Rural Routes, Blog Version

Ten days ago there was still lots of snow in our small back yard. The rabbits enjoyed the seed that fell to the ground from the bird feeder, thanks to the antics of neighbourhood squirrels. The birds got whatever was left.

Ten days ago, I was writing this:

In Icelandic class, we were given a brief blurb on April Fool’s Day and asked to translate it and answer questions on the text.

The instructor told us that Icelanders enjoy April Fool’s Day and playing tricks on April 1 is a widely accepted custom. Even the media has been known to get in on the act.

That reminded me of an incident from my final year of journalism school in Toronto. Students in the broadcast news class decided that we should do something special for the April 1 daily news program on the school’s private television station.

Our headline story that day was that the CN Tower had been stolen. We had pictures of the still-under-construction tower. Construction began in 1973 and the tower was officially opened to the public in 1976. We also had video footage of a group of robed figures tugging on rope and chanting, “One, two, three, heave; one, two, three heave.”

We thought it was so ridiculous that every viewer would recognize it for what it was: an April Fool’s Day joke.

Our instructors, however, were not impressed.

“People need to have trust in what they read in the papers or see on the news,” they told us.

The very next assignment in Icelandic class was to read and translate four sample newspaper stories.

My translation of the forward to the section was:

“Do you believe everything you read in the newspapers?  This section contains several newspaper articles. Some are funny, some are bizarre,some describe stupidity and some greed. They are all interesting, but are they true?”

Again, I am taken back in years to that upbraiding from our journalism instructors. People need to believe that the news is factual, they said. And now we‘re asking, “Is it true?“

The current COVID-19 pandemic reinforces, for me, the importance of trust in the information we are given.

I have not been back to Icelandic class since we were given that assignment. In-person classes were cancelled shortly afterwards. As of today, the university is closed to the public and in-person classes are not expected to resume until September.

K and I are fine. I finished my Icelandic homework and have begun work on new projects that will fill the spaces on our suddenly empty calendar. Walking the dog is my sole daily excursion.

The snow is slowly disappearing. The squirrel continues its efforts. In a world that is changing hour by hour, it is good to see that some things remain the same.

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