O Canada... Thoughts on Our National Anthem

O Canada!

we all know how it goes.. many of us hear it every morning at school, but how many of us have really taken the time to examine the words to this song? I didn't.. until recently. I find it very interesting that I have no idea what most of it means.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

The first question that came to mind when I was looking at these lyrics was..
Why native? Obviously we're not all native to Canada, and yet we sing about it being our native land. The dictionary defines native as: "being the place or environment in which a person was born or a thing came into being: one's native land." I have no answer to this wondering..

In all thy sons command? What does that even mean? "In all thy sons command"... The beginning of that line is talking about true love for our country.. but I don't understand the rest of the line.. any ideas?

The true north is rising... strong and free.. haha what an odd mental picture.. I'm not sure what "the true north" is.. but I guess it's probably referring to Canada. Canada is the true north and we are rising. That's nice.

This is my favourite line God Keep Our Land Glorious and Free! Amen! Whether or not it was ever glorious is debatable, at least the human part of it.. i don't know if we were ever glorious, but the nature aspect... definitely glorious! I heard that they were trying to remove this line from the song.. I think that would be a horrible mistake.

The original O Canada had 3 extra verses. I like the last one

Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our Dominion, in thy loving care.
Help us to find, O God, in thee,
A lasting rich reward.
As waiting for the better day,
We ever stand on guard.
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

I wish we would sing that more often. Those are some powerful words right there! Anyway, I should end this. It's getting pretty long! Next time maybe I'll write about the french translation and "why is it hardly like the english version?"
Over & Out
-Emily

Does My Opinion Change The Facts?

It came to my attention today in English class that our world has lost all sense of truth. This brings me to the question, does my opinion change the facts? How about my "point of view" or the way I see things in general. Are we each creating our own truth? Where does that leave us? I'd argue that this argument is a useless waste of time. Just because I think it's true, doesn't make it true. Yes, I agree that some things are obviously opinion based, but you can't argue that a line is straight when it's actually crooked... or can you? We all have seperate view points so something that I believe is true, may or may not be true.. but my beliefs don't change the facts. Perhaps there are far too many unknowns.. far more than we would humanly like to admit to. Whatever the case, I do believe in one absolute truth and that truth will set you free. That is all. As for the rest, it's not important. After all, what difference does it really make if I think a tree is brown and you think it's purple? Overall, we are wasting our time or maybe just trying to pass it so we can get through our mundane lives.
Well, that is all. Be free,
-Emily