Living "underneath the mountain" at Christmas

By Michael J Morris

As Good  King Wenceslas walks with his page, "a poor man came in sight, Gathering winter fuel." The page tells him that this man lives "underneath the mountain."

Now, the popular Christmas carol 'Good King Wenceslas' addresses a subject that I never thought much about as a child growing up in a small village in Northern Ontario. I had my family, friends and a community where people cared about and helped each other in times of need.

In the first part of the carol King Wenceslas looked out and saw the snow with the moon shining bright in about the year 1000, and he could have been describing the weather on almost any Christmas Eve in any Canadian community.

He suggests it was a beautiful Winter night and it probably was, one with which most of us who have spent our lives in Canada can easily relate.

Music was an important part of our home, and that's how I became acquainted with King Wenceslas as a boy.

It became the carol that to me applied most to the weather at Christmas time. Looking outside before leaving for Christmas Eve service, "the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel..."

Before I go any further with King Wenceslas, I only recently discovered that he was not really a king, but the Duke of Bohemia, and he was looking out on the Feast of St Stephen, the day after Christmas. 

To me it doesn't really matter as the carol brings back fond memories and delivers a message that applies to this day - across this vast and magnificent land, there are people living "underneath the mountain."

I have spent Christmas in other Canadian communities, and no matter where I have been, it seems Good King Wenceslas was my theme song. The lyrics were published in 1853 by the English hymn writer John Mason Neale.

But I have to admit that it is only in recent years that I have reflected more on the real message.

There they are, the King and his page and "a poor man came in sight, Gathering winter fuel." The page tells him that this man lives "underneath the mountain."

On Christmas Eve those many years ago, as we greeted people on the street who were going to or coming from their respective churches, I never really thought about those who may be homeless and without food--- living underneath the mountain, so to speak.

The good King took immediate action though telling his page to gather food and wine and pine logs that they would take to the peasant and see him dine,"through the rude wind's wild lament, And the bitter weather."

The page was ready to give up as the night grew darker and wind blew stronger, but the King encouraged him and they made it to their destination.

Here is the message in the last words from 'Good King Wenceslas', "Therefore ... be sure, Wealth or rank possessing, Ye who now will bless the poor, Shall yourselves find blessing."

As many of you know, especially my former students, I love metaphor and have been collecting them all my life. I hope I have not mixed them too badly as I have talked about the Good King Wenceslas.

My thoughts also turn to all those good people, who have shared some moments of their lives with me, past and present, in so many communities across our country. 

I hope all of us will take a moment from our busy schedules of the holiday season to, in some way, bless the poor, and therein, find blessing. 

"Number please?" from cheery voice of telephone operator as obsolete as land line phones

By Michael J Morris

When I was a kid growing up in Chapleau, a relatively isolated community in Northern Ontario in the 1940s, we didn't even have a telephone in the house. 

Then the local telephone company added more lines and we got a party line with another home, and by picking up the phone i heard the cheery voice of the telephone operator ask, "Number please?" If people at the other house were using the phone we would hear their conversation.

Soon thereafter, we got our own number which I still recall was 188, and during the 1960s when i was away from home at university and working as a newspaper reporter, operator assisted local calls were still in effect. 

In fact,  I recall phoning the Chapleau operator late at night from wherever I was, which could be anywhere in Ontario, to Loon Lake, Saskatchewan,  to ctach up on the local news. The operators knew everything and everybody.

For example, if you were calling Butch at home, the operator may say, "He is not there, He's at the Boston. He just called Roger from there."

Today,  the "land line phone" as they came to be called in recent years may soon be obsolete.

According to an article by Tamara Gignac in the Calgary Herald on December 27, 2013, "Land line phones — once deemed essential — are increasingly becoming irrelevant as younger users rely on cellphones or technologies such as Skype to communicate." 

I use Skype, Facebook, Twitter and email to communicate and  still have a land line phone, I also have a cel phone primarily for texting. Yes, I text.

Rotary dial phones and the beginning of the end for operator assisted calls, came to my small community about the end of the 1960s 

Gignac quotes Tom Keenan, a professor in the University of Calgary's faculty of environmental design that In some ways, the 'classic land line' is already following in the footsteps of the rotary dial.

Professor Keenan predicts: “In the future, as phones merge with wristbands and smart watches, the land line will become a curiosity and houses will be built without them..."

In 2015, I am celebrating 21 years since I taught my first Writing for New Media course at College of the Rockies.My first fearless prediction was that the only constant in society was change -- and trust me on this one, I had a tough audience. Most of my students in that first class were college instructors, elementary and secondary school teachers and a smattering of college students.

The majority would not even agree that email would come into common use.

Gignac quotes Jim Carroll,  a trends and innovation expert: “We live in a world where technology enters our life, becomes a part of our life and then, boom, it’s gone."

These days I have been reflecting on "Living in Michael's World", the title of a presentation that a colleague made to COTR New Media Communications students circa 1997 about my fearless predictions for the future. Stay tuned, and please feel free to share your thoughts with me. 

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Way Back Machine Won't Work for Daily Newspapers in Time of Radical Changes

By Michael J Morris

Just over  10 years ago I wrote a column for an internet news site declaring that in my view the National Post was "a great daily read." I had added it to my daily newspaper fix which at the time consisted of The Globe and Mail and on occasion the Vancouver Sun.

I was not particularly fond of Conrad Black,  the founder of the National Post but at the time it carried compelling content that attracted me to it.

About seven  years ago I stopped buying print newspapers altogether  because for a lifelong news junkie like me, I can get all the news, features, sports, gossip, editorials, entertainment to fix my addiction daily with a click of the mouse on the internet. And updates are made, 24/7 and for major breaking news Twitter has it as it happens. We live in the era of the 24/7 news cycle, and the daily newspaper with its rigid deadlines no longer works. 

Transferring the print model to the Internet simply won't cut it over the long term. For example, as I started to think about this column, the federal election campaign was in full swing. For the most part mainstream media (as it has come to be called) covered talking points, mainly from the Conservative spin machine.

They sure were not aware of the great quote attributed to George Orwell, and a slightly different version by the great publisher, William Randolph Hearst: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”

I first started thinking seriously about the end of the print daily newspaper when the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the first reasonably large daily in the United States closed down its print version in 2013. 

In Canada some newspapers have been closed. The loss of jobs part bothers me immensely because it is no longer possible for a reporter to quit or even be fired from one newspaper, and start at another one -- at times even a better paying one the next day, like it was when I was in the business in the 1960s

I started my newspaper career when I was in high school writing for the long gone Mid North News in Chapleau, Ontario and continued at Wilfrid Laurier University (then Waterloo Lutheran University) as editor of the student paper The Cord for two years. After university I worked as a reporter and editor at several dailies across Canada before becoming a teacher. But I never really left the business as I have been doing journalism one way or another for about 58 years.

I helped found a graduate New Media Communications program at College of the Rockies.

Anyone who knows me well will confirm that newspapering is in my blood, and always will be, but it seems to me that the days for us to sit back with our local paper are coming to an end. 

Arianna Huffington who founded the very successful online Huffington Post wrote way back in 2009: ".. for me the key question is whether those of us working in the media (old and new) embrace and adapt to the radical changes brought about by the Internet or pretend that we can somehow hop into a journalistic Way Back Machine and return to a past that no longer exists and can't be resurrected. As my compatriot Heraclites put it nearly 2,500 years ago: 'You cannot step into the same river twice.'"She added: "Consumer habits have changed dramatically. People have gotten used to getting the news they want, when they want it, how they want it, and where they want it. And this change is here to stay."

Now many newspapers are erecting pay walls in an effort to replace revenue being lost from advertising in their print editions. I really don't think they will be effective. For example, before The Globe and Mail and National Post limited visitors to 10 free stories a month on their respective web sites, I would visit every day. I continued for a time but I had  better things to do than keep track of my 10 story limit, so now I very seldom visit to get the headlines. I can get the news elsewhere.

Yes, I miss reading some columnists, but generally neither the Globe nor the Post carry enough good reads to pay for it, and that applies to their print editions too, as well as other Canadian dailies. 

As Ms Huffington noted, consumer habits have changed dramatically .Newspapers have failed miserably in adapting to new communication realities, and now they have to evolve with the times or perish -- disappear if you will, like is happening to the pay telephone with thanks to Arianna Huffington for the example.

Just for fun, on one of my walks around Cranbrook, I looked for pay phones. I found one outside the Telus building, another outside the Greyhound Terminal, two at Western Financial Place and a couple at Tamarack Centre.

So, what's the answer? Actually I'm working on it. I write a weekly column for a print newspaper in Ontario with photos, which is traditional. I put the same story on my blog, and where possible add a video. And I launched this blog recently.

 I write for and edit a blog based in Orlando, Florida and every story includes text, photos and video, and is produced for a niche market. We use Facebook and Twitter as well as You Tube to get as much exposure as possible and encourage interactivity with readers.

.But it seems to me journalists use Twitter as a mutual admiration society -- for example, I made a bit of a disparaging comment about the coverage of the federal election. One reporter asked "Are you new around here?" referring to Twitter with a tone implying she owned it. When I replied that I had been around journalism about 60 years, the reporter seemed lost.

They seem to be trapped on a small island surrounded on all sides by themselves.

However,  it is the Huffington Post that, to me, is closest to getting it right as the new model.. And I am watching with interest the move to e-books for major feature articles, now called long form journalism (OMG, another cliche), sold for a low price. Might be something in that one, especially for magazines like Vanity Fair. I have stacks of them going back years kept for one article or so.

I would be  interested in hearing your views on this one. For me, it has been a gradual shift from the traditional print newspaper to Internet news junkie, and I realized it had happened during the American presidential election in 2008. 

And let me be clear, the newspaper has been an integral part of my life, and my experience as a reporter and editor led to employment and enjoyment, and provided the opportunity for me to meet some of the best hard working people I know. However, the times they are a changin'. 

My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Lake Nona 'For Those Who Served'

VA Medical Center photo by Michael Pelzer  MJ on side

By Michael J Morris
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who was re-elected to another term in November 2015,, will now be able to continue championing more projects to diversity the economy adding to his city's increasing reputation as an ideal  place to live, work, play, and do business.. 

However, don't think for a moment that tourism, is being neglected as new projects are in progress.But I'll save them for another day.

On my recent trip to Orlando I had the opportunity to visit 'the Medical City" which was an empty space not that long ago. 

As we drove past the new Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Lake Nona, I noticed a sign out front "For Those Who Served" , I immediately decided to share a bit about it and the other components on the 65-acre campus in southeast Orange County.

 Michael Pelzer, CEO of http://uneekluxurytours.com was showing me around the area.

Opened in the Spring of 2015, according to its web site, "The 1.2 million square foot facility cost $600 million to construct.  The medical center will have a large multispecialty outpatient clinic, 134-inpatient beds, 120-community living center beds, a 60-bed domiciliary and administrative and support services."

I was delighted to see the project for those who served their nation in its armed forces. As regular readers know, I have a special place in my heart for them as my father Flying Officer James E Morris was killed on active service in the RCAF during World War II. It is also appropriate as on November 11 it is Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States.

 It  is co-located with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, the Burnham Institute, the University of Florida Academic and Research Center, and Nemours Children’s Hospital in the area known as the "Medical City," the web site says. All the buildings are now functional, and the entire campus is really impressive.

Much more is happening in the immediate area, and I will share news later on those projects --- gives me another reason to return to Orlando,

In an interview with Orlando magazine, Mayor Dyer, first elected in 2003, explained how it's all happening: "It's about being able to create a vision and bring a lot of people into, then move forward." Just look at the players in the Medical City project -- Veterans Affairs, two universities and a children's hospital.

The mayor has been real big on creating a "culture of collaboration" bringing together all levels of government, business people, educational institutions, the medical profession, and philanthropists, and of course the citizens of Orlando who have re-elected him.

The Dr Phillips Centre for the Performing Arts now open, was another major project, but he also has championed a sports and entertainment complex, the Medical City and Creative Village -- and other major projects. On my regular visits to Orlando, I am always impressed with the "culture of collaboration" that makes things happen. 

The Orlando attitude could be adapted by any community.

Thanks to Michael Pelzer for taking the photo of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Lake Nona, and for the tour..  My email is mj.morris@live.ca

Winter years approach so MJ goes to Florida after FMCC party

Michael Pelzer photo

As the Winter of my years approaches, not quite there yet, my life is undergoing changes as the adventure continues.

One the biggest over the past two and one half years or so, is the Friday Morning Coffee Club, the hour or so I spend each week with some of the greatest guys I have ever met.

FMCC was founded in the Starbucks at the Target store.

 We now meet at White Spot, but on occasion move to other locations for special occasions.

In fact, before I left for Orlando, FMCC held a birthday party for me. We try to hold them for all the members, and renditions of Happy Birthday are tremendous.

A good number of our members sing in choirs, singing groups and so on, so it is really a special moment, when they wish Happy Birthday, led by founding member Joel Vinge.

We went to the Pines in Kimberley last Friday where Gordon has been spending a week, and what a great place that is.

Thanks to the Pines for letting us use their special room.

On a sad note though, our good friend Peter Davidson, died recently while out hiking with friends.

Joel asked us to join him in a moment's silence for Peter. I extend my most sincere sympathy to Maureen, and all of Peter's family and friends.

Peter, my friend, you were the good shepherd. Rest In Peace.

Another change this year is that I am writing from Orlando, Florida, where I am visiting my good friends Michael and Nory. This is the first time in my life I have not been in Canada for my birthday.

Thanks to Joel for sending me the photos and to Jim for his help as always.

Finally, thanks so much for all the good wishes. They make those approaching Winter years so much more positive.

Every blessing to all!

Michael