Life Thru One’S Own Eyes

By Irving Vinger

This is a tale, written contemporaneously, of natures power to have a significant, positive, and lasting impact on our world. It begins on a mountaintop in a small village north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the summer of 2015. A description of the challenges with which the average person is confronted daily is contrasted with the magical beauty of nature. This beauty shared among people is identified as a catalyst for positive growth in our communities.
The pitfalls and benefits of modern life are presented through the prism of two federal election campaigns in Canada and in the United States of America. The elections of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on October 19, 2015, and of President Donald J. Trump on November 8, 2016, are thoroughly discussed. The power of the people, harnessing the beauty of nature to effect change that represents their values, is woven constantly throughout this discussion. The role of the media in helping and hindering the people to achieve this goal of positive change is examined.
The objective of this story is to initiate a dialogue between the reader and the author. This dialogue would emphasize how the power of nature when shared can be the impetus for the kind of change in our lives that truly represents our core values.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546212041

Irving Vinger

Author was born and grew up on the streets of Montreal, Quebec, Canada during the 1940’s. His parents had emigrated from Poland in the 1920’s and met and married in Montreal. Although the world was at war, he and his parents and one older brother living in the center of the city very near “the Mountain” felt very safe and secure. He walked to his elementary school, a few blocks away, on his own. He played with his friends on the streets of their neighborhood without supervision, coming home only for dinner and at nighttime. His parents spoke Yiddush and English at home. His Father was a tailor and his Mother a homemaker. They had a strong belief in the power of education and community and were very active in many community organizations. His Brother, five and one half years older than him, graduated from High School and went into the clothing business with their Father and was very successful. The author, motivated daily by his family’s belief in higher education, graduated from medical school at McGill University in 1966. He is a board certified Family Physician and has practiced and taught Family Medicine in both Canada and the United States. He and his wife and their two young sons moved to the Miami-Kendall area in 1976. He has been very involved in many community activities. He was the chair of the Long Term Ombudsmen Council for Dade and Monroe Counties in the 80’s. He and his wife still reside in South Florida and now live in Delray Beach very close to the wetland attractions that he writes about in the book. This is his first book.

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© 2017 Irving Vinger. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/17/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1205-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1204-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017915404

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

T he idea for this book came to me, as I was sitting on our balcony one recent summer morning looking out at the Laurentian Mountains and its lush green rolling hills bordering the waters of our grand lake, Lac Des Sables (sand lake). My wife, of now fifty years, and I live in a condominium townhome on top of a mountain in a little, population five thousand, French village, called Sainte Agathe-Des-Monts. Maybe you recall it as one of the places that the author, Mordecai Richler, wrote about. I am sitting on our balcony watching the North American Golden finches, flitting back and forth thru the trees and pecking at the choke cherries hanging from the branches. I am looking forward to the return of the red throated hummingbird to our two flower boxes on our balcony railing. My thoughts turn, unreasonably, to the crazy world we live in, this summer of two thousand and fifteen.

Contrast this idyllic picture with what one sees consistently around us. We see violence, man-made and natural, homicides and suicides, motorized accidents, fires, tornados, typhoons, droughts, floods and anger. We see the the savagery of severe mental illness and the terrorism of ignorance. Wow, that is a mouthful. It is, certainly, heavy profound stuff to be bombarded with daily. It is a burden, without any reasonable and logical solutions, that we can apply to defend ourselves or to prevent. One seems helpless and powerless even to minimally influence or marginally manage this craziness. We are faced with unbridled economic pressure, undisciplined power grabs and overwhelming manufactured crises. These forces are also magnified by technological advances that seem to provide each one of us less control.

However, I can easily return to my mountaintop, and be calmed by the stillness of the leaves on the long tall trees that reach skyward to be constantly nourished with sun, rain and gentle winds. Whether it is sunny or cloudy, the images that one can see, just looking up into the sky, are frankly amazing. One just needs to take the time and allow one’s eyes and mind to supply the thoughts and ideas. Take a second and wherever you are, inside or outside, with access to the sky or not, see the incredible pictures of familiar faces or places or mountains and buildings. How about those frequent thunderstorms which are accompanied by a dynamic electrical light show with piercing sticks of flashing bright energy. This is scary stuff if one is out and about trying to find low and open spaces to hide from this amazing energy. However, in the safety of one’s home, it is a fascinating demonstration of the power and beauty of nature, which we can and do appreciate.

Why would one want to continue to read and frankly why I might want to continue to write? I write because I thoroughly believe in the basic goodness of most people when allowed to be themselves and project the values and understanding that they possess and want to share with others. Many consider this attitude to be naïve, childish and entirely unrealistic. They also believe that one can never be successful in the real world by trusting in the basic goodness of the people you meet, you work with and you compete with. Some think that holding these lofty ideals is characteristic of small, uniform, tight knit communities that isolate themselves from the broader society. They, such as the Amish, varied orthodox religious groups and other social entities, can trust that others share their interest in the common good by blocking out diversity, dissent or creativity. They, therefore limit their present and future opportunities. Their strong belief is that, these small isolated communities may be happy and safe, but can never achieve great success.

Perhaps it is due to our belief, that unlike the nature that we can see and experience and enjoy with our own eyes, the authority figures that influence our beings are not as transparent and may not have our best interests at heart. However, I have digressed from the idyllic and pleasant to a cynicism that pervades our lives and is fed constantly by the negativism that is hoisted upon us by our authority figures. You all have heard the expressions that you cannot believe anything that you read in our newspapers or that all our politicians are corrupt and are only interested in running for election and not in representing us to improve our opportunities to excel. Unfortunately, you are mostly correct and is that not sad? Do we have to accept this status quo? To accept that the average person has only a tiny voice with little hope to influence the general good? Do we have to accept that only money can bring about change and that ideas do not matter? Is success, in our neck of the woods, meaning North America and most of the developed world, defined by whether one has amassed incredibly large sums of money no matter the means? Can we not open our eyes and see the amazing images of natural growth and development. Are we unable to visualize our part as human beings growing and developing while sharing the dynamic beauty all around us?

North Americans, except for our small percentage of native americans, are immigrants. They or their ancestors have come from somewhere else in the world to settle and live in this region. In the nineteen thirties and forties they came to grow families, to share their experiences and to provide and to progress.