SUCH A GENTLE, PEACEFUL, REMARKABLE DAY
I read in a local publication recently, how our regional government is planning to seek our opinions (in the near future) about the kind of future we wish for Muskoka. While I’m always delighted to find any government body that appears even modestly interested in what the public has to say, I’m skeptical there’s any room at the table for someone like me, who might wish instead to refuse development for a rather lengthy hiatus period, versus encourage urban sprawl further into our beautiful hinterland in the name of progress. I firmly believe we have sacrificed a great deal of our environmental future already in this region, by accepting unnecessary development for the sake of appearing progressive and dynamic. And yet when the local hospitals face serious cut-backs in services, and have an uncertain future ahead, where are the progressives when you need them. They’re hiding, that’s where, hoping it will all blow over. You see, much of the salesmanship to developers, coming from government in our region, is based, as security, on the fact we have a competent medical community and a number of health care facilities close at hand. In the case of luring retirement community investors and citizens to our area of the province, there have been many mistruths presented, such that a hospital closure would be as remote a possibility as a recession. Guess what? The same folks who denied we were going into a recession, over a year ago, are likely the same ones who would argue that nothing could ever compromise our local health care services. So if my opinion is ever sought, which I’m not counting on, I would draw to their attention that greed and speculation mixed with poor insight and projection, is what has endangered Muskoka all along.....and given a writer like me reason to doubt whether public opinion will ever outweigh the determination of developers to strip, bulldoze and build upon every open foot of paradise. It would be nice to think that, for the record, some of our over-development concerns would be noted for posterity at least, so historians in the future can look back and see "what went wrong with public policy" and how money speculation, as a holy grail, sold out another natural gift for profit.
As I look out from Birch Hollow today upon a snow-laden Bog, (one that we almost lost several years ago to development interest), I only wish it was possible to more fully explain to those in power, those with money and influence, just how restorative a place like this can be, if only, one would take the time to walk its paths.....free of cell phones, pagers, and deadlines; and discover that there is an inner truth here about life, death and eternity, beckoning rediscovery. Alas I fear that business will continue to get in the way of objectivity, the kind of insightfulness that might lead local politicians to guard our natural resources with the same zeal as they worry about the health and welfare of their own families. The injuries to our region, the compromises to our way of life in rural Canada, affects us all in one form or another.......and if you have read any of my outdoor writing whatsoever, you will appreciate that destroying our landscape for quick profit would have given this neighborhood in our little town, another row of houses to stare at, at the expense of the natural environs of an important wetland that filters run-off water which eventually enters Lake Muskoka. Was the fight to save this wetland, The Bog, worth it? Just think if we could save many more important natural areas because they’re not just environmentally sensitive but because they are vital to our way of life in the hinterland.....where being surrounded by healthy forests and waterways is good for the heart and healing to the soul. Is there any room for an old poet, a weary philosopher in this new initiative to map out the future of Muskoka? I think not. Unless of course I can make this all an economic stimulus! Heart and soul.....well being, peace of mind, inspiration not found in a bank roll? Preposterous!
Most recently my father, Ted Currie Sr., passed away in his 85th year. When I was ten or eleven years old, existing in an urban neighborhood in Burlington, Ontario, my father jumped at a chance to work for a lumber company in the Town of Bracebridge in this beautiful District of Muskoka. He didn’t want his son growing up in the city, as he had, in Toronto’s Cabbagetown, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Canada. I can’t explain what the move has meant to me over the decades other than to say it brought me to this present Walden at Birch Hollow.....a quiet little street abutting this tranquil woodlands not so far from the main street of Gravenhurst. He lived his final days in an equally picturesque spot on the Muskoka River, near the Bass Rock rapids, and I know that he never had even a sliver of doubt, about his 1966 decision to move his small family north.....a calculated adventure to a region of open spaces and thriving forests, tumbling waters and oh so much potential for escaping the workday stresses. When we received the call that Ed had passed away, I looked out upon the snowscape covering over The Bog, and I thanked him, spirit to spirit, for giving me this precious experience of life in this important ruraldom on earth.