I have lived a number of places in my
life. I grew up in the farming community of Nowheresville,
Saskatchewan. Like many, I left that small town and moved to 'the
city' where I went to University. After that, I traveled around a
bit and lived in a few places varying in population from 7000 to 2
million until I returned to Saskatoon with my husband to start a
family. We've been here for 10 years now, and I'm proud call home it
home and thrilled to be raising my family here. I have nothing to but
the winters to complain about, but one thing is clear to me after
years of living here and there...This whole small towns-small minds
thing?...It's a load of crap.
During the first number of years when
we were back here in Saskatoon, of course we were eager to establish
a network of friends. We met lots of people, dabbled in different
hobbies and friendships and capitalized on lots of the opportunities
living in this city affords us. There was lots of flux and change and
new experiences during this time until we had our three children and
life “slowed down” a little. After that, some friendships came
and went while others stuck and stayed and became a lifeline—people
we hope to know and love forever. But I have to be honest, when I
reflect on the circle of people I have accumulated in the big city of
Saskatoon... I have never been part of a more homogeneous group.
I am saying nothing bad of these wonderful friends of mine, but we do
all come from the same income bracket (-ish), we live in the same
type of neighborhoods, we come from similar backgrounds, and, I would
even go as far as to say, we share to same values. Perhaps it is
natural that things have played out this way, but I guess the irony
of the whole situation strikes me. Here I am settled in metropolis of
Saskatoon—by all counts a very diverse community where I brush
shoulders every single day with different people of varying races,
religions, values, incomes, backgrounds—yet I maintain a more
singular circle of people than I ever did in Nowheresville!
Diversity is here in Saskatoon--there's
no doubt about that. It's right at our fingertips everyday in this
city, but the reality is that the people inside our house that
share our lives with our family would
all fit pretty nicely into any type of box you'd like to put us
into. Living in the city, I think many of us take comfort, not only
in surrounding ourselves with like-minded (I've always hated that
term) people, but also in anonymity. I certainly do. We value closing
our doors at night to what is going on in our community—living in
our own bubble, as they say. You know, I used to have this neighbour
here in Saskatoon who was a loony as a one dollar coin. She was
opinionated, rude, and occasionally a bit nasty to my kids so I as
much as I could I avoided her. If she was out front when I pulled up
with the van, I took my time parking or rushed the kids into the
house and closed the door. It was just easier to pre-empt any
unpleasantness that any
encounter might bring.
All of
this is markedly different than my experience growing up in
Nowheresville. There was no 'closing the door.' There we truly lived
in community. We all went to the same church, we played on the same
hockey teams, we bumped carts at the grocery store, we stole
back and forth to each others' houses freely. For better or worse, we
built community together. We lived side by side in a way that is
different from 'the city.' Rich or poor, culture by culture,
different values by different values, we made it work. We didn't have
the comfort of 'closing the door' because these people were inside
our homes sharing our
lives with
our family every
single day. There was no escape short of being a hermit. We didn't
have the luxury of falling out of friendship with another
because we knew it would be SO awkward when you had to see that
person face-to-face at the hockey rink for the next 10 years. You
knew Suzie and Sammy Gossip and kept your mouth shut when your were
with them, but you forgave them for the tireless efforts they made
for local charities. If experiences like that don't make an open
mind, I don't know what does.
I say
this because I don't think the size our mind is in any way directly
proportional to the size of our town. There are small minds wherever
you go, and, believe me when I say Nowheresville has a special way of
forcing a small mind wide open! Here's the thing, I don't come from
Nowheresville, SK where minds are small and diversity is a nuisance. That place doesn't exist. I come from Macklin, Saskatchewan. And in
Macklin Saskatchewan when you have a loony neighbour that's
crochety and opinionated, maybe you know that she had a daughter
that died at the age of two. Or you forgive her when she's been a bit crappy to your kids because you suspect it's been difficult for
her coming from a long line of abusive alcoholics. Maybe you end up
sitting next to her at the church social and find you have a few
things in common after all. Maybe you see first hand how her
fortuitousness serves the community well. In Macklin, you
learn about her, from her, and she opens your mind.
For all the fabulous people who make Macklin, SK a fantastic place to grow up...
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