I think I’m finally getting the point of my geographical fixation with this piece.
With certain stories, Terry Fox’s being one of them, you will often hear phrases like ‘united the country’....and in Terry’s case it’s totally true. In the late summer of 1980 the whole country was united, following the story.
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| This seemed like such a good idea at the time..... |
Here’s the thing: Canada is really, really big. Huge, in fact. Uniting all the disparate cultures across all the regions of this gigantic place is, in and of itself, a mythical accomplishment.
If the Greeks had a myth about a courageous young boy running across the land, he would have to have run from Greece to middle China to approach Terry’s accomplishment.
‘Running 2/3 of the way across Canada’ should really be ‘ran 1/4 of the way across the planet’.
As the Hound sets sail for the final stretch, and we ride the Terry Fox Courage Highway, I’m finding the environment to be the exact opposite of Newfoundland. The terrain here seems to be welcoming; with the placid lake constantly on the left, the endless trees and the gentle swells of rock giving the land a rolling quality.
I’m also stunned by the lengths of time Terry would have been on his own. There can be no people for a couple hundred kilometers, or 4 or 5 days for Terry. Not a house, not a farm, just the trees and the lake.
