To Henry Drake Petersen

my meetings with remarkable fools - part 1

Terrible things can cause wonderful things to happen. Take for example the Vietnam War. For millions, it was an atrocity. I can’t comment on the impact on men and boys in the United States or Vietnam. Here, in my little slice of paradise, it was wonderful, transformational really.

Before the draft, young men from Nova Scotia would travel to work in Boston or New York. They went chasing pots of gold in the form of highly paid labour jobs. Many were steel workers. Most didn’t return. With the draft? The flow of men changed. Well educated draft dodgers settled in university towns all around the Maritimes. This migration changed my life.

When we meet someone new, we never know how important they will be to us. Some interactions are distractions or irritations. Others, seemingly ordinary can have a transformative impact.

I was spastic, sweaty and desperate. Having just signed my first ever lease - an agreement to share a basement bedroom in a communal flat during university - I needed work.…