Brigus Rock (The Stoic), oil on canvas, 36"  x48", Steven Rhude


Being stoic is being calm and almost without any emotion. When you're stoic, you don't show what you're feeling and you also accept whatever is happening.

The noun stoic is a person who's not very emotional. The adjective stoic describes any person, action, or thing that seems emotionless and almost blank. Mr. Spock, from the oldest Star Trek show, was a great example of a stoic person: he tried to never show his feelings. Someone yelling, crying, laughing, or glaring is not stoic. Stoic people calmly go with the flow and don't appear to be shook up by much

. The hike to Brigus Light is arduous and not for the faint of heart. In unusually hot weather, and poorly equipped, I seriously underestimated the longevity of the hike ( I was told it was about forty minutes each way). On the way back, I encountered a large rock. Thinking of the painter Gerry Squires, I saw a future homage work in the landscape he still inhabits, that is if I made it back. I found myself in desperate need of some water, or risk getting heat stroke. People think Newfoundland is always foggy and cold - however, on this sweaty August day, it was about thirty five Celsius. I found a spring running down near the trail, and took a chance, drank from my cupped hands, and felt somewhat refreshed. Some blueberries kept me going until I reached my car a total of six hours after I started out. Back in Brigus, I stopped at a cafe and purchased a large bottle of water which I downed in front of the cashier, who looked at my sweaty, drenched disposition, and shook her head ever so modestly, when I told her where I had been. Newfoundland culture is peppered with coastal trails, physical routes for the external ground of being, and also the transcendental trail of one concerned with the geology of the spirit .... those that see into the stone - Squires was like that. You may wish to follow one or the other, but to get back home, at times, one needs to be stoic.


Steven Rhude, Wolfville, NS


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