Canadian author, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Carole Shields once said: “It’s a wonder that so many people are good, not that so many people are evil.” This is the focus we should carry through Trump’s repeated threats of economic devastation and annexation.
We are already living it. The foundation of our response to the upheaval emanating from the south is our caring.
Every day, everywhere, just about everyone in Canada is taking care of a family member, friend, neighbour or stranger, as well as the land and the living world. People do so voluntarily, creatively and lovingly. Not because they are paid. Simply because that’s who they are.
That’s who we are. That’s the Canadian dream -- caring is in our nature.
Here’s a snapshot of my neighbourhood. Darlene has invited her brother who is recovering from addiction and mental health challenges to live with her; Jane is an errand runner, confidante and power of attorney for her best friend who is in her final days; Beth is caring for her husband with Parkinson’s; Retired ‘bus driver Joe’ has a new gig in his retirement, driving little kids back and forth to gymnastics four days a week; Julie a young mom of three has become the premier environmental activist in our community campaigning to stop the trains carrying dirty U.S. coal from running through our community; Teresa and Cora oversee a community garden which they laughingly describe as a place where it’s impossible to steal anything because everything is free. Finally, there is Harriett, the glue of our neighbourhood who organizes music festivals and weekly coffee houses with live music.
There’s nothing unique about my neighbourhood. Other versions are happening where you live. Once you pay attention, you see caring everywhere.
These millions of daily acts of caring are what make Canada tick.
These acts of daily caring generate belonging, model hospitality, kindness and neighbourliness and nurture our children.
My late wife Vickie Cammack described these caring relationships as love in action.
I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t been birthed, nurtured and sustained on such love. Behind every business tycoon, politician, artist, preacher, athlete, record setter, public servant, first responder, academic and tech wizard is a caring relationship.
Caring is not passive – it’s political. Caring enlightens our strategies, our policies and our proposals: “Nothing in the universe ever grew from the outside in,” said Richard Wagamese.
That’s why we should celebrate, nurture and learn from caring in Canada.
Rick Mercer agrees: “There are so many people who keep our democracy moving in private and never get recognized. How and why someone gets involved shouldn’t be a state secret -- it should be a state celebration,” he said.
Wab Kinew agrees too. Before he became Manitoba Premier he said: “I’ve traveled enough to realize there are brilliant people in every community who know solutions. They don’t need saviours, they need allies.”
Our caring nature is embodied in Marguerite d’Youville, founder of the Grey Nuns. She self-financed a social and health care apparatus in the mid-1700s to tend to wounded soldiers tossed aside because they were no longer of fighting value to the military governors; rescued babies left to die in the woods and took care of unwed mothers, people with disabilities, the elderly, prisoners, prostitutes and the poor.
It’s in Frederick Banting who gave the world insulin and didn’t charge a penny. And it’s in the hundreds of thousands who complete Terry Fox’s interrupted run every single year.
It’s in the open heartedness of community groups who came together to welcome 65,00 Vietnamese boat people in the 1970s and convinced the federal government to create a way for private citizens to sponsor refugees. That world-first innovation continues to make Canada the most welcoming country per capita in the world.
We see it on full display when disaster strikes. Our families, neighbours and colleagues are the true first responders helping each other out long before the firefighters and emergency crews get there. Think Fort MacMurray, east coast blizzards and ice storms.
Caring opens your heart. It inspires you to work 24/7. To stretch, to innovate, to make do with less. Caring reminds us that sacrifice doesn’t deprive, it endows.
Ask any parent raising children, mother nursing her baby, daughter caring for her father who has dementia, or husband caring for his wife who has a severe illness. They know that letting go of certain comforts is necessary and worth it in order for your life, the life of those you love and indeed all life, to survive and thrive.
Most of all caring teaches us how to grieve in response to the inevitable upheavals in our lives. Grieving teaches us that while our hearts may be broken in response to individual loss or community tragedy, they never shut down. In fact the opposite is true.
Cracked hearts sparkle like a mirror ball. Or the light in a Mary Pratt painting.
I’ve been a community organizer all my life. I’ve learned that popular support always comes before bold political decision making. And popular support emerges when people realize they are part of something bigger than themselves.
Caring reminds us of the plurality we are. Of our vulnerability, if we go it alone. Of our interdependence. There is a direct link between caring for each other and caring for our country.
The basic unit of Canadian democracy is a caring relationship. It’s the ethic of care that unites us. Our elbows are up. Our eyes are open. Our hearts are even wider.
Al Etmanski is a community organizer, social entrepreneur and author.
QUOI Media Group
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