Collège Militaire Royal de Saint-Jean: A Trip Down Memory-Lane

An old mil-col buddy shared this video on facebook, and it sure brought back some memories from my officer cadet days at CMR!CMR was my home in Saint-Jean, Quebec for 5 years (1990-1995) as I was trained in my (univ) studies, leadership, sports/training and French.  These were incredible years of discipline and great (and some not so great) memories!  Still hard to believe that I received a 5-year, $75,000 scholarship.  If you are a young Canadian with the chance to attend one of our military colleges or ever have children that have such an opportunity, you/they should definitely go for it.  Life changing!  Thanks to RMR (Rick Mercer Report) for bringing back such memories.  Check out the CMR website to learn more. There are a couple of videos on that page that are quite informative.  The video “Programme d’orientation” was my favorite as it brought me back to my orientation days way back in August of 1990!

 

                                                                                               

Vérité! Devoir! Vaillance!( or in English, “Truth! Duty! Valour!”)

Canadian Astronaut, Commander Chris Hadfield: “What I Learned from Going Blind in Space” (Ted Talks Vancouver)

Fascinating talk by Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space.  18 minutes and 21 seconds well worth your time.

There’s an astronaut saying: In space, “there is no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.” So how do you deal with the complexity, the sheer pressure, of dealing with dangerous and scary situations? Retired colonel Chris Hadfield paints a vivid portrait of how to be prepared for the worst in space (and life) — and it starts with walking into a spider’s web. Watch for a special space-y performance.

2 great quotes I enjoyed from this talk include:

1. “The jaw-dropping gorgeousness of the turning orb like a self-propelled art gallery of fantastic, constantly changing beauty that is the world itself“.  I love the beauty and awe in this sentence.   Although I don’t believe Chris Hadfield is a man of faith, by drawing attention to the beauty of God’s magnificent creation, one cannot help but be in reverential awe of the Creator Himself.
2. I love that he ends the talk first with a cover of Bowie which he has done before and got a lot of attention for, but he also ends simply with the words “Fear Not“.  This is one of the most quoted words of God Himself throughout the Bible and it has been said that there are at least 365 times in the Holy Scriptures that God has said “fear not” in one form or another.  I would like to add that we are not encouraged to “fear not” simply for the sake of it but the motivation is often given following such encouragement by God’s Words “…for I am with you.”  That is ultimately the only reason we need not fear.  Thanks for the reminder, Colonel Hadfield! 🙂

If you haven’t seen it, here’s Colonel Chris Hadfield covering Bowie in his “music video recorded on the ISS of a modified rendition of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie.The video has over 20 million views on YouTube.”