a proclamation that all those who would clear and live on the land would become its rightful owners. It occurred to me how much this opportunity must have meant to people, to leave a homeland that they loved and much of their extended families behind in order to do this, knowing they’d quite likely never see them again, and make this very long and tortuous journey to get here, not knowing exactly what they would find.

Were these incredibly forward-thinking people, very aware of the possibility of making a better lives for their descendants, or were the conditions back home that bad? Of course in many cases they were -- there was religious persection and poverty, and no end to them in sight; and often there was no hope of owning one's own land.

I attended the same high school as the producer of this program. I’m tempted to write him a note in appreciation.

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Everett was telling me about a girl at school who gave a beating (he exaggerated quite a bit, I discovered when he was pressed) to a kid who was always saying rude things to her. Finally, she’d just had more than she could take.

“She’s like you, Mom,” he said.

“Eh? You think I’d lay a licking on someone for saying things I didn’t like?”

“Well, no,” he said, “but you don’t allow anyone to speak to you like that, and neither does she.”

In some ways I wish I was as tough a nut as he believes.