“We’re down now finally to one last, lonely, unloved, unattractive little turbot clinging on by its fingernails to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland,”

Vive le Rocher Libre!

I am that turbot. And that statement expresses how I feel. I am hanging on to the edge of something. I am not on the Grand Banks but I wish I was back out there, standing on the slowly lifting deck of one of our rigs, staring at 360 degrees of empty heaving ocean. The view from the crown sheave was even more impressive. Each rig was a place of incessant noise and mechanical whinging, grating steel and loud thuds. The view was an antidote to all of that. At night you could make out the loom of light from other rigs, small pinpricks of brilliance like miniature stars at work on a distant field. The Titanic lay in the cold water beneath us, a few miles off.

Another submission went into the post today. There is no sense of accomplishment or achievement, no celebration, no victory. In place of all that I confront the discovery of error. To reach this far I have had to punish myself. To keep going is further punishment. The choice appears choice-less.

During the period I managed our Newfoundland office, a St John’s company held a contest. The prize: The offer of a full time job. The prize was in great demand. But there was a hue and cry raised by the government and the contest was shut down. I hired a lot of Newfoundlanders. They were a tough and hardy breed searching only for an opportunity to excel. I worry about them now with the price of oil in possible long term decline. It is the people of Newfoundland, and Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC who pay $9 billion a year to the province of Québec, all paid so that I may have equal access to medical care. Which I did not receive. And am still unable to access.

I have been fortunate to have access to Ontario doctors who have assisted me in developing my own program of rehabilitation. I wonder about all of those persons who may have suffered similar injury and faced the same negligent maltreatment from insurance companies.

—————————————

The opening quote is from Brian Tobin and may be found in a CBC story here.