The man screaming at the corner of Young and Wellesley that; he’s Gabriel the Archangel HERE in the flesh!! is part of the epidemic of mental illness I see and hear…

It’s in the crowds staring into their phones above the asphalt avoiding the pleas for help from the victim junkies… 

The tipping point has been passed and the rage has mixed with the fear 

becoming indistinguishable. 

Dennis Mantin 

I lived in rural areas essentially for the first 25 years and in urban settings for the last 25 years… I just returned back to Toronto after a 5 day visit to small town Nova Scotia and this is that report. 

The highways in Nova Scotia are spectacular and not crowded at all. You hardly have to line up for anything! The spaces seem free from crowds. 

Toronto street’s and subways and highways are crowded and congested with impatience and rage… 

This is due to the fact that human beings are  not designed to be packed so tightly into such small spaces in such large numbers!

Thank you.

Dennis Mantin 

There’s a certain quality of the silence… Friends whose funerals I didn’t attend… Eternity hits home and haunts at us…  My mother, God rest her soul…

The sunshine left, a shadow grew               A heartbeat echoes, I never knew               The sun returns, a shadow stayed          

     I listened hard, strange music played        Then a thought, a smile grew                        Exactly the way to remember you.

Dennis Mantin 

Sitting on Tom Fraser’s back porch, the birds sing and the Sun shines while Zylia sleeps.

She’ll be up soon and everything changes; I will leave me and focus on her. She’s asked Tom to be her Grandfather and it looks like he’s acceptable. My little girl is putting down roots in Nova Scotia in her own special way.

I am very grateful for all we’ve been granted.  Thank you God! Thank You Tom! Thank you Zylia!

Dennis Mantin 

I have returned and I am in love with Nova Scotia and Cape Breton again.

I apologize for the confusions and pains of youth in me to all my family and friends. 

Having apologized I will feel no need for further apologies unless personally requested…

Into the day! Head up, regrets few…

Dennis Mantin 

I am constantly amazed by how my perceptions from when I was younger are in error.  I also believe that this might be the norm for most! At least it’s the norm for me.

I went into an abandoned house this weekend that was the home of my Aunt and Uncle and the vacation destination for the rest of us; and I remember it as a massive sprawling house that  now I see it is really a quite small quaint 3 bedroom cottage. 

I have travelled on highways and got to most destinations in a mere 2 to 3 hour’s and not the painful wagon journeys of my youth. 

How much else am I getting wrong? After 15 it was alcohol, between 11 and 15 it was grief… before that some combination of childish delusions and some reality….

I may owe more apologies than I realized. 

Dennis Mantin 

Toronto is my home and It’s been so long since I’ve been to Nova Scotia… I really forgot how beautiful and peaceful it is here. It’s quiet and less busy. The air smells different. The sounds of birds fill the air.

All this has been here long before I arrived and will remain long after I leave. It’s just now I have a comparative.

This was a great place to grow up… Thank you one and all who made it possible.

Dennis Mantin

I’ve heard it said, ” If you want to find out how spiritually fit you are, go for a trip on the public transit system. ”

For air travel, this is a factor of 10 to the public transit system, due to an inherent sense of entitlement that accompanies jet travel and at least for me I am out of my comfort bubble. ( I extend this discomfort to most.)

The first time I flew was from Sydney to Boston when I was 13. I thought then that planes could fly because God willed it… As I sat on the tarmac in my window seat , I saw the rivets on the wing and realized that planes flew because of the skills of people I assumed had a  similar deportment to my drunk uncles. 

Terror ensued!

LANDED!!!

Dennis Mantin 

A Truth: When you are young and you are really really angry … what you are is really really afraid. 

 If you asked someone what they were afraid of they might know; probably wouldn’t know; but most likely they would lie about it, if they did know. This is what is so important about the anger. Ask anyone what they’re angry about and you will get TRUTH. 

Make a list of what you are angry about. Use that list to find your fears. 

You will probably need a grumpy old bastard or a therapist to help you with that. 

Once you know your fears; you can find the source of those fears. It will most likely be a fear for security or a fear of being made to look stupid. 

I have belonged to an anonymous gathering of grumpy old bastards who I have received much help from… However my fears these days are that we’ve become so anonymous that no one knows where to find us.

Just listen. 

Dennis Mantin 

I am leaving tomorrow with my 6 years old daughter to visit my mother’s grave in Cape Breton. Something I have not done in at least 35 years. 

This is her wish and idea… She’s been talking about my mother Margaret since she could talk and claims to have met her … 

I have learned not to bring logic and reasoning to such affairs and accept what I have. I have a beautiful girl who wants to go on a trip with me to visit her grandmother. 

I am blessed. 
Dennis Mantin