The Icelandic connection - 01.06.2014, Síða 11

Vol. 66 #4
ICELANDIC CONNECTION
153
critical thinking skills is
also evidenced through the
entries in my grandfather’s
Autograph book. One entry
is from Shakespeare’s As
You Like It’: Act 2, Scene 1
The Forest of Arden.
And this our life exempt
from public haunt, finds
tongues in trees, books in
the running brook, sermons
in stones, and good in
everything".
It is a curious story
in the way that it also
connects to me that makes
it interesting. The Icelandic
Canadian connection is
circuitous in relation to
my grandfather, and the
serendipitous connection
through him, to author
Laura Goodman Salverson,
and also to Shakespeare.
I think it is an interesting
coincidence that a long
time before I was born, the
Irishman and the Icelander
were associating through the
Forest of Arden. My name came from my
mother’s school friend Arden, so unrelated
to that source. And that is interesting
enough, however, when I went to see an
open air theatre performance of As you
like it’, in Caledon, Ontario, I was stunned
when the cast opened the show with a
singing of Icelandic band ‘Of Monsters and
Men’s’ tune ‘Slow and Steady’. It seemed
appropriate that the circle of connection
continue as my Vinarterta business had
started when I took cake to an ‘Of Monsters
and Men’ concert in Toronto.
Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto
President had organized the Toronto
Icelandic Airwaves Concert at the El
Macambo to include ‘Of Monsters and
Men’. The band arrived in
Toronto having just signed a
deal with Universal Records.
We had dinner with the
group that night too, and
I was very impressed with
them as musicians and
people leaning into their
brilliance. Their music
was captivating and yet
they seemed amazed and
spellbound by their success
through their hit song ‘Little
Talks’. Also at dinner with
us that night was Dr. Laurie
Bertram, the woman who
wrote her PhD in History
at University of Toronto on
Icelandic Canadian Cultural
History and Vinarterta. The
event, and my cake sold out
to the crowd that day, and
I awoke in the moment to
the idea of the potential of
Vinarterta and have been
sharing this embodiment of
Icelandic North American
culture, pure love and
pioneering spirit, and
shipping all over North America ever since.
The second entry she made is from
Jeremy Taylor, D.D who was Chaplain
to King Charles the First and Bishop in
Ireland who was jailed twice for his views
during civil war in the time of Cromwell.
Laura writes: Dear Friend, and quotes
Jeremy Taylor.
“Here is the wisdom of the contented man,
to let God choose for Him. For when we have
given up our wills to Him and stand in that
station of the battle where our great General
has placed us, our spirits must needs rest, while
our conditions have, for their security, the
power, the wisdom and the charity of God".
The quote came from Taylor’s book,
entitled The Rules and Exercises of Holy