Today’s chimney sweeps are highly trained and certified professionals. In the real world, a 19 th century sweep would be very lucky if he survived to adolescence. In Mary’s world, it was “…Good luck will rub off if I shake hands with you…or blow me a kiss, and that’s lucky, too…” Only the Disney people could perpetuate that kind of nonsense.
In Mary Poppins, the sweeps dance and sing away the horrors of chimney sweeping in the 19 th century: child labour, black lung, suffocation-all ‘swept away.’ Yes, we have a chimney sweep, just like in the old musical version of Mary Poppins only different.
Just the other week for instance, I was standing on the roof, wrapped in a Scotch mist, discussing chimney repointing with our chimney sweep. … An atmosphere into which the mundane regularly intrudes.Ĭhimney Sweeps, Cardiologists, and the Rest Perched on its cliff, nestled among its cedars, shrouded in mists, serenaded by the haunting call of the resident loons, the place evokes a primordial, even eerie atmosphere. Long ago, we christened our Gatineau Mountain retreat “Cedarcliffe.” Well, why not? This simple, one-story frame and cedar shake shelter sits on a cliff and is surrounded by towering cedars.Ĭedarcliffe overlooks a large bay of an even larger lake in an ancient, worn-down mountain range. The still, small, tranquil point on a swiftly tilting planet has been, for 30 years, our family cottage (or camp, or cabin, or chalet, according to one’s regional preferences). James Christie, Ambassador-at-Large, Canadian Multifaith Federation
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