You're In Canada Now!

I once wrote a poem with the line, "I come from the land of wisdom and approximateness"...which was about a paradox that
pertained on the river I grew up on in Guyana...where the people could nail something important about life...in five or six
potent words...but be vague...at times...in recounting the facts of a situation they were describing. The fact that...if we ever
saw a newspaper from the capital city...it would likely come before our eyes days after it was printed...causing "news" to be
passed from person to person the "mouth to ear" way...changing each time it was told...likely contributed to the approximateness mentioned. I arrived in Canada at twenty...not yet having freed myself from this tendency to...at times...not be precise in what I said. I remember several situations like the one where I was travelling in a car with friends and relatives...and made the mistake of saying that we had just passed a "nice red car"...to which a Canadian born three or four year old present instantly responded, "No...it wasn't red...it was orange!"...and turned out to be correct. It was a succession of corrections from these "babes and sucklings"...and others in my new country...that booted me towards becoming more accurate in what I had to say...if I hoped to survive in the new culture I was in...that didn't brook any vagueness in its inhabitants. From repeated consultations with my "Inner Lawyer"...I learnt in what I had to say...to whittle away the territory that would cause the would be correctors around me to pounce. I must confess...to once in a while...still offering up correction fodder ro people...and having to endure their lightening responses...reminding me that, "Boy...you're not on the river anymore...so smarten up...you're in Canada now!"...................Quester.