Opinion

Two recent developments celebrate the importance of integrity in the life of our community.The one involves a role model for me as a columnist. The other involves you, our coffee companions.

Cochrane’s MacKay family have long been famous for their many flavours of ice cream that have attracted the whole world to their doorstep. Well, their globe-cycling ambassador, Robyn MacKay , is at it again, but this time with an intriguing twist.

To what can I compare the purpose of Lent? It is like the breath of God on a frosty morning anticipating the springtime joy of life revived. Lent, in Christianity, is the 40-day period of fasting and contemplation preceding Easter.

What an honour it is to serve as one of your elected representatives on Cochrane’s Town Council and to have the privilege of helping shape Cochrane’s future by setting priorities.

The foundation of Western democratic governance is the participation of the people in the political process through representative democracy.

There was lots of reader interest in last week’s column on the ancient wisdom of “a time to keep silence.

“For everything there is a season,” the oft-quoted wisdom declares; “a time to be born, and a time to die; … a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-7).

"Oh, what a beautiful work of art you are!” said the critic to the image.

How do you think Cochrane and area will look in the year 2050? What kind of community do you want your kids and grandkids to have in the future? It’s time for our community to start thinking seriously about these questions.

Several conversations I’ve had recently around truth and reconciliation have reminded me of one of the first Bible stories I learned as a child. I wrote about it in a column 15 years ago.