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Musings_Paradise

Feature Article September 25

Feature Article September 25, 2002

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Paradise and our kidsThe Mazinaw has calmed down now that the summer tourists are back to their hectic lives in the city. I took the opportunity to sit on the dock with feet dipped in the lake to enjoy our solitude, after two months of screaming personal watercraft. "Nice, isn't it!" and there beside the dock, Maizie, my favourite monster, raised her head. "That it is, Maizie. Nice to see you again. Will you join me in a little peace and quietness?" "I will, Laddie, for we may not have paradise too long. I hear some of you guys want to build an all-seasons resort in The Land O' Bottled Water. Do that and the so-called shoulder seasons will be just as noisy as the summers and winters. Can't you see and hear the conventioneers whooping it up all night on pontoon party boats as they tear about the lake?" "Maizie, it won't be on the Mazinaw. Remember a few years ago a private resort was suggested in Bon Echo Park and the local residents took up cudgels and knocked down the suggestion before plans were even drawn up. The same thing will happen again." "Laddie, Laddie, if not the Mazinaw, then some other lake in L.O'B.W. The writing is on the wall. We are the only relatively unpolluted area in eastern Ontario and some locals are trying to cash in on it for fame and fortune." She had a point and I mused out loud, as we elderly tend to do. "Perhaps, Maizie, but it will give employment to our young people; one of the selling points for the concept." "Huh, employment; teach them to be chamber maids and grounds keepers; call that a favour? Look farther ahead, Laddie. Local kids have always had to leave home to get further education and good job opportunities and it's not going to change. There are limited opportunities here to start a business and hire local help. I hope you don't think an expensive resort will hire young untrained kids to run the joint, nor will it buy locally to help business." "Maizie, you are not keeping up on the news. Starting next June, all the kids will be leaving school a year early. Our teachers can now stuff all the information needed into their little heads in 12 years instead of 13. I am sure that it wasn't just superstition about 13 that caused this change. Have more confidence in our educational system than that." Without giving time for a reply, I continued, "Now kids can be finished high school at 16 or 17 years of age and armed to face the world." "Armed with what? Laddie, at that age some are still in adolescence, too young to be tossed out of their homes into the arms of city temptations. I do read the papers and I see that some universities will be having counsellors on staff to advise them on how to deal with alcohol and hangovers. That doesn't sound like maturity." "Maizie, this is the very problem the high-end resort will solve. Let the kids work there for a year, make some money, mature a bit more at home then scamper off on their own." "Great idea, Laddie. Can you guarantee they will bank the money and not spend it on a set of wheels or get overly excited with hormones to take advantage of the opportunity?" "No guarantee, Maizie, but they will be at home and hopefully taught and guided for another year by their parents. I have a little more faith in the parents' judgement of maturity than the Ontario Government's." She knowingly smiled and slipped under water, leaving me to muse about my faith.

With the participation of the Government of Canada