Accountability A Christmas Message
Accountability A Christmas Message
As we draw to the close of another year and look forward to spending time with family and friends over the holidays I have to reflect on how much our life’s have changed over the last 50 years. I was 13 years old 50 years ago at Christmas time. I was working in the woods yarding logs with a huge old horse that I loved. Our barn had burned to the ground and I had taken the winter off from school to yard logs for a local lumberman in exchange for lumber to build a new barn. We stayed in a camp in the woods through the week and came home on the week ends. At home technology consisted of an old black and white TV with only one channel, a radio and an old crank phone with a party line. My uncle had purchased his 150 acre farm for $2500 two years before.
Life on the farm revolved around the 4 seasons. Spring consisted of fencing, ploughing and planting. I remember baby chicks being kept warm around the wood stove in the living room. A yard full of hens, ducks and geese. Milking the cows by hand. Baby pigs being born and looking for new born calves in the woods. With summer came gardening, weeding and making hay. Fall brought harvest time, butchering a pig and a steer for meat and putting our winters wood in the wood shed. Fall hunting provided fresh deer meat and traveling the woods setting snares for rabbits and shooting some partridge. I remember the fall salmon run in the Stewiacke River where we would stand in the river with a pitch fork jabbing and throwing them on the river bank. Then stuffing them in burlap feed bags to carry back home to can for winter. Winters were spent doing chores and working in the woods cutting and selling logs to the local mill and preparing next years firewood. In the spring the cycle started all over again. That was life in rural Nova Scotia 50 years ago. Social activity revolved around church and Saturday night dances or kitchen parties. Government was small and efficient and most politicians were honorable and respected. Doctors worked seven days a week and made house calls. Teachers were dedicated and in most cases strict and students were expected to work and pass exams without exception.
Society wasn’t perfect there was poverty and alcohol was the cause of a lot of problems back then as it is today. Many sins of the past have come to light today as those abused have come forward against their transgressors so many years later. Evil individuals are finding it harder to function in today’s more open and less tolerant society. That is a tremendous blessing in it’s self. Canada has evolved to be one of the most envied countries in the world and one of the most prosperous so one cannot stay stuck in the past. Times have changed. Our greatest challenge and particularly here in Nova Scotia is to learn from the past. We need to take the good things we learned in the past and apply it to the future. We know we can be self sufficient for we were in the past. The knowledge the internet has made available to the world has instilled the desire to be free in the hearts and minds of those people around the world who are oppressed. They see countries like ours as an example of how they want to live. In many countries they are now fighting and dying to win that freedom. They will win. The next generation will see the world move to one world, one economy and one people. Race will not stop that and religion will not stop that because that is the will of a free people and a loving God. You see world peace and prosperity is the common goal of us all. At this time of year we often hear “Peace and Good Will” for all people. In the free countries of the world. In the United States. Here in our country; in our Nova Scotia we have a responsibility to live up to the expectations of those around the world who admire us. We are their example. We have a responsibility to persevere and overcome our challenges. Our leaders have a responsibility to us to lead the way.
When I looked at the past I looked for one common thing that stood out that we may have lost today. The one thing that we could apply today that would get us back on track. I thought of many things one being faith in God. We have managed to push God into the back ground in our attempts to be politically correct in our schools and institutions. I thought is it work ethic or maybe it is a weakening of our moral fabric. Was it caring maybe we have forgotten how to care or how to appreciate each other? In our desire for material things have we become selfish?
I thought who am I to even think I could write this article. I’m just a good old boy from Nine Mile River and Stewiacke. Who am I to even attempt to answer such a profound and complex question? So I did what I’ve done my whole life I prayed. Fifty years ago if someone had told me I could text a message to someone on the other side of the world and receive an immediate answer I would not have believed it. No body would have believed it. Today it is not so hard to believe that God could receive and hear our prayers. Could our prayers be texts to God? Could our thoughts be monitored by the creator? One word came to mind as I prayed. That word was accountability. Accountability is what is missing today. We are all accountable to God and we are all accountable for our actions. We are accountable for the consequences of our actions. 50 years ago you were expected to be accountable. Today accountability is buried under layers of bureaucracy. Whether it is government, corporations or institutions. We are all accountable to each other. We are all accountable for each others happiness and prosperity. By being accountable we accept our responsibilities and we accomplish the impossible. World Peace and Prosperity is with-in our reach as is self sufficiency. Let us all text God every day for guidance no matter your faith, religion or belief. We have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose. Thank you for reading my article and from my family to yours Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year .
Larry
Accountability A Christmas Message
