Silver Threads and Golden Needles in a Green Era

Silver Donald Cameron​ is golden in my view. Beyond his insights, clever charm, kindness, and genuine curiosity and concern for all things, I think it's his capacity for effort that most captures my attention.

Through his adventures, work and writing he's lived several lifetimes already and the volume of his output seems to be increasing. "We measure ourselves by many standards," said William James, over a century ago. "Our strength and our intelligence, our wealth and even our good luck, are things which warm our heart and make us feel a match for life. But deeper than all such things, and able to suffice unto itself without them, is the sense of the amount of effort which we can put forth." We're all capable of so much more than we imagine.

To me Don is the most shining example of how to find purpose in life. "Not to be occupied and not to exist are one and the same thing" was Voltaire's creed. With those few words Voltaire captured the essence of a purpose to life: to work, to create, to excel, and to be concerned about the world and its affairs. There you have it. Silver Donald is a constant reminder to me that I am capable of so much more than I think I am, that others think I am, and than I've accomplished so far. He makes me feel at every meeting like I'm just getting started, that we're up at the dawn of the day, and that all the best times are still out ahead.

His book THE LIVING BEACH inspired me to produce a TV series on the life of beaches and it's a subject I feel I'm just getting started on with a lot more to come. I can do more and better.

Today the Halifax Examiner reported that Silver Donald Cameron will be the first Farley Mowat Chair in Environment at Cape Breton University, to be announced at an event at CBU on June 7th.

Don has an online project called the www.thegreeninterview.com. On June 7th, he will celebrate the chairship by doing his first-ever live, on stage Green Interview, with the astonishing Margaret Atwood. Atwood’s partner Graeme Gibson will be conferred an honorary doctorate at the same event.

For those of us unfortunate not to be in Cape Breton in early June we can see the interview live-streaming on the Green Interview site.

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