Lorn Curry

West Coast National Reporter
There's a game a lot of Canadians play that involves figuring out how many fractions they can break themselves into based on their family tree: one third ziluanian on his mother's side, three-fourths Arthurian legend on his second cousin's side, four-fifths of gin on his uncle John's side. That sort of thing. Me? I'm half Acadian on my mom's side and half Lebanese on my dad's. Unfortunately, I never got to know my paternal grandfather - a general store merchant. But I do remember, as a child, discovering grandfather's handwritten order books which my dad kept as mementos. I'd never seen anything as fascinating! I had no idea what the words meant, but the arabic handwriting was so beautiful, so exotic... I don't know what ever became of those family artifacts, but I still remember the lesson I learned from them: that the world is a lot bigger and vastly different than even the wildest imaginings of a little boy can conjure up. And I think we should all celebrate that fact.
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