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Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

Thinking you’ve got choices; Ontario the Bad; and the Battle of the Blues Bands…..

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Ya know, away back in 1976 when I was a wee lad and just starting at the University of Guelph, I discovered the “nature-nurture” debate. First semester at Guelph and I ran into it in intro philosophy and psychology courses. This famous debate – which has never been suitably resolved – argues that either we’re born who we become – we’re genetically hardwired to become the person we become – or that it’s mainly our environment that shapes who we are in life. Well, as I reach advanced old age and having been a keen observer of life for most of my time on the planet, I’m more into the “luck” thing these days. I’m not sure what nature and nurture has to do with anything – and I’m also not sure there are many free choices in life. It’s common these days to say that life is all about choice – if you’re living on welfare and can’t hold a job and your kids are juvenile delinquents, then it follows that you’ve made some really bad choices in life. If you’re rich and own a couple of companies and your kids are over achieving tennis and golf stars, you’ve obviously made good choices in life. Right? Wrong……It’s all about luck, people, and the sooner we get that straight, the better chance we’ll have to make things run a little more smoothly. Before I was born, I don’t remember having any choice about even whether I wanted to be born….or where I was born….or who my parents were….and whether they were rich or poor…..or drug addicted…or alcoholics….or Zambian gun runners….or Haitian refugees…..And, believe me, those little items have a whole lot to do with where you end up in life. They don’t guarantee where you’ll end up in life, but they have a major bearing. Then, once you start to travel through life, there is an enormous amount of chance involved….Who you end up sitting beside on the school bus or in school…even how your brain is hardwired….whether you’re artistic or technical….whether you’re left or right-handed…just a whole lot of things going on there that you have absolutely no control over, but which will profoundly affect how you live your life and also which choices you’ll make when you have a real chance to make what seems to be a free choice in life. Nobody who ends up on the downside of life wants to be there, folks. Every single person on the planet wants to be successful, but stuff gets in the way and prevents that….at least that’s what I think.

So, back in the 1960’s and 1970’s Ontario was actually referred to as “Ontario the Good”. And that’s because our drinking establishments closed at a decent hour and weren’t open on Sunday, our liquor and beer stories were closed on Sunday, there was generally no gambling and our stores stayed closed on Sunday as well. Also, I think there was something about strippers and G-strings, but I’m outta that loop. In any case, we really were “Ontario the Good”. Well, needless to say, we’ve lost that monicker some years back and the new nickname for the province should perhaps be “Sodom and Gomorrah” (sp.). Two announcements from the McGuinty government within a week of each other. First, we’re getting into the on-line gambling business in 2012 – good thing the world is ending that year or I’d be ticked – anyway, the government spotting a new way to ruin people’s lives, as if it’s not already working hard enough at that in other areas. And we’re now getting into the “extreme fighting” business as well. I’m a little sketchy on that one, but apparently we’re going to start licensing these events which border on gladiator fights in old Rome minus only the death. Good heavens, people, what in the world are we doing to ourselves? I don’t know but that a friend from the old days recently asked me if we’d really slid that far since the ‘60’s. And I have to answer with a resounding “YES!!!!” Morality is perhaps too much to ask for of such a technologically sophisticated bunch as us, eh? Anyway, I’m an old man these days and glad of it because I find the world a confusing and somewhat bewildering place….

Want to wish the Tom Lockwood Band great success when they journey to Memphis next February to take part in the International Blues Challenge…..One of the bands I play in – Southwest Blues Review – was part of the contest sponsored by the Great Lakes Blues Society at the London Music Club last Wednesday evening. Tom’s band won the contest and I was almost as thrilled as if we’d won. I thought it was a great achievement to have two Chatham-Kent bands in a contest that only included four bands in total. I thought we played well enough to win, but don’t feel badly about losing to a musician the calibre of Tom Lockwood, who is one of the best in Canada and beyond. Really want to thank Augie Polowick, Rob Watson, Byron Brunton, Tom Trembley and Leia Weaver for taking me to such musical heights. It was a huge blast…..

Out of time for another week and could have kept going for a while….writing just feeling good at the moment….take care and remember….”Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may.”



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.