As I watch the groundswell of knee-jerk xenophobia following
the Paris terrorist attacks, I am compelled to invoke the voice of reason.
Thoreau said “It’s never too late to give up your prejudices”. The upcoming
American Thanksgiving offers a perfect segue from offering thanks to giving up
our prejudices.
My Thanks go back many years, first to my parents, who
raised me both color-blind and agnostic, leaving me open to the available
wisdom of whomever I might encounter in life’s journey. Theirs was probably the
greatest gift I have ever received, and so Mom, and Dad, my most heartfelt
“Thank You”.
But there are many others to whom I owe a debt of thanks…
Thanks to the Christian family who billeted me on a band
trip to Abbotsford in 1965. I never properly thanked you for the lovely
hardcover nonfiction book which you asked that I return someday. I never did,
but that copy still graces my personal library shelves, and I think of you
every time I take it down to reflect on the generosity of strangers.
Thanks too to my oldest friend, a born-again Christian who I
met on my first day of college, and who, many years later told me, “Children
aren’t the most important thing in life. They’re the ONLY thing…” I sometimes
wish I had seen the wisdom in that a decade or two before I did, but as Thoreau
said…
Thanks to the Jewish
family who sponsored me when I won an Air Cadet trip to Israel in 1967. Your
hospitality was complete and unconditional, even though I was an uncouth
gentile teenager who took your generosity for granted, and never properly
thanked you at the time.
Thanks to the gregarious Inuit guides who showed me the
ropes on northern Baffin Island in 1970. I suspect your religion was some form
of animism, but you gave me the benefit of your rich experience, and gifted me
a pair of sealskin mukluks which hang beside my desk to this day to remind me
of the importance of human contact and support.
Thanks to the Hindu workers in the Quesnel plywood plant in
1975 who took pity on me when I was a green “fishtail” handler, and ensured I
made quota each long and lonely shift on the assembly line. You kept me on time
and on task when I was ready to throw in the towel.
Thanks to the many wonderful Mennonite colleagues who helped
me transition from struggling classroom teacher to seasoned teacher-librarian
in Abbotsford from 1978 to 1985. Your support and encouragement kept me in the
game, helped me find my niche in education, and set me on the path to 26
wonderful years as an International school educator.
Thanks to the warm and generous elderly Sunni Muslim
shopkeepers in the old Souqs of Tripoli who shared with me their sorrow at the
travails of their country under Qaddafi.
When I found myself one of the few Caucasians in Libya after the
American bombing in 1986, you ensured that I remained a welcome guest of the
Jamahirya. When I think of Libya now, I think of you.
Thank you to the gentle Jain, the international school
support worker whose kind nature helped me to aspire to non-violence,
non-absolutism and non-possessiveness. I have mastered none of these, but I am
a better person for having known you and learned even a tiny bit about your
religion.
Thanks to the Shia Muslim tour guide who welcomed me to
Cairo in 2000 and provided my 35 privileged international school teens with the
most wonderful, open and unbiased introduction to Egyptian history, culture and
customs that I could have hoped for. Because of you, my friend, I have vowed to
someday bring my own children to see your wonderful country.
Thanks to the legions of warm, welcoming and caring
Buddhists who bestowed “honored guest” status on me in Thailand in 1985. I learned
that any small act of generosity or kindness was repaid a hundredfold over my
25 glorious years there. I returned to Canada in 2011 a calmer, gentler and, I
hope, a wiser husband, father and son. Thank you Thailand, and the Buddhist
people, for giving me a soulmate, a family and a whole new perspective on life.
Finally, Thanks to the Canadian First Nations community who
in 2012 accepted me on equal terms as a non-native Tour Bus Driver and Guide.
Your faith in my ability kept me on the path of continual learning and personal
growth and your ability to still contribute to an evolving Canadian identity
inspires me to see a richer future for Canada than I ever imagined.
My story is the story of Canada. As a once again proud
Canadian living in a truly multicultural society led by a Prime Minister whom I
can admire, respect, and perhaps in small ways emulate, I welcome refugees of
any faith, color or creed to our unique nation. We are ALL guests in this land,
and every new Canadian we admit further enriches and diversifies our Canadian
cultural mosaic.
Thank you, refugees from the far-flung corners of the world
for choosing Canada. Thank you, Canadian voters, for choosing wisely in our
recent election. Thank you, the new Government of Canada, for standing up to
ignorance and xenophobia and putting Canada back on the path to becoming a
world leader in caring, compassion and altruism toward our fellow human beings.
Rob Rubis
Princeton
