not arrogant enough
Originally posted November 30, 2007
Three years ago today Pierre Berton, a Canadian icon, died at the age of 84. Being a Canadian icon means not being very well known outside of Canada. Pierre Berton resisted the status of icon, claiming that there were others more deserving. He also stated that “Canadians aren’t arrogant enough.”
Pierre Berton’s childhood home in Dawson City is now the Berton House Writers’ Retreat, where I am typing this blog. So far this winter has been unseasonably warm. The photo is taken from the porch off the kitchen, and shows an icecycle which has broken off the edge of the roof yet remains suspended in the branches. If it was really cold, icecycles would not be forming.
In the upper right corner you can glimpse the cabin across the road where the poet Robert Service lived for a couple of years. Described as “Canada’s most famous poet” Robert Service was born in Scotland and only lived a few years in Canada before spending the rest of his life in Europe. Despite the desperate lack of arrogance in this country, we are keen to assert our claim on anyone who ever sets foot here. By this standard, Ernest Hemingway is, yes, one of Canada’s better-known writers.
