This summer we’re making our annual pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island. And soon I’ll be taking my wife to Quebec City for our anniversary. I hear talk of tensions between the U.S. and Canada. People are fearful and angry. But, as in any relationship, spending time together with the ones we love is always the best answer.

I’m going to Canada. It’s not to solve any political issues. I don’t care what other peoples’ politics are or what party they side with in the eternal debates. I think we should think about who and what we love and spend more time with those people and places.

Do other people love Canada? I do. And I know that many Canadians love Maine and America. Politics be damned. We should do what we love, choose to be better, not bitter and to enjoy ourselves this summer.

One of my favorite Canadians, author Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote “Anne of Green Gables,” invited us to surround ourselves with beautiful landscapes that give us “more scope for the imagination.” Anne saw the beauty in nature that other people didn’t. She looked for the wonderful and unexpected.

She said, “When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worthwhile. It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?” Let’s follow Anne’s example and keep our imaginations open to the beauty all around us: here in Maine, in Canada and all the lands we may visit this summer. We just might be surprised by the unexpected beauty we find.

Aaron Hoffman
Scarborough