Something’s Rotten in Denmark!

Sound the alarms! Call Greta Thunberg, Nordic world climate activist to rally her followers to go to Greenland ASAP! Nobody in the whole world should look the other way while a global emergency unfolds before our very eyes. Look up everyone!

It’s one thing to turn our heads when violent wars destroy landscapes and lives—innocent bystanders—-watching the world powers play games with nuclear threats day in and day out—-threats making hostages of the whole world. We all know this feeling of helplessness at the hands of power-wielding governments. We stand in solidarity against them waving flags and written cardboard signs. Stop IT! We say.

Looking the other way is exactly what an imminent threat is meant to do.

Threats can be loud like a missile or quiet like a tug boat pulling up in the dark of night on the coast of Greenland. That’s exactly what happened while we in the Northern hemisphere slept a few nights ago, resting on our laurels while the greedy ones made their move. Wake up everyone!

After months of threats to “take Greenland”, the world must sit up and take notice. Do not look the other way as barges bring oil-drilling equipment from Texas under the auspices of a newly-formed oil company called—Greenland—not an idle threat—-a strategic move to take something without permission that does not belong to them. Some children never learn, do they? It is up to us to teach them by sending a loud and unequivocal— Hell NO! Later will be too late to save something. Whatever you do—DO NOT sit idly by.

Here is the information on the company named GREENLAND—not to be mistaken with the country:

Board Members and Affiliations

• Larry Swets Jr.: Chairman and major shareholder. [1]

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• Carol Craig: Class I Director, audit committee member, and CEO/founder of Sidus Space. [1]

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• Roderick McIllree: Board member appointed with the board-level title of Managing Director to oversee Greenland regulatory and permitting relations. [1, 2]

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• Melanie Furlan: Board Director. [1]

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• Phil "Dr. Phil" McGraw: Retained by the company to produce a documentary series capturing the exploration project, though not listed as a formal board director.

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/greenland-iwarning-trump-linked-oil-firm-prepares-drill?CMP=share_btn_url

https://youtu.be/FGpC91qs8yA?si=-qmdsjvpJBm7XbQc

The 49th Parallel

It took six weeks, but it finally happened. I was walking along in the neighborhood where I have been enjoying summertime, when I witnessed the following scene:

A man of about 80 years saying, “Welcome to Quebec. Are you from New York?

A man in his car smiling said: “Brooklyn”.

A third man wearing a chapeau and sipping coffee at the sidewalk cafe said: “We don’t like your President. In fact, we hate him”.

I stopped for a moment noticing the yellow New York license plate wondering what might happen next. This spontaneous exchange took me by surprise because in every interaction I have had both this summer and last, Canadians have kept their thoughts and feelings about those from below the 49th Parallel to themselves.

Clearly, these sentiments have been simmering and coming to the boiling point. It’s only natural when someone feels threatened to strike back. The latest tariff threats on Canadian goods may be the tipping point. The expansion bridge across the Detroit River meant to unite two countries by easing the transfer of people and goods saw only a one-sided ribbon -cutting here above the 49th Parallel.

I come from a long line of Quebecers, and the one thing I know is that we value heritage: language, foods, faith that bind together a culture that sticks together in solidarity. When my grandparents joined the mass exodus in the early twentieth century from Quebec to New England they settled together in “Little Canada”. They were not looking to be Americanized, they were looking for work.

They never gave up their Canadian citizenship while doing the most difficult work of America’s Industrial Revolution. My mother at age 15, dropped out of school and worked twelve-hour days as “mill girl” standing at the wool and cotton looms that pushed out products the country needed to thrive. She, on the other hand, turned over her weekly pay to her family trying to survive which was the case with millions of immigrants. Theirs was not an easy life.

What sustained them was their way of life within a way of life that was foreign and would always be until grandchildren and great-grandchildren, me and my children, all American -born turned the tide. They tolerated our Americanized ways outside the house, but at home and particularly at our grandparents’ home, we were French Canadians first—Franco-Americans. I wore both proudly without ever knowing how the elders had suffered when leaving a homeland they loved while wanting most of all to preserve it for their growing families.

I would say they are more entitled than most to say: “We do not like your President. In fact, we hate him”. Yet, they stop there without lumping all Americans with the politicians. Where this goes is anybody’s guess, but I know there is a kinship between both sides of the 49th Parallel that will always be shared

WorldAtlas.com

1908 - A treaty between the two nations is signed, establishing a joint commission tasked with surveying and delineating

the border between the two neighbours.

What We May Be . . .

The catch all phrase “spiritual practice” comes across as a kind of ritualistic notion that bears repetition like a mantra. In times gone by, and in some places even today, rituals like reciting the rosary are practiced together in a particular place. In secular settings the practice can look like yoga, tai chi (of which there are so many promotions with promises of weight loss), or, of course, a meditation practice. It is not the chosen form that matters, but the practicing…like learning to play the piano or hitting a perfect tennis serve. Practice makes sense if you aspire to some thing.

The older I become, the more I see why it matters that I have a spiritual practice, though I do not think of this in those terms. Years ago in a job interview for a Quaker Friends Youth Coordinator, I was asked by the sixteen-year-old boy on the committee: “Will it bother you to know that I do not have a spiritual practice”? I responded, “No. Will it bother you to know that I do”? Why does it matter?

As far as I am concerned, the time spent in solitude, morning and evening, are the bookends of my day, setting the tone for either the day ahead or the shift from day’s strifes. Who doesn’t need a little help with both nowadays?

It began for me during a crisis when a therapist asked: “Have you ever tried meditation?” WHAT? I am going out of my skin here! For some reason, I agreed to try it for three minutes a day. It was the longest three minutes of those days. My young daughter looked askance at me sitting on the floor. I had one eye on the clock. She did not have a spiritual practice like the Quaker boy—except that he actually did without naming it as such.

The other important thing that he said to me was: “Quakers appreciate long silences”. I knew we would get along. He taught me that one doesn’t need to name something in order for it to be a “practice”.

A few days ago when a friend and I talked over a looming situation, I remembered something that has sustained me since my early twenties—a book! Some people carry a Bible, I have carried and dog-eared and underlined and worn out the binding of What We May Be: Techniques for Psychological and Spiritual Growth Through Psychosynthesis. The essence of this so-called self-help book, is in the title: What We MAY Be. The possibilities for becoming all that we are meant to and might aspire to amounts to practicing a way of being.

This is a life’s work, if you ask me. But, never too late to start practicing that one thing that sustains the soul—-because when the time comes—and something will come— everything already learned and accomplished through practice will help you to “rise above” whatever has come your way.