ASSINIBOIA - I had some time over the weekend - no wait, that’s not exactly true - I TOOK some time over the weekend, to read the true story of one of my family members who lived back in the early 1900’s. Her name was Carrie Borgerson-Juelfs. She wrote the story herself in the latter years of her life. She called it: “Life Without Roses”. The title alone pretty much tells her story. In a life filled with hardship, heartache, heartbreak, and despair, this amazing woman pushed through it all, and lived to tell the tale.
As I read of life way back then, I was amazed at the grit, pluck and determination of that particular generation of pioneers, homesteaders, and new Canadians. I believe I was mostly struck with the harsh realities of the life they were dealt, and the tenacity and single-minded resolve it took for them to simply survive.
Carrie’s story left me wondering if I have the necessary pluck to have lived back then. I will never know for certain the answer to that question, but I realize now, after reading her story, that I DO come from good stock, and hopefully, am made from the same mettle as she was. I am proud to be part of her progeny.
I won’t share much of Carrie’s story now, dear reader. It’s far too long and grievous to recount, but as life back then was staring me boldly in the face, I gained a whole new perspective and appreciation of just who those folks were who settled this great and vast land in days gone by. They were not sissies, pansies, or ‘lily-livered’ chicken hearts. They were tough, resilient, no-nonsense individuals who did what it took just to survive. Some folks may have flourished back then, but most didn’t. It was a time of harsh realities and tough living conditions. There were few smiles, and very little laughter in the air.
One particular scene from Carrie’s story painted an all too vivid picture for me in the recesses of my mind. When she and Herman, her husband, built their first wood framed house in the Uplands near Wood Mountain, it had a dirt floor. Imagine that. A dirt floor! Many folks had dirt floors. It was nothing new. The table they ate at was homemade, and the chairs they sat on were old, wooden apple crates - all except for a single stump from a tree that once stood exactly where they wanted to build their home. It was ‘smack-dab’ in the middle of Carrie’s kitchen floor. That old stump was the sturdiest chair of them all, and was known to be Herman’s chair. Now then, I have sat on wooden apple boxes used as chairs when I was a kid growing up on my grandparent’s farm west of Rockglen, but I have never had to sit on a tree stump to eat a meal. Have you?
Most of today’s generation have never heard of such a thing, much less having experienced it. Heck. I’ve never even heard of such a thing! Today, it seems, we must start our adult lives and marriages with the best of everything: a brand new home, new furniture, and a couple of new cars resting inside a two-car garage at the end of a two-car driveway. Most of us today, have never experienced really tough times, but our grandparents, great grandparents and ancestors have.
They survived a couple of apocalyptic World Wars, the devastating drought and great Depression of the 1930’s, and the horrifying Spanish Flu of 1918-1920. They experienced hunger, heartache, sickness, pain, and death, beyond all belief and all imagination.
Lest you think I’m ‘down’ on today’s younger generation...I’m definitely not! I’m very optimistic about some of the fine things I see in some of today’s youth, but I must say that I do worry and wonder if the human component of inhabitants of this old world is up to the enormous challenges that face us today.
Especially now with COVID raging out of control and the four races of humankind that are doing a terrible, terrible job of living together here on the earth. So much for peace and harmony. Don’t get me started on that!
Mother Nature on her own does a much better job of managing our planet than we do, I think. I am not the only one who feels this way. Russell Means, a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, who lived from November 10, 1939 to October 22, 2012, said, and I quote: “Before I was six years old, my grandparents and my mother taught me that if all the green things that grow here on earth were (suddenly) taken away, there could BE no life. If all the four-legged creatures were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all the winged creatures (of the air) were taken from the earth, there could be no life. If all our relatives that swim and crawl here on the earth were taken away, there could be no life. BUT...if all human beings were taken away, life on earth would flourish. That is how insignificant we are!”
That’s a powerful and important message coming down from the wisdom of the ages. It’s a message that our children and grandchildren need to hear. It’s a message we all need to hear. It’s a message we should be teaching in our schools.
COVID-19 is kicking us hard in the gut. Without mercy, it has turned our whole world upside down. It’s hard to stand tall and upright through the uncertainty, heartache, sickness, death, and untold loss of today. Hopefully COVID will force us to learn quickly the things we need to know in order to survive.
If only we could be like those who have gone before us. Tough, creative and courageous. In the midst of our deepest fears. Perhaps the best we can hope for, is that COVID will force us to focus on those things that are really important in life. Perhaps, with any luck at all, she will bring positive changes to our negative thinking, our screwed up values, and the things we presently hold so dear. That’s the way I see it, at least. From where I stand.
