The Icelandic connection - 01.09.2010, Side 30

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ICELANDIC CONNECTION
Vol. 63 #2
Recession Proof
by Ingi G. Bjornson
The man had heard it said more than
once—through governments, pulpits, and
financial advisers—that it would be good
to invest wisely in life. This seemed to
him to be saying that if we invested
unwisely in life that would make us a
fool, and it only made sense.
The man’s two sons had for many
years built elaborate snow fortresses upon
the lake ice in front of their camp. As
soon as they all came off the trapline in
December until the sun climbed high
enough in late March and started the melt,
they would work on these snow fortress-
es. And the man would help his two sons
over the years, for it seemed to him a
sound investment in life. When some
stopped by to marvel at the snow fortress-
es from year to year, a common question
was, “How long did it take you to build
it?” The answer, of course, was that the
construction was just continually ongoing
until the March sun spoke strongly
against it. Some children play on comput-
ers, some take piano lessons, some play
hockey, and some children build snow
fortresses; for life is a continual trade-off.
And it seemed most fitting for the man’s
two sons to build snow fortresses since
they lived out of town in the bush.
One day, and it truly seemed like just
a day, the man’s two sons grew up. It is
the nature of all things to shed their
youth, from grasses to flowers to trees to
ravens to humans to thoughts and to per-
ceptions of life. Is it not the very spinning
of our world from day to day, from season
to season, that gives it stability? And with
its ancient spinning comes a measure of
time, which prods things to shed their
youth. It is for youth to spread their wings
and to seek the journey of discovery away
from the place of their birth, whether
from the loon’s nest or the trees which
stretch high upwards away from their
roots, to those of the human kind that
must see beyond the hill. And so it was
that the man and his wife had their own
empty nest that first winter.
The man started on the snow fortress
by himself in the cold month of January
of 2009. As the walls grew, with various
rooms and arches and battlements, it
brought back many pleasant memories,
and at times some quiet haunting tears. It
is an ancient truth that we cannot keep
what is not ours, and his two sons were
never his in the first place, for they are
each of sovereign spirit as are all of
humanity’s children. It is true, the man
and his wife shared the same house with
their two sons for many years, changed
their diapers, shared popcorn, and walked
the trapline trails together. But really, the
two sons were never owned property, but
rather two precious human beings who
would one day set out on their own jour-
ney of discovery as we all of us do. The
man knew that his two sons would always
come back to visit, and what more could
a parent ask than that their children would
want to come back to visit? Fond memo-
ries are easier to revisit than are uprooting
ones, and that is an ancient truth, for we
all of us need a sense of meaning and pur-
pose in life to help curb the haunting void
within.
It is good to create something of
meaning with our hands and minds, and it
brought much pleasure to the man to use
his hands to shovel and carve the snow,
for it is also an ancient truth that we need