On Friday, February 7th Erica-Rose and Sean Burgess were blessed with the birth of a healthy 7lb 13oz. baby boy: Auden Russell Henry Burgess. As you’ll recall, the Friday of his birth was a bit of a rarity. Environment Canada’s dire winter storm warning actually came true. But Erica and Sean missed it by the skin of their teeth. They left for Ottawa around 8:00 on Thursday evening. And, even though they had to kill some time waiting for admission to the Ottawa General’s birthing unit, they were safely off the roads. “Looking out the window,” Sean recounted to me in an email, “we were glad to have left early and to have missed travelling in the worst of the storm.” Auden crawled out from under the proverbial cabbage leaf at 2:42 Friday afternoon, and the new nuclear family was back in Dunvegan by Saturday evening.
Being a nosey so-and-so, I asked Sean for a few details behind the wee tyke’s name. I learned that Auden is now the fourth generation of this Burgess lineage with Russell as a middle name. Russell comes from Sean’s paternal great grandfather Edmund Russell Glennie, who disliked his first name and went by his middle or surname. Both Sean and his father Stephen were close to Russell Glennie and honour his memory by carrying on his middle name. And Sean explained that Henry is Erica-Rose’s mother’s maiden name (Karen Henry), so Auden has a connection to both sides of his family through his name.
As for ‘Auden,’ Sean went on to say, “it was a late addition to our list of possible boy’s names, but kept growing on us.” Auden is, of course, a nod to the great English poet: W.H. Auden. Auden’s poem ‘Stop all the clocks’ achieved worldwide fame when it was recited during the funeral scene in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral. ‘Auden’ is also a variation of the name ‘Alden’ which is derived from ‘Ealdwine,’ an Old English name meaning old friend. “We liked both associations, as well as how it sounds,” Sean admitted. In conclusion, Sean told me Erica-Rose is recuperating and they are getting used to the new routines of being parents. I refrained from bursting his bubble with a caution that, in twelve short years, that bundle of joy in his arms will morph into a teenager.
Worship at St. Columba
My friend and semi-retired clergyman Jim Ferrier asked me to remind members of the Kenyon Presbyterian Church in Dunvegan that worship for this coming Sunday, February 23rd, will be held at the St. Columba Presbyterian Church in Kirk Hill at 11:00 am. I was curious why the service had “switched channels,” so to speak, and wondered if something was amiss at Dunvegan’s old stone kirk… or if we had collectively done something to annoy Him or Her. However, Jim assured me there nothing wrong. He went on to explain that, for the months of January and February, the two churches worship together in the Kenyon Church Hall. “It’s a cost-saving effort for both,” Jim told me in his email, “…and as an added bonus, there’s good fellowship during and after worship.” As to why the joint service on the 23rd is being held in Kirk Hill, I was told that the St. Columba Church is holding their Annual Congregational Meeting after the joint worship service. So, it made sense to have them host the service. By the way, this two-month joint service arrangement wraps up next Sunday. As of Sunday, March 1st, the two congregations will part ways and revert to individual services… until old man winter returns in 2021.
You missed a fun one
I know there’s a very good chance you weren’t at Saturday night’s movie at the Dunvegan community hall. I was there and could count the number of audience members digitally… by using the fingers on my hands. It’s a shame you missed it. Co-produced and starring Craig Ferguson (who also wrote the screenplay), Saving Grace was a charming addition to the ‘small town pulls itself up by its bootstraps’ genre. And to top things off, Laurie Maus and Bob Garner showed two excellent shorts. I especially enjoyed the satirical sketch of two progressive millennials ordering an organic chicken restaurant meal. If I remember, I’ll include the URLs when I upload this column to my www.dunvegan-times.ca blog.
Saving Grace is one of the few marijuana grow-op films I’ve seen where the plants actually look real. The reason for this is that they were. To quote from the IMDB Trivia page for this title: “The British government gave the filming crew permission to use 150 marijuana plants, under supervision of the authorities. This meant that the plants had someone guarding them on the set, and watching over its transportation to a nearby storage facility for its safekeeping at night.” How it is that the British government came to have 150 pot plants on hand to lend to the film production company is not explained. Perhaps it’s precursor to a whole new “Stay Calm & Carry On” campaign.
The next film in the DRA’s Saturday Night at the Movies series will be on March 21st. It would be great if you joined us.
“Give us back our land”
On Saturday, February 15th, Terry showed me a very interesting Facebook post. I’m not a big Facebooker, but every once and a while something floats to the surface that engages me. And this post from someone named ‘Wun Feather’ (who self-identifies as an ‘Indian’) smacked me right between the eyes. Here’s a brief excerpt: “You will never hear me say that you owe me any land. As Canadians you have already given me the most important things. And that is the freedom to carry on my Indigenous culture and traditions on Crown Land. I don’t want my land back. I already have purchased my own, and I have the rest of the Canadian Boreal forest to do anything else I want to do. Thank you Canada. That is more than enough for me. Oh. Just one more thing. Thanks for not standing in my way when I go to work each day. That would really suck if you did that. And I promise not to stand in your way either. That’s what us real Indians call A GOOD TRADE.” It’s worth hopping on Facebook and reading the full post. And while you’re there, you might want to read Wun Feather’s February 16th post on the difference between Hereditary Chiefs and Elected Chiefs.
-30-