2. Beryllium
a) A shiny object
b) A sort of metal
c) confusion
d) None of the above

3. Cantabile
a) Fissile
b) Inflated
c) Songlike and flowing in style
d) None of the above

4. Delirium
a) A state of abnormal excitement
b) Permanent brain damage
c) Shouting and singing in high tone
d) Both b & c

5. Edacious
a) Effective
b) Voracious
c) Consuming
d) Both b & c

6. Gauntlet
a) A metallic instrument
b) A dare
c) A glove with an extended cuff the wrist
d) None of the above

7. Gusty
a) Savory
b) Tasty
c) Both a & b
d) None of the above

8. Iridium
a) Shiny
b) A precious metallic element
c) Dull and coarse
d) None of the above

9. Loiter
a) To linger aimlessly
b) To waste time
c) Related to dogs
d) Both a & b

10. Ribby
a) Related to laughter
b) Related to fiber
c) Having prominent ribs
d) Both b& c

Answers:

1. (c) 2. (b) 3. (c) 4. (a) 5 (d) 6 (c) 7 (c) 8 (b) 9. (d) 10 (c)

Your Score:

8-10 Excellent
5-7 Good
1-4 Need improvement

⁽⁰⁾

And then we blame the stars and the circumstances. And then, we start wishing. If only I was born somewhere else, some other house, some other city, some other place, any place but this. . .

Why did you not buy a good gift for me? Why don’t you express enough love? Why can’t you be like my friend’s companion? Why do you act weird when with company? Why do you dress shabbily? More questions again, and the wishful thinking. If only I was married to someone else. If only he/she had someone understanding. If only I could make more money and make everyone happy. Why does it always happen to me? Oh it’s the stars. . .

Life passes. We pass sulking. And then the compunctions. I could have been a writer, but then I had kids. I could have been a painter but then I was juggling two jobs. I could be a journalist but my parents wanted me to be a doctor.

Life was not written before our initiation. She came with us; before that she did not exist, neither for me, nor you. She writes what we want Her to. The pen, we give. Then we carry out life and she keeps writing—obedient servant. What did we carry out, that is the question? Was it our love for something? Or what they wanted us to do? The quality of the paperback will depend on whether the soul was an ingredient or not? If not, it will be pulp. For it to be a classic, find the soul, the calling--pursue it. When you find your true love, there is no time for misgivings. There are no stars and we become destined to be what we want to be. It is always about wanting. If we don’t have something, we did not want it enough and love it that much.

What do you know of Love except the name?
Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain,
and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion.
Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal:
it has no interest in a disloyal companion.
Rumi, ‘Love’

So be it.
Lovingly,
Manjit

⁽⁰⁾

Gladly we come again to do it all once more
Building sand castles by the shore
Until the sea comes to wash our castles away
My sweet love, maybe we will play again some other day

Does anything in this life ever last?
The sea, the wind, a blade of grass
The eternal process of coming and going
Back into itself all of life is continually flowing

The Self within is the same as the Self without
This I say beyond a shadow of a doubt
Between us there is no separation; we are all but only one
The Self that dwells in the heart of man dwells also in the center of
The Sun

Transcendence
Now and again I take a stroll down memory lane
Over the hills, into the valleys, across the plains
I must admit I loved a starlit night spent dancing in the rain
With those twin sisters named pleasure and pain

I prefer a sober view of life now
Before the majesty of it all I bow
Those who are not humble will in turn be humbled
En route this mountain top even best climbers have stumbled

Striving for perfection can surely drive a man insane
But strive for less and you have strived in vain
There was a time when the pursuit of truth had me reading and
studying constantly
Now my only aim is to live this moment consciously

In order that the hands of time may forever stop
And in the sands of time many a soul has been lost
Only to be found again when the time is right
May sweet darling do you have some time tonight?

Sameer Grover lives in Hamilton and can be contacted through his Email.

⁽⁰⁾

What is called birth is change from what we were,
And death the shape of being left behind.
Though all things melt or grow from here to there,
Yet the same balance of the world remains.

"How many creatures walking on this earth
Have their first being in another form?
Yet one exists that is itself forever,
Reborn in ageless likeness through the years.
It is that bird Assyrians call the Phoenix,
Nor does he eat the common seeds and grasses,
But drinks the juice of rare, sweet-burning herbs.
When he has done five hundred years of living
He winds his nest high up a swaying palm-And delicate dainty claws prepare his bed
Of bark and spices, myrrh and cinnamon-And dies while incense lifts his soul away.
Then from his breast-or so the legend runs-A little Phoenix rises over him,
To live, they say, the next five hundred years.
When he is old enough in hardihood,
He lifts his crib (which is his father's tomb)
Midair above the tall palm wavering there
And journeys toward the city of the Sun,
Where in Sun's temple shines the Phoenix' nest."

As Ovid describes, the Phoenix comes from Assyria, but this bird is described at various places which includes its Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian, and Native American counterparts. The mysterious beginnings of the phoenix (also fenix or phenix) can be seen in its very name, a Greek word that also means "purple-red," "crimson," "date," "date palm," and "Phoenicia." The date palm continually renews itself, and Phoenicia is "the red land." Together, the several words suggest that the bird is associated with red and purple and comes from the East, land of the sunrise. Traditionally, the phoenix has been sacred to the Sun.

Fêng-Huang is the Chinese equivalent of the phoenix, has three legs and lives in the Sun. The Feng is the male and the Huang is the female, together symbolizing everlasting love. They have the head and comb of a pheasant and the feathers of a peacock. The plumage blends the five colors and the song of this bird constitutes a harmony of five notes.

The Ho-Oo is the Japanese counterpart. The Ho being the male bird, and the Oo the female. It comes to earth to do good deeds for people, and this appearance symbolizes the beginning of a new era. The bird then soars back to heaven anticipating a new era. The Ho-Oo is seen as a symbol of the royal family, representing the empress. It also symbolizes justice, fidelity and obedience.

The Benu or the Egyptian sun bird also comes close to the description of the phoenix. This bird is identified with Ra the sun god. The word Benu in Egyptian means purple heron and palm tree. Just like the phoenix, this bird was identified with the temple of the Sun god at Heliopolis.

Interestingly, all these birds are identified with the Sun and are very similar to the bird described by Ovid. However, the first mention of this bird was by Hesiod in the eighth century B.C., and the most detailed account is by the Greek historian Herodotus. He says, "I have not seen it myself, except in a picture. Part of his plumage is gold-coloured, and part crimson; and he is for the most part very much like an eagle in outline and bulk."

As Pliny recorded, a maggot is born from the bones of the older bird and grows into the younger phoenix. The Roman historian Tacitus said that the dying bird builds a nest and "infuses into it a germ of life."

If we coalesce all these descriptions, the Phoenix emerges as a large eagle or heron like bird with red, crimson, purple and gold feathers and is also known to have a melodious voice. It lives in a distant garden of flowers and crystal springs. When its wings become heavy with age, the bird builds a nest of spices, herbs and barks on the tree top of date palm. The heat of the sun ignites the twigs, and the phoenix stands in the flames with its outspread wings and burns to ashes. In the cool starlight a young phoenix is then formed from the remains of its parent. The re-born bird spreads its bright new wings with the rising sun and greets the day and when it has grown up and gained sufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own cradle and its parent's sepulcher), and carries it to the city of Heliopolis (the city of the Sun, as Ovid describes it) in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the sun. Its own parent and its own child, the only one of its kind in the world, the aged phoenix dies and is reborn over and over again, through all eternity. It is supposed to live a long life which could be 500 years, 540 years, 1000 years, 1461 years or even 12994 years. The bird's legendary counterparts in China never die at all and live in the Land of the Immortals. This is the Phoenix as we know it, the bird that self-reincarnates from its own ashes.

By the fourth century A.D. the phoenix myth had changed so that the mature bird self-immolated after turning its nest into a funeral pyre. After three days, it "rose again". Thus the phoenix became identified with the resurrection of Christ and became a symbol of both immortality and life after death.
Myths and fables always have a lesson for us. Greatest of the mythical birds, the phoenix is the triumphant symbol of rebirth and renewal of the human spirit; it is mere ash (ounce?) of strength it takes to build and reconstruct all that is lost, once again. It is a patient task, takes the whole night of bad patch to revive, but the sun finally does dawn and before you know it, you soar high again. The cycle goes on. And on.

⁽⁰⁾

The moral and satirical relevance of the anecdote of legendary folklore hero Mulla Nasrudin is aptly applicable to the modern day movement of spiritual education sweeping the Western nations. Unsuspecting people desperate to find inner peace and satisfaction are falling prey to the methods of sham spirituality and false enlightenment. God, mind and universal consciousness are fashionable wares to be sold to spiritually impoverished public in a consumerist environment. Enlightenment and spirituality is on sale!

Ever since modern science took reins to explain everything ranging from God to AIDS, the conventional old definitions of religion, spirituality and inner meaning of life have been conveniently brushed aside.

French philosopher, Rene Descartes’ three fateful dreams in the early 17th century proved to be a watershed in the direction and growth of science for the next three hundred years. The permanent division that he drove into body and mind are still practiced in the areas from medicine to engineering. The knowledge that grew in the wake of this, has dominated the worldview since then.

A new kind of religion, then emerged: the religion of materialism. As science progressed, old wisdom of mystical philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and other major religions were thrown out of the window in favor of new ‘objective and rational’ data flowing out of the science laboratories. Humans came to be considered as sophisticated pieces of machine. Religious theories or contentions, which could not stand the rigorous acid test of the so-called ‘scientific’ examination, were simply considered featherbrained invention of unscientific thinking.

This revolution not only altered the complexion of humanity at large, but also catalyzed a major cultural transformation. In the olden days, people used to worship God in churches, temples, and mosques. Nowadays, the worship has taken different connotations and meanings. Corporate houses and universities are the new temples. Books, journals and scientific instruments are the new scriptures. However, nothing has changed except the object of worship. The old mind-set is still there. The old form of God and spirituality has transformed into the new convenience of science and technology.

Unfortunately, over-reliance on material philosophy has raised a Frankenstein in the form of a fractured family and social system, growing social irresponsibility among kids (a Stanford University psychologist speculated that computers and internet options at home or elsewhere leave the kids with a lost sense of social responsibility for they have far less time to mingle physically with other kids to learn the healthy ways of society), violent trends among youth, substance abuse, alarming dissatisfaction among workers (In North America alone, a large percentage of the workers in high-performance industry are depressed or are suffering from similar disorders) and above all, a stubborn sense of emptiness in life.

These disturbing trends in society and failure of scientific understanding to guarantee a magic cure for all social and medical ills forced introspection among people. Old questions and queries revisited once again and whispered about the flaws and limits of science being more audible.

In an interesting side development, the mystical nature of the writings of Albert Einstein, Neil Bohr and Werner Heisenberg--in which they supported the wisdom enclosed in ancient scriptures of various religions--became more apparent. The ancient philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, which hitherto were considered vague and unverifiable, found a new voice and support.

During the same time period, old science of Newton and Laplace was being replaced in the laboratories of West with a new understanding of quantum world (smallest particles like atoms, protons and electrons). That was the end of ‘pure and objective science’ and beginning of a new science (which considers that everything is interconnected). This is where religion and science met to some extent, though reluctantly and after a prolonged labor pains.

As hard-core scientists and other skeptics began reconciling to the shifting view of the science and its far-reaching implications, a new wave started fascinating the Western nations: eastern mystical philosophies. Fed by the growing general dissatisfaction in life, it launched a multi-million dollar industry of providing inner peace and contentment to the despaired souls. Our old materialistic tendency took another dangerous turn and this time in the form of spiritual materialism. But why have humans taken another wrong turn? Here lies one of the darkest secrets of human psychology.

In a very short duration of time, the traditions of yoga and meditation have gained a widespread reputation and applicability in erstwhile suspicious Western nations. Scientists who were bitterly opposed to the usefulness of these techniques and methods started experimenting with them. The old cynicism gave way to a more receptive attitude of ‘let us try it’. The first notable scientist, among others, to put meditation under a scientific microscope was a Harvard physician Herbert Benson. He investigated the effectiveness of Transcendental Meditation on various psycho-physiological measures and found it working. The initial findings were published in the 1972 edition of the prestigious magazine Scientific American.

Since then more and more research has focused on yoga and meditation and its salutary effects on health. It has gained a niche in the western lifestyle and nowadays engaging in meditation is considered a status symbol. Involvement of celebrities has added another dimension of glamour to the whole affair.

It must be understood that Western philosophy, more or less, is driven by the age-old paradigms of attaching much importance to data about objects. That type of knowledge is gained by dissecting the objects into finer and finer elements by a method commonly known as reductionism (reducing everything into minutest particles or divisions).

The underlying psychology behind such a tendency is the compulsion of western mind to divide things to understand their real nature. One presumption that goes with this kind of scientific understanding is that by knowing all individual components of a particular thing, we will be able to predict the total nature of that thing. For them, the sum of the individual parts is equal to the total function of that part. For example, scientists hope that understanding the function of each part of the human brain will help them solve the mystery of mind and consciousness.

As we see, the growth in spiritual industry is too hard to dismiss. The newspaper advertisements, brochures, new magic books, retreats and excursions are too common to miss. Not only do these retreats and camps claim to equip people with infallible wisdom to find inner peace and happiness, but also, in some cases, certify the attendees for using the same knowledge for running professional services to the needy. It is becoming a quick business and no qualification can be easier than a yogic or meditative one. Few days of attendance and one becomes a certified teacher. Mystique and reverence attached to these disciplines provides an additional lure.

Sadly however, it constitutes a situation of irony and mockery that spiritual wisdom that took centuries to distil and take shape is being doled out in weekend workshops?

Why? If you look deep into the whole issue, you will find a disturbing semblance. The same materialistic mentality is at work. Self-claimed experts of yoga and meditation have learnt the basic postures and movements of these disciplines and have started thinking that learning few dozen slow-motioned gyrations of body would make them a yoga or meditation master. If that was the case, why did a Master have to spend his whole life doing the same things over and over?

It is not the postures that are the crux of these techniques and methods, but the basic existential philosophy underlying them. Postures are simply a way to control the body and for eastern traditions, body is the only first step in self-realization. Body is just a vehicle in the total transformation and that total cannot be conceived and understood without the personal experience of controlling the mind.

In Taoism, it is said that, ‘If it could be told, then everybody (enlightened) would have told their brothers’. Such is the privacy of spirituality that even the Buddha would not be able to help if a personal journey is not undertaken.

During brief retreats and excursions, it will be truly difficult to train even the body, let alone the mind. In that situation, the education provided and received is only half-baked. It is very important to have an adequate personal experience to teach the inner traditions. Unlike some mathematical principles, it cannot be learnt in weekend workshops.

Then what is being peddled? It is the old materialism under the garb of spirituality.

Mulla Nasrudin is coming true!!!

⁽⁰⁾

Born and raised in Alabama, Sara was the youngest of the three children. She had a great childhood and loved sports. She had loving parents, only her mother smoked. She came to Canada in 1997 to study for a year, but ended up graduating with BA in Theatre and meeting her future husband. In the November of ’97, her mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and soon the doctors removed one of her lungs. The following June, Sara was married, which was a quiet family affair because they did not want to stress her mother with her condition. The same year in August her mother was diagnosed with brain tumor which was also operated upon and everything went well but unfortunately the next year in August, she was diagnosed with another tumor in the brain. Luckily, the operation was successful again. Once again, in December, the same year, she was diagnosed with another brain tumor. During this time she had to undergo radiation therapy, which was January 2000. In April 2000, her brother got married and at the wedding, everyone could tell that her mother was not well. On May 12, 2000 Sara got a call from her father and he told her that her mother was in the hospital because she had infection in her intestines. Everyone went to see her and on May 20, she died of the infection. She was 55 and Sara mere 25.

With her mother’s death, Sara was broken and did not take it very well. She was doing some odd jobs at that time (which included a receptionist in a company and coordinating at another place), which she quit and wept all the time. After a couple of years, when she felt better and stabilized, she decided to write a story about her mother. This, she sent to the Toronto Fringe Festival (a theatre festival). Meant for small, local amateur talent, they called her and she staged her mother’s story and her fight with cancer. Traveling various places, she mainly staged this small play in Toronto, London and Vancouver. There was no looking back after that. She got calls from the Cancer Society of Ontario, Dordt College, Iowa and Minnesota including various schools and Cancer Society conventions where she readily performed.

Sara still performs these plays and apart from the applause she gets in the performances, it is the conviction and hope that her audience derives, that gives Sara the ultimate satisfaction. She recalls one incident in Toronto, when after her performance a very upset looking guy came up to her and she gave her condolences presuming that there must be someone with cancer in his family. To her surprise, the guy gave her a huge hug and confirmed that everything was fine in his family and that he felt that “he had lost her mother.”

The first year after Sara’s mother’s death was cathartic, especially going through her letters, pictures and knick-knacks. Later and even now, the performances are more of a job and inner calling. But the audiences and the affected families definitely find her performances cathartic. Especially because of the courage and humor with which her mother braved through the deadly illness and her anecdotes Sara uses in her performances. She recalls, after her mother’s second tumor surgery, there was a huge smiley face sticking on her head and when asked, she said that it was a free tattoo they were giving to anybody who had brain surgery. She (her mother) was not afraid to be crass and rude with her jokes and laughed the whole way through. It seemed she was always ready to go, which helped the family with closure. There was nothing left unsaid between and amongst the members of the family.

Setbacks of life: Sara divides her life in two halves—before and after her mother’s death. Earlier she was a free bird, careless, physically fit and lackadaisical. Later she became angry, cynical and also gained weight; her discs in the lower back erupted and as a result she had to have a surgery in 2001.

Sara has a daughter now, she has never been a smoker and she has pledged never to do so in life, the price of which she saw her mother paying, every moment through her disease.

Acting Career: Even after a degree in Theatre from Redemer in Ancaster, it was difficult getting a break in the real world of acting. She auditioned for various companies and one fine day light shone. She got a small part in a play in which one of the actresses had called sick and rest is all history. She has recently worked in a film called ‘Friend of Mine’ scheduled to be released in February 2006. There are occasional setbacks, as with every field, when she is rejected for a role, but her loving husband (a contractor) sees through those low phases and cheers her up.

Her source of inspiration: Her Mother and her Jewish grandparents from World War II who had nothing and made everything. Most of all, God and the feeling that she is being taken care of, in spite of all the imperfections.

Her message to the novice in acting: “Keep auditioning and if it does not work, write and stage your own stuff. Most of all,, enjoy your family.”

For anyone touched with cancer: “Laughter and comedy helps, as it made my mother’s final years enjoyable and memorable. Have hope; believe in miracles, not everybody dies from it.”

You say it, and we believe it!

For bookings and more information on Sara’s forthcoming shows, please send an email to her.

⁽⁰⁾

Bob Henderson teaches this stuff at McMaster University in Hamilton—and clearly lives it. His bright and breezy writing style serves him well in clambering over an impressive number of often little known northern travelers and sources. The book has a foreword by fellow outdoor-educator turned author James Raffan and is dedicated to the late C. S. (Stuart) Mackinnon, who has done so much to bring our past stories to life with books like Arctic Artist and others. A great mentor to be sure, and Bob has done him proud with insatiable curiosity and peripatetic ways.

This is not a canoeing book per se, though it plays a large part for sure. Bob skis, hikes, snowshoes, dogsleds and horsebacks his way along many great trails and writes their stories. The book is divided into three sections—Places, Practices and Peoples. He was also inspired by two canoeing greats—Eric Morse and Sigurd Olson and he is not alone there! Henderson is able to cast a wide net of resources from 14th century Japanese texts to Ian Tamblyn, modern songwriter. He is immersed in the academic world of the outdoors and shares generously.

Henderson tackles the tricky and ethereal nature of humankind’s relationship to the wild. The very subject is like trying to remember a dream. You recall certain hints of it, a flavor but like biting a tomato seed—it’s elusive.

This is a solid book with many, many references and it is not light reading in that sense. Some of the areas covered include, The Labrador, Algonquin Park, Notakwanon River, Nueltin Lake, Milk Rier, Teslin River and the Churchill River among many others.

Bob examines the routes and the people who lived there, those who traveled there and the many traces left behind.

To me, one of the most interesting exchanges in the book is a meeting with legendary northern Manitoba trapper Ragner Jonsson who lived in the bush for more than 60 years until he was 84. He was famous for his solitude, known for journeying200 miles by dogsled to Churchill for food and leaving within the hour. Surely, such people are the overlaps of history, clinging to a classic traditional existence in a modern world, a great romantic figure. So it was with some delusion that Bob and his companion were greeted by Ragnar when they paddled into his odiferous, disheveled camp with “Ahh tourists.” I think it would be hard for such a character to insult Bob for such is his generous nature and intellect. He would find a way to make some understanding of it. But it seemed to me, he truly fulfilled the book’s later quotation of Canadian historian Michael Bliss who said, “We have to find a way to make history smell again.”

The book is a trade six by nine inch paperback with many grayish illustrations of some very fine photos that would have cried out for better reproduction. The numerous maps are clean and informative. One picky point that appeared and also showed up in Raffan’s books is why do they always display the distances in both metric and Imperial? Pick one and stick with it, I think we can all figure it out by now.

One of my all time favorite northern books is Exploration of Northern Canada which is simply a listing of every modern northern canoe trip in Canada up until 1920. This seminal work contains no prose, just people, dates and locations. Every Trail seems to be halfway to that and a traditional northern book. There are so many directions you can take off into, thanks to Bob’s generous directions.

Like a fine malt whisky, this book should be sipped slowly, give time for the taste of the heather to spread and finish. It’s one of the many trips worth taking.

Originally published in Che-Mun, The Journal of Canadian Wilderness Canoeing. Summer 2005, Outfit 121.

Every Trail Has a Story
Heritage Travel in Canada
By Bob Henderson
312 pp 83 photos 17 maps
Natural Heritage Books
Toronto 2005
ISBN: 1-896219-97-7

⁽⁰⁾

I reprimanded my soul seven times!

The first time: when I attempted to exalt myself by exploiting the weak.
—Gibran

Our life as it is, our everyday life, is a matter of relationship. Living is a relationship…And there can be relationship only when there is great affection…only when there is sense of contact, a sense of communication, a sense of communion. All that implies a great affection.
—Krishnamurthi

⁽⁰⁾