Elder Advice – Thinking Inside the Box – Week 25
It is hard to keep up with these times. The second wave of COVID appears to be starting in Germany. Should schoolchildren return to class in September? The unprecedented fires in the Brazilian rainforest. How will those without means manage when the federal government kicks CERB to the curb? Will the States remain United until the election, much less after? Riots in Sweden. You heard me right – Sweden. The destruction of Sir John A MacDonald’s statue by vandals in Montreal.
As the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland fame was fond of saying: “It can take all the running you can do, just to remain in the same place.”
Next thing you know my doctor will be telling me not to buy any green bananas.
In the face of all the unpleasant uncertainty, let me offer this.
There is a row of stores close to my office. They have clearly suffered from COVID in that they all closed for months. I needed a constitutional one day this week and wondered, as I passed them, if and how they would reopen and, assuming they did, if and how they would survive. I thought, as I passed other unmasked and scowling pedestrians, that the state of things has clearly made people very unhappy. Just as the months inside have clearly made them much larger. It looks like 28% of Canadians are now 52% of Canadians.
One store was open, or so the weakly flashing neon sign proclaimed.
It sells chocolate, its name and signage confirmed.
Resigned to adding unnecessarily to my own girth, I ventured in. I had seen nothing on display in the window and discovered that inside was no different. The proprietor popped up from behind a display case and greeted me jovially. I asked if he had any chocolate. He said no: there wasn’t any delivered this week. I made a herculean effort not to sound insulting as I inquired why he was open then - given his store only sold chocolate.
And he said: “Well, there is always the chance I will be able to strike up a conversation with a nice person such as yourself.”
I confess I am still processing this, but whatever comes from the final analysis, I have felt significantly more confident about the human race since that day.
Elder Advice? It could not be simpler. Be the Chocolate Man.