Rest in peace my dear friend… you helped me to understand what I should have known all along.

On the 139th birthday of my favourite nation in the world, I am grateful that my Canada Day began at 7:00 am with my paying my last respects in my own way to quite possibly the finest person I have ever known. Because I got to know him late in his life, it is hard to know to what extent he had always been the great person I came to know and to love. Was he always this way? Or, did he continue to grow throughout his life to become the truly exceptional person that I knew him to be in his final years?

These are important questions to ask given that we all need reflect on our own lives from time to time and with humility look at where we have been and where we are going. What is it going to be like when we finally “get there”? Depending upon how you look at it, it is either ironic or serendipitous that the final month of my dear friend’s life was also possibly the period where I experienced in my own life the most learning and positive change. It is easy to repeat mistakes that are familiar to us because of just that … they are familiar. My friend provided the gift of "awareness", which helps to break the familiar links with that which is not emotionally positive.

.

The good news that in the final days of the life of my dear friend I may have uncovered the most “powerful methodology” I have ever come across in all my travels. The “Laws of Power” haven’t got anything on this stuff, baby.

In a peaceful kind of way, it was only because these were the final days of my friend’s life that I was able to receive possibly the greatest gift ever. With this, anything I set my mind to do is possible. Thank you for that. This “stuff” is similar to that which made the great philanthropist, Walter Russell, experience an awe inspiring life in the previous century. I mention Mr. Walter Russell because …

I now “understand” what Walter Russell was getting at all along …
And, Mr. Russell and my late friend share different parts of the same name.

All in all, both were highly inspirational people who deserve credit in helping me to have the confidence to craft an absolutely perfect life. After all, if one is really inspired by the thought of having a view from the water‘s edge, I assure you it shall manifest.

With that being said, the Edgewater Views’ theme that I have developed since July 2006 at viewsfromthewatersedge.blogspot.com must evolve with the “thinking”. It is possible that making that which is ‘unjust’ just via activism may have been attracting more injustice than justice at the end of the day. This does not mean that governments should be released of their obligation to compel the justice industry to be gender neutral when handling matters of the family. This also does not mean that Justice Marvin Zuker should not be held accountable for not living up to the standards of performance that are needed to maintain the credibility of the judiciary.

However, if the mission at Views from the Water’s Edge is really about blogging to help improve the world, with my recently acquired wisdom brings with it a new approach. In the honour of my late friend (who helped me to understand more in less than one month more than I ever did previously), I retire as a “blogger-activist” as of today.

In the future, my articles at Views from the Water’s Edge will be about creating positive change in a way that is more in line with that of a “blogger-philosopher”.

One last thing you should know about about my dear friend is this … he wasn’t quite as old as Canada, but he was getting there. What made him “Russ” is that he would genuinely appreciate the humour in my having pointed out such an observation. After all, we had a good laugh in February when the last birthday card I had the privilege of giving him made a reference to how very old he would be in “dog years”.

Thank for everything dear friend … I love you. (R.E.C. 1914-2007)