A strange Canada Day.  No Main Street gatherings; maybe a muted family picnic.    Maybe a shrug with gloves on.  The polite Canadian nod, with a mask...from a distance.

It makes you long for the days of your uncle bear hugging you in the backyard, your mother kissing you.  Your friend grabbing you by the arm and hugging you as only old friends do.  It is like typing with your fingers askew of the keyboard; things are familiar but little seems to be coming out right.  We aren't fist pumping this Canada Day.  If there are fireworks where you are, they'll be shadows of what they were because, none of us are what we were.

 We are tired, worried, frightened.

There have been many casual, ordinary Canada Days.  Holidays where we have migrated to a cottage or a beach or a bonfire or a park, and gone through the motions of a celebration:  "Ya CANADA!".  We sat on coolers, stretched back on nylon strapped lawn chairs, pulled our hats down over our eyes.  Like drunks, we  declared, that indeed, we are "BUDDIES FOR LIFE." only to wake up July 2nd wondering "who was that guy?" 

Not this Canada Day.  Nothing is as it was.  We are subdued, quiet, reflective.  But for a Canadian, "subdued" is the resting place, the point of stasis.  It should not be confused for a lack of determination.  The pebbles of Juno and the cliffs of Dieppe implore you not to confuse the two.   Canada begins and ends with that quiet, stoic, sober, determination.

That determination has failed us at times and we carry that shame.    Citizens without potable water,  regional insurrections nip at our heels, poverty that persists in a land of plenty.  It makes you want to look away.

But maybe this Canada Day, this quiet Canada Day,  we can see what we have.  Maybe, if we are fortunate enough to see fireworks, we could  draw our eyes away and see our friends, our family, our country in that starburst.   That bright light will illuminate our faces in clear relief.  It may allow us to see this quiet determination, this commitment to the other, this value of a collective response over the swagger of an individual, anew.

Maybe we will see the most Canadian of virtues, civility, as the great weapon against a virus that has brought super powers to their knees.  That civility (wash your hands, respect spaces, wear a mask) is a weapon now against a foe that we can vanquish.   Covid has never met anything like us, it has never met the polite Canadian.

Happy Canada Day.