Paul Grant & Margaret Gallagher

Ned Pratt

My grandmother often told me that, “la ignorancia es atrevida” or ignorance is daring. While I am ignorant in many ways I listened to two men use a Latin expression and I simply asked what it meant.

It was quite a few years ago that CBC Radio arts reporter used the expression “carpe diem”. While looking for stuff on Google I found this:

The Roman poet Horace used the phrase carpe diem to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. It is part of Horace's injunction “carpe diem quam minimum credula postero” (translation: "pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the next one”), which appears in his Odes (23 BCE).

When I saw this I remembered Paul Grant fondly. He now lives in Moose Jaw. I then remembered another Latin expression that was uttered by the intelligent and most talented architect Ned Pratt. He said, “I may be an old man but I am compos mentis”.

I have yet to see that expression used this week in explaining President Biden’s problems.

I am now 81 and I believe that like Pratt I am compos mentis. While I am feeling terrible grief with the death of my Rosemary on 8 December, 2020 I will have to see if I can take Paul Grant’s advice.

Thanks to those two men I am not so much of a stultus equius. 

Catherine Tait

Hot Air 

Paul Grant