Lögberg-Heimskringla - 23.05.1986, Blaðsíða 4

4-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 23. MAÍ 1986
Ritstjórnargrein
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Ahugi á Vestur-Islendingum
Fyrir nokkrum vikum var að
nokkru fjallað um áhuga íslendinga
á frændum sínum og afkomendum
þeirra í Vesturheimi. A síðustu
áratugum hefur þeim verið sýnd
meiri athygli en oftast áður og svo
virðist sem hún fari vaxandi. En það
eru fleiri en íslendingar er áhuga hafa
á fyrirbærinu.
Ar hvert fær Lögberg-
Heimskringla, íslenskudeild
Manitoba háskóla og aðrar
vesturíslenskar stofnanir fjölmargar
fyrirspurnir frá "útlendingum" um
eitt og annað er varðar
Vestur-íslendinga. Sagnfræðingar,
mannfræðingar rithöfundar og
fjölmargar aðrar stéttir manna hafa
skyndilega óstjórnlegan áhuga á öllu
því er varðar Vestur-íslendinga.
Hvers vegna allur þessi skyndi áhugi,
kann einhver að spyrja.
Ástæður fyrir honum eru
áræðanlega óteljandi en hér að neðan
verður sit af hverju kastað fram, sem
hugsanlegum svörum. Vísinda-
mönnum er eittvað til þekkja þykir
Vestur-Islendingar athyglisverðir
fyrir margra hluta sakir. Ýmsir halda
því fram að sökum fremur lítils fjölda
í Norður Ameríku séu þeir hægara
rannsóknarefni en t.a.m. Italir,
Ukraníumenn, Gyðingar, Þjóðverjar
o.s.frv. Þá þykir mörgum mikið til
koma samheldni (þetta kann að orka
tvímælis), bókmenntir, varðveisla
íslenskunnar, útgáfustarfssemi og
svona mætti lengi telja.
Líklega er helsta ástæðan fyrir
þessari forvitni sú að flest öll gögn
um íslendinga í Vesturheimi, er þeir
rituðu sjálfir, eða aðrir settu saman
um þá eru á íslensku en það mál er
fyrir mörgum, leikum sem lærðum,
erfitt aflestrar. Þau eru ekki mörg,
afburðaritin, um Vestur-íslendinga er
sett hafa verið saman á öðru máli en
íslensku þó vissulega sé sitthvað til.
Frumheimildir eru allar á íslensku en
þær fýsir alla sanna vísindamenn til
að rannsaka.
í annan stað má taka undir þá
kenningu að smægð íslendinga hér
vestra og tiltöulega rótgróinn kjarna
(Manitoba) gerir áhugasömum
fræðimönnum hægara um vik við
rannsóknir. Það er ólíkt aðgengilegra
að bregða sér til Nýja íslands og
vinna með íslendingum þar en að
þurfa að leita slíka hópa uppi vítt og
breitt um jafn stóra álfu og Norður
Ameríka er. Þessir landnemar er
byggt hafa þessa álfu eitthvað á aðra
öld, hafa blandast og myndað
þjóðfélagsheild, er uppruna á í afar
ólíkum samfélögum. íslendingar eru
nú hluti af þessari heild, löngum
sáttir við þá staðreynd, en hika hvergi
við að halda einkennum sínum; því
sem þeir erfðu frá forfeðrum er
vestur fluttu.
J.Þ.
Golden Years
They no longer glitter, yet the
banks insist on handing senior
citizens a gold-coloured bank book,
in which the entry indicates a meas-
ly balance credited with daily interest
for a yearly sum total of anywhere
from eight to twenty dollars.
The only appointment you can
make is with your doctor, who
checks you out and asks if you have
any pain. There are lots of those, and
they move around in your body as if
they were synchronized with a Mex-
ican jumping bean.
After checking your pulse and
blood pressure, he may prescribe
tests that measures the state of your
fluids, the breathing apparatus in
your chest, and the pump that cir-
culates the red-coloured energy flow-
ing through a flexible tube system
that fortunately is not made from
asbestos. Next come the chemicals,
compressed into a solid state, which
correct the errors in your system
caused by malfunctioning parts.
Generally it is a pleasant appoint-
ment, as old Doc, usually 30 to 40
years your junior exudes confidence
and proclaims you as basically fit. As
an added bonus, employing a
convincing voice, he assures you that
the magic prescribed will not only
correct the maladjustment but pro-
bably extend your "Golden Years",
allowing you to collect the old-age
pension that much longer. This is
satisfying, for it allows you to recover
more past taxes which the x!*-ny
politicians ripped off from your in-
come before you reached the Golden
Years.
When you drive on the streets and
see an old klonker of 20 to 30 years
vintage, driven by a geezer who can
barely see over the steering wheel
wearing a fedora hat, 25 years out of
style, you can be assured that it is one
of those golden years rip-off artists
living off the fat of the land and mean
enough to put our Prime Minister in
the category of Scrooge, when all he
wished to do was partially de-index
the monthly future take of those free
wheeling "Golden Age" citizens and
thereby balance the budget.
For the staid citizen, after many
years of faithful service, he receives
a gold watch or some golden momen-
to in gratitude for good service, gen-
erally heralded as a hale and hearty
fellow deserving a well-earned rest.
That is all fine but in later years, he
has begun to see his doctor more
often, and those aches very often are
not familiar. Yet he enjoys the
momentary attention of the retire-
ment ritual and accepts the yellow
metal momento gracefully, thanking
all the good people that made his
working career a pleasure even
though he may intensely dislike some
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of his fellow workers and hate the
boss. Yet he exudes words of praise,
goodwill and thanks. As he looks
around, he sees these louts tanking
up on booze, blowing polluting cigar
smoke in all directions, sitting cross
legged in chairs askew, with trouser
legs half way up to the knee, reveal-
ing bargain-counter garters. Not one
of them paying attention to his
speech, so carefully prepared but so
difficult to deliver. Well anyway, he
will soon be away from it all to play
golf with other retired foggies or
or perhaps enjoy a senior citizen com-
pound in the Florida sun, duly pro-
tected from the real world by secur-
ity guards.
The final major business trans-
action is the final disposal of personal
assets by way of a proper will. Opi-
nions in this area differ.
I am reminded of a customer who
has strong opinions in these matters,
namely that your kids can look after
themselves on reaching adulthood,
and that one should spend money
freely. This seemed to me to say, a
predetermined zero estate, but the
problem is how to use your assets so
that they become zero on death
which cannot be predetermined.
That, he admitted, was a problem
without becoming destitute. When I
suggested there was a solution he
became very interested.
The thing to do is appoint a trust
company as the sole executor of your
estate, with instructions to use all the
assets for the construction of a
mausoleum in your memory.
He looked at me dumbfounded and
I thought he suspected that I was a
senile nut. He did not place the order,
but a week later he did, laughing at
my suggestion.
Do not try it, for those kids are like-
ly to contest it in the courts, and
some judge may overrule your will.
Give it to the kids while you are still
breathing.
Instead of "Golden Years" they are
"tarnished years", as the body mal-
functions more and more with aches
and pains shifting within the body
structure. In reality the "Golden
Years" are past and the future holds
forth no more than ashes in an urn,
the popular modern method of
disposal. Einar Arnason
Icelandic Art on Display
From 1983 to 1985 Susan Gold, an
artist from Windsor, Ontario, made
two trips to Iceland related to her
work. The first trip greatly influ-
enced her work. Large drawings bas-
ed on that experience were presented
as an exhibit entitled "In Search of
the Primordial Landscape". An arti-
cle with the same title appeared in
"Icelandic Review” in 1985 illustrat-
ing the experience.
The purpose of the second trip, an
outgrowth of the first, was to create
an environmental installation on the
black lava desert of Skogasandur.
The Ace Art Gallery in Winnipeg
will exhibit the first complete
documentation of the Skogasandur
installation. The fiberglass
sculptures, maps, large photographs,
works based on the experience will
be shown.
A slide lecture will be given on the
morning of May 29 to the Association
for the Advancement of Scandina-
vian Studies dtíthe University of
Manitoba. The lecture will show the
Installation at Skogasandur, the large
drawings and the landscape that in-
fluenced them.
The exhibition opens with a wine
and cheese reception at Ace Art
Gallery, 24—221 McDermot Avenue
in Winnipeg from 7 to 10 p.m. All are
welcome.