O Canada!

I'm on the road to Chicago, heading for CPT's bi-annual Peace Congress.  This year, we celebrate 25 years of peacemaking and peacebeing around the globe, hearing from working partners, hearing voices of celebration and voices of challenge.

All that is ahead of me.  But what I'm thinking on just now are all the Canadian friends I've made through CPT.  We're so close and so similar, and yet so very different, Canada and the United States. 

So to the non-Canadians out there, if you've never been, you should go.  Canada has the better view of Niagra Falls and Dan Akroyd, Jim Carrey, and Raymond Burr (hey, laugh if you want to, but Perry Mason is one of the big reasons I became a lawyer!). 

Two Canadians  were the inventors of the first electric light bulb, not, as we're led to believe in the US, Thomas Edison.

On a more personal note, Gregg introduced me to the music of Ben Harper and taught me that a smile is as good as, if not better than, a speech.

Doug taught me to listen better.

Allen taught me that farmers may just save the world, if we'll let them.

Harmeet taught me that caring is a lifetime vocation.

Jim taught me that grace is a verb.

To them all, I am so very grateful.

And call me unpatriotic, but if you're going to have a flag, isn't a symbol of nature and beauty so much better than a symbol of yourself?

Ah Canada!