Wonderful acts of human goodness, east and west

I’m just home from Edmonton, (minus 14 degrees), where I had gone to check in on three teenage grandchildren, ages 13, 15 and 17.

They are thriving in their downtown high school, where Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s kid goes.

All are entirely bilingual, one rides a horse. She has actually met the cast of CBC TV’s Heartland, oh joy. The grandson plays Mozart on the piano but declines to earn certificates or credits for that pleasure. The other granddaughter plays soccer three times a week, Edmonton being the national centre for women’s soccer.

I also wanted to get up to date on all things Alberta. Number one, the sales tax is 5 per cent. Everyone knows it should be higher: the revenue is needed, but it would be political suicide for any leader to suggest that publicly. I toured the really beautiful new hockey rink, the Rogers Centre, with a sculpture of Wayne out front hoisting the Stanley Cup. I posed with Wayne and heard the story of the centre.

The NHL brings huge pressure on cities which have hockey franchises to build bigger, better sites at public expense. Former Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel resisted and took five years to broker a deal with the league to share costs. The centre is all glass, curves and open space and has access to the LRT and an adjoining park.

Do you know that in Calgary before the recent mayoral election (Naheed Nenshi won), Gary Bettman came to town to campaign against Nenshi, who is taking the same firm stand for his city?

I learned the bus system and made my way to West Edmonton Mall. The skating rink is being renovated so I wasn’t able to take a turn at that. Sears is, alas, closing there too. I was in line to buy a cooking pot and got chatting with a young couple from Saskatchewan as I admired their chubby baby. When my turn came at the cash, this smiling young mother said to the clerk: I have a leftover Sears credit for $2.50. Please apply it to this woman’s purchase.

Wow. From Saskatchewan to Ontario via Alberta. National Unity.

The second goodness story comes from Peterborough. There was a message on my machine when I got home. The talented craftsman-artist John Madill had read that I was to give a public talk on Nov. 14 on my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain. He wanted to give me a detailed model of the Cathedral in Santiago which he had built via the craft of card modelling, which is popular in Europe. It is a work of art, about two feet square, with two bell towers, a cloister, a clock tower and walls with flags that look like the setting for knights heading off to the Crusades. Each of the four facades opens on to a plaza. In four days there, I never did figure out which door opened onto which plaza.

All is made of paper, finely wrought, richly decorated, probably taking as many hours to make as the original medieval churches did. John has 50 such models in his home. He has given one of Peterborough St. Peters Cathedral to the bishop, and three to Trent University of their various buildings.

Small acts perhaps, but they lift one up. I am resolved to make pleasant small talk wherever I go in town. And no complaining. Nine out of 10 times, it is welcomed; service people moving groceries along, coffee servers wishing one a nice day, delivery men coming more than once.

Yes its platitudinous, but perhaps the oil that will smooth a rough patch for someone and contribute a little something to what is called quality of life in Peterborough.