Buck up! Enjoy winter while you can

Canucks are known worldwide as hardy, resourceful and rugged individuals, but I think we've gone a little soft. The number of pre-winter and winter storms have taken their toll and proven the point. People are worn out already even though the heavy lifting, in a metaphoric sense, has only just begun. Everywhere you go folks are grousing about the bad weather, bone-chilling cold and the persistent dumping of snow. Maybe we’re not dressing warmly enough, taking our vitamins or eating our Wheaties, but it’s true; we’re just not as tough as we used to be. This is Canada, not Pebble Beach. Winters are bitter, long and leach our energy as surely as money goes out the door to pay the heating bill every season. It’s a drag, but you can do one of two things: hunker down inside and curse every flurry that whips into a Nor'easter, or get out in the stuff and stir things up. That’s what I recall doing as a kid. There’d be three feet of snow and my mom would bundle us up and boot us out into the drifts. I suspect she had plenty else to do and didn’t want us underfoot, but growing up in Doaktown, New Brunswick, convinced her that fresh air, no matter how cold, was good for growing kids. We’ve tried to communicate a similar philosophy to our children. They love winter -- prefer it, in fact, to summer, which they say makes them sweat too much -- and they take every opportunity to enjoy the snow. I can’t say I thrill to a bumpy toboggan ride the same way they do since my posterior doesn’t fit on the conveyance as comfortably, but you (if you’ll pardon the pun) get my drift. It’s good old-fashioned fun. So buck up, people! Groundhog Day is right around the corner, Valentine’s Day follows that and then we’ll be looking at spring. In the meantime, live up to our heritage. Take winter no matter what and show the world that to be Canadian is to tackle it head-on, with few complaints, face turned into an icy wind and toque pulled firmly down around our ears. Bring it on, I say. We have the stuff, we are Canucks, and we can handle it!