a peek inside the fishbowl

Let the record show that my feet hurt just looking at this photo.

I like the “We are Winter” ad campaign for the winter Olympics, do you? (Here’s an example if you haven’t seen it.) The tagline – We are Winter – sums us up in a way that taps into Canadian culture. It reminds us that we are people who choose to live in a climate that shapes our actions, our character, and our conversations on a daily basis.

We’re secretly, quietly, pleased to belong to a country with deep snowfalls and bone-chilling cold, and to be part of a culture that embraces it in the form of ice hotels, winter festivals, and polar bear dips. We are Winter taps into our national pride whether or not we actually participate in winter sports. Funny eh?

I saw a tweet yesterday that made me laugh: only in Canada do you see people lined up politely to look at blocks of ice. It’s funny because it’s true. There was an accompanying photo of an ice carving display at Winterlude, and the line up that went along with it. It seems to me, that Winterlude is the very definition of “We are Winter.”  As we walked around last night I couldn’t help but feel very happy and proud of the place I live. It certainly kept me warm inside.

You got your tight pants on? Happy Friday Fishies!

p.s. this song is going to be stuck in my head FOREVERRRRRR! Here’s a direct link in case the embedded video above doesn’t work for you.