Harsh realities awaited us

By John Mohan

This is my eighth summer in Winnipeg and it's been the best one yet.

In spite of the jokes the rest of Canada makes about us and we make about ourselves, it's easy to see why this is the greatest city in Canada to spend a summer. (Winters are another matter.) Take this past Sunday for example -- it was the way Winnipeggers are supposed to live.

Sunday morning I was the guest speaker to a congregation called The Table who meet in Osborne Village at The Academy.

They're a great group of mostly 20-somethings with excellent music and meeting in a restaurant/bar before it opens for the day.

My executive assistant Lindsay Smith and her husband Rob dropped in for the service too.

I'm pretty sure Lindsay came to make sure I actually showed up because as I get older I get a little forgetful about pretty well everything. After church we had lunch on the patio at Buccacino's and talked about European travel. For the first time ever I had a pickerel wrap. As a chronic Big Mac guy, I don't know what I was thinking when I ordered that, but just might do it again sometime.

After a quiet afternoon we met our daughter, her husband and our grandson at The Forks.

With Salsa in the City happening every week, there's no better place to be in the world on a Sunday evening than at The Forks.

The music is fun, the crowds large and free salsa dancing lessons. (But I'm not convinced salsa dancing is a good look for men so my wife has waning hope about me agreeing to sign up for lessons with her any time in the near future. But I digress ...).

Another great thing about Winnipeg is how easy it is to unexpectedly run into friends in a busy place like The Forks. We saw friends we just talked with, and some who joined us for dinner on a whim.

Later, Brenda and I peeled off from the kids and friends and crowds to walk along the river and over the Esplanade Riel to share a bowl of gelato.

The weather was beautiful and mosquitoes few and far between. It was the kind of a day you wish would never end and an evening that would go all year round.

But then there's reality.

The reality is we can't perpetuate Sunday nights at The Forks forever. Reality is the days are already getting shorter and in three or four short months we'll be staring winter in the face with no outdoor salsa dancing or eating pickerel wraps on a patio.

The reality is there are jobs and responsibilities waiting for us the next day.

The reality is that not everywhere in our great city is Forks-like. There are areas of violence, crime, poverty and despair. There are soup kitchen lines and people living on our streets without homes.

True enough, great cities are about the places and people within.

But great cities are also about us leaving The Forks to help make Winnipeg better for us all, including those who are trying to survive just outside The Forks.

-- John Mohan is the CEO of Siloam Mission.

Last Updated: 29th July 2009, 2:34am

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