New Year's reflections on the Order of the Good Time
This New Year I'm going for reflections on the good times instead of resolutions.
My beloved Baheej was big on New Year's resolutions. Each year we actually wrote them down in our notebooks to formalize them beforehand, so they would be ready to go on Jan. 1.
But what Baheej really did was to use New Year's Day to reflect on the year gone by and look forward to the new year ahead. We would think of all the good times past and those to come.
He had a way of seeking the positive and enjoying life along the way. Once on a trip to Nova Scotia, Baheej discovered the Order of the Good Time and thought that was a wonderful idea. So we signed up for membership and got certificates of membership. There was no cost — just a welcoming gesture for visitors who stay at least three days.
The history of this tradition dates to 1606 when French explorers and mapmakers established a small community in Nova Scotia. They had a terrible first winter with sickness, poor food and great boredom. In the spring, the leader of the group invoked what is apparently a long French way of dealing with dark winters — good food and conviviality.
He established the Order of Good Time, where he appointed a grand master each day of the week. It was the grand master's responsibility to provide a dinner or feast that day by hunting or finding whatever food possible in the woods, provide whatever music or entertainment possible, and invite all to an evening meal and cheerful gathering.
Well it worked and, as far as I know, it is still part of Nova Scotia culture. Modern day visitors may enroll in the Order of the Good time. I think we got our certificates as we stepped off the boat! Or perhaps when we left. I still have those membership certificates.
The visitor just needs to agree to four things:
• To have a good time.
• To remember us fondly.
• To speak of us kindly.
• To come back again.
It was a wonderful vacation. We arrived in Halifax. We took our car onboard the overnight ship from Portland, Maine, so once we landed, we drove all over, and mostly along the coast to the historic scalloping town of Digby. Beautiful. We saw scallops being shucked on the pier right off the fishing boats, and then we walked to one of the many nearby restaurants to eat those scallops within minutes after being freshly caught and shucked. They were the biggest, most delicious scallops you've ever seen or tasted! Quite an experience. We explored a lot. Sometimes the road just ended so we had to turn around and go back from where we came. It was quite an adventure.
So the point is: This year it's going to be “reflections on good times” instead of resolutions. My first reflections will be to relive that Nova Scotia experience with my beloved Baheej. Happy New Year!
• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@comcast.net or see her blog longtermgrief.tumblr.com. See previous columns at www.dailyherald.com/topics/Anderson-Kleif-Susan.