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ATTITUDE This is all about Thornhill. When the editor, Pam Clavir, asked me to write a column for Thornhill Living, it was impressed upon me that it must be about Thornhill. I could write about Martians working undercover at the local supermarket or about batty old women dressing their cats in doll clothes, as long as these things took place in Thornhill. A reflection, if you will, of life today in Thornhill. To me, that sounded like a challenge because a reflection can be beautiful or ugly, it can be distressingly accurate or it can be pleasantly distorted. It is attitude that defines the perception – is the glass half empty or is it half full? Attitude. My favourite topic. My passion. For years, I have told anyone who will listen – and some who tried to get away – that I believe everything that happens in this world is based on attitude. Having the right attitude is often defined as doing the right thing, even if no one is looking. And I believe attitude defines Thornhill. There was the young guy who, during a blizzard, stopped his car on Royal Orchard Boulevard to help a man push his car out of a snow drift. There’s the owner of the pet supplies store on Doncaster who always gives you a hand to your car. Then there’s the waitress, Joanne, at Wimpy’s Diner, who often hands late night customers a container of leftover soup as they leave. Or the teenagers hanging out near the smoke shop who have actually been seen walking over to a trash receptacle to drop in their empty pop cans instead of just dumping them at the curb. All those things are about attitude. The belief that it is worthwhile to do something, no matter how small, to improve life in the community. To do something good with no thought of immediate reward. That is the attitude that I feel defines Thornhill. Residents still feel they are part of a community and not just the inhabitants of houses; these are businesses that still give service as a matter of course; and politicians who haven’t forgotten who it was who put them into their positions of power. And they’re not afraid to use that power for the benefit of the entire community. Want an example? Compare the condition of the roads in Thornhill to the shape of the roads in Toronto. Attitude begets results. Like the real mirror into which you look each morning, what’s reflected back to you has always been there. You simply may have become too used to it to notice the hidden details. Hopefully, I can make this reflection of Thornhill a little brighter so you can begin to appreciate what you’ve been staring at all this time. |
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