An interesting article on perception..
Seeing Things by Robert Yates
from the Hamilton Spectator
(before they dedicated their Arts section
to Hollywood and the world of celebrities)
THERE ARE NO CONFIRMED SIGHTINGS of mermaids in Hamilton Harbour. No one claims to have seen leprechauns in the Red Hill Valley. If there are fairies in the woods on the side of the escarpment, gnomes around Cootes Paradise or trolls under the Skyway bridge, they remain unseen and unreported.
Stories of these and similar things from Europe and the East are welcome in Canada, but the things themselves do not seem to transplant to this soil. Dragons, zombies and vampires choose to make their presence known elsewhere in the world. Cyclops and centaurs do not come to Ontario. Goblins and minotaurs stay away. Down to earth and all across the land, Canada remains free of an animated sense of mythology, free from living legends and imaginative mumbo-jumbo, or whatever else you want to call it.
As a Canadian with deep North American roots, I have no sense of coming from or longing for another homeland. Even if I did, as a pure-bred mongrel I wouldn’t know which of six or seven countries to turn to. Yet I believe Canada has the most ancient, deep and lively of all traditions, even if it is not generally recognized as such. It is the tradition that says the present is more important than the past. It also says it is better to see for yourself than to take another’s word for it. And even after you do that, it is best to remain skeptical.
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