"What You've Never Had, You Never Miss"

An elderly couple from Canada gave away their $11.2 million lottery winnings to relatives and charities. Their justification: "What you've never had, you never miss."

Allen and Violet Large of Truro, Nova Scotia, have been married for 36 years. They are in their seventies and have everything they need in their retirement years. Violet was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and has been receiving chemotherapy at a hospital in Halifax.

Year ago when I lived in Halifax, I once drove through Truro. I still remember the sleepy town. The one thing that struck me about it was that not much happened there, and that's the way the few people I saw on the streets seemed to like it.

Allen & Violet distributed their money first to family and then to the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

You read something like this and you sit still to absorb it. Amid all the daily news of bloodbath and greed and ruthlessness, this couple did what perhaps only one in ten million would do. They could have taken exotic trips, bought all the toys they could indulge in, and spend their last years in pampered care and luxury. But no, they just gave it all away.

They unconsciously followed the wisdom in these lines: "I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show - let me not defer it nor neglect it - for I shall not pass this way again."

Good and kind people live among us, in big cities and small towns. Next time we hear of cruelty and selfishness, let's remember Violet and Allen Large and others like them and be grateful for the human grace that is as much a part of us as its opposite.

Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was majestic and moving. It was so because Canada chose to be herself, instead of trying to emulate or outdo other opening ceremonies, particularly Beijing’s 2008 show-of-shows.

For me, the opening ceremony evoked memories of the two years I spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the early ‘70s. I had gone to Canada from the newly-independent nation of Bangladesh to study at Dalhousie University on a scholarship. Those were two of the happiest years of my life. So I was particularly thrilled when Sarah McLachlan, Halifax’s own, sang in her lovely lyrical voice words that summed up the Olympic spirit: “When you wake up everyday/Please don’t throw your dreams away.”

Donald Sutherland’s recitation of prose and poetry by Canada’s famous writers provided just the right touch to the story of that vast and varied land. On the stage, aboriginal Canadians (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) and actors enacted how the country was settled, from the Maritime Provinces all the way west to cosmopolitan Vancouver.

Delegations from 82 nations made their colorful entries into the indoor arena. The death of a Georgian luge athlete at a practice run cast a pall of gloom over the ceremony but the Olympic spirit demanded that the show go on. The Georgian delegation received a standing ovation. It was courageous and poignant at the same time.

The most touching moment came for me when eight of Canada’s legends drawn from various fields carried a huge Olympic flag. It included Sutherland, of course, but also Anne Murray. In Halifax, the first Western singer I came to admire was Nova Scotia’s Anne Murray. Her songs (Songbird, Danny’s song) were all the rage in Canada at the time and I listened to them an endless number of times. She had passed the torch to singers like Sarah McLachlan, a continuity memorably captured in the pageantry.

The most thrilling moment for me was when the camera zoomed in on the hockey legend Bobby Orr. He was the reason I became an ardent ice hockey, and Boston Bruins, fan. When I moved to Philadelphia from Halifax to pursue a doctorate degree at Temple University, Orr remained my favorite player. I was probably the only fan in Philadelphia rooting for the Bruins when the Flyers played the team in 1974 in the Stanley Cup finals. When Booby Clarke and the Flyers won the Stanley Cup, I was devastated because I knew how much Orr wanted to win.

Well, after more than three decades, here was Orr, one of the legendary eight, and suddenly I became aware of the passage of time more vividly than ever before in my life. Orr was white-haired. He had put on weight. I am sure his reflexes had slowed. What did I expect? This is what time does to each of us.

It was at this point that the Vancouver Winter Olympics became profoundly human for me. The mishap with the Olympic cauldron only made it more so. Of all the Olympic opening ceremonies – summer and winter – this was the most poignant, intimate, evocative and inspiring that I have ever seen. Thank you, O Canada, and win tons of gold!