Here’s what I’ve decided. Canada is the long-term care employee of the world. Understated. Not taking itself too seriously. Uneasy in the spotlight. Kind and compassionate to a fault. If another country were lying in a nursing home, Canada would be sitting at its bedside long after the shift was done. Canada would bring it a cup of water. Canada would cry — though probably not make direct eye contact while doing so.
I say all this because Canada Day happened earlier this week — you might know it by the more common spelling, Canada D’eh. It’s my homeland, the place of my birth, where all the wonderful, unremembered childhood events that have scarred me for life occurred. It’s where I developed my infectious pessimism — or rather my correct understanding of reality, as we like to call it up there — and where I learned not to think I’m so special or get all full of myself.
As fortune would have it, I was driving through the prairies of southern Alberta on July 1, and noted that even on this well-deserved commemoration of its birth, Canada didn’t get all puffed up and prideful. Except for those craggy and arrogant Rocky Mountains way off in the distance, there was no jumping up and down shouting, “Hey, look at me!” The country mostly just lay there, completely flat.
That’s the one way you shouldn’t be like Canada, actually. As a long-term care professional, you’re doing something no one else can do nearly as well — even if they were willing to. So when you get your special moment in the spotlight, like during National Nursing Home Week or when the mayor inevitably hands you the key to the city, step out of your humble zone and be more Rockies than prairie. Stand up boldly with the sun on your shoulders and the wind blowing across your summit and say with pride, “You know what? I’m pretty great.”
Unfortunately, as an actual Canadian I can’t do that myself. I’d lose my citizenship.
Things I Think is written by Gary Tetz, who cobbles these pieces together from his secret lair somewhere near the scenic, wine-soaked hamlet of Walla Walla, WA. Since his debut with SNALF.com at the end of a previous century, he has continued to amuse, inform and sometimes befuddle long-term care readers worldwide.
