I was all set to post a picture of blue delphiniums until I remembered tomorrow is Canada Day and I should choose a picture that is red and white. Except I couldn’t find anything red and white or red for that matter leaving me with just white, a colour that in and of itself isn’t very Canadian but I suppose is better than blue.
I’m not much of a flag waver — blind patriotism makes me nervous — however I do feel fortunate that my maternal relations, like approximately 64 000 other West Indians were able to enter this country due to immigration reforms made in the late sixties.
I’m not Canadian, but since when do you have to be blindly patriotic to be a flag waver? It seems to me–from the view down here in the U.S.–that Canada/Canadians has/have done quite a few things that are worthy of a flag wave or two.
You can appreciate where you are without waving a flag. I’m reticent because no place is perfect — this country is not without its problems — and a lot of flag waving lies in the realm of a more extreme expression of that. It tends to devolve into “We’re #1!” connoting the idea that a place is perfect and that we can’t appreciate what we do have without also being critical of our faults.
Some good things have indeed happened here… things that are worth celebrating and inducing a sense of pride.