Barry Bridgeford .. August 29th, 1999

Back in 1993 (the Centennial of Algonquin Park), Trent University hosted a conference in Peterborough, Ontario. The conference title was Changing Parks: A Conference on the History, Future and Cultural Context of Parks and Heritage Landscapes".

Last year (1998), the Frost Centre for Canadian Heritage and Development Studies produced a collection of most of the papers presented at that conference. Edited by John S. Marsh and Bruce W. Hodgins, and published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc., the book is entitled "Changing Parks"

Well, it was early August and I was part way into the book. For this under-read Algonquinite, many of the references and much of the material proved to be an intellectual upstream paddle. However, I was pleased to read recurring themes concerning different and changing perceptions of the outdoors. Psychological, sociological and even artistic sensitivities threaded their way through articles by lawyers, historians and scientists alike.

The overlapping perceptions seemed to circle wistfully about an unclarified, elusive common truth. From past experience, I recognized this to be as much my failing as the reader, as it was the writers' as sharers of observation and opinion.

It was at this same time that Chris, a co-worker, brought me the August issue of "Cottage Life" to borrow. "You'll like the special section on canoes". I dragged the magazine about, on the porch, in the car, in the yard ... eventually reading through the canoe articles about the types, materials and even the art of canoes.

And then came "Dream Boat", an article by David MacFarlane. It was a gently humorous story about his search for "his canoe". One passage jumped off the page, momentarily flashing some of that elusive truth past my mind's eye ...

" ... She realized at once that choosing a canoe was, for me, not so much a question of finding the best canoe, technically speaking, as it was an attempt to get at the essence of something. What? Summer perhaps. My notion of the north, possibly. Childhood, maybe. Perhaps all of these ..."

There was that same fleeting taste of elusive truth that flavoured my reading of "Changing Parks"! A recurring theme in the book's articles was one of "landscape". One views a landscape through one's eyes, and it is commonly said that the eyes are the window to the soul. But, just as a window allows an outward view, it also produces an inward view. If one's soul colours its window or narrows its window's view then one's soul will possess a changed "inner landscape".

It occurred to me that different "inner landscapes" can produce dramatically divergent attitudes toward the "outer landscapes". And here again was that elusive truth ... the "cultural context of parks and heritage landscapes".

And so it was, I decided I would return to "Changing Parks", carefully reading one "paper" at a time, trying to grasp each work's worth as part of a greater "truth", trying to keep my window wide open.

I'm starting to realize that a lot of "inner landscapes" will have to be changed for the better before the "outer landscapes" can be meaningfully changed for the better. It's to be hoped our "Changing Parks" can play an important part in that process.