What does art, comedy, and feeding bugs have to do with each other? I’ll get to that in a minute, but first I have to tell you about a fellow named Opie Oppenheim, if you have not already heard of him.

Opie is a motivational speaker of Canadian First Nations, Jewish, and German decent. I had the pleasure of hearing his life story on Canada Day, while he entertained a group of Rotarians. The occasion was the Rotary Club of Merritt’s annual installation dinner.

We did the usual things, like thank the past president, and welcome the new president and board of directors. We recited The Four–Way Test, which goes like this: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? And, will it be beneficial to all concerned? With a mantra like this you can imagine that people with good intentions populate most Rotary clubs.

So how does Opie address such a group? Well, he used humour, which has a wonderful leveling effect, then he mixed in his life story. He is a man taken at a young age to residential school. He is a man that has been to jail. He is a man that admits to criminal and addictive behaviour. Now he is a man 33 years sober with his past firmly in the past.

Opie told us he used to be negative and blame the world for all that went wrong in his life. One day he started to do something about it. He started to paint and started a career as an artist and as a speaker. After years of commercial success, his life was going well, yet he called a meeting with his family to hear what they had to say. He was expecting a pat on the back for all the good he had done, because he had turned his life around. To his surprise, his kids told him they felt neglected. His then 12-year-old son asked to speak to him in private. His son said, "dad, you hug everyone but me, you spend all your time embracing other people's problems."

At that moment, Opie realized his children were like a garden that needed to be tended and nurtured to grow strong. He vowed to spend more time with them and started immediately. He said he took his kids fishing and “fed the bugs.” He said it was being together that counted, not the number of fish caught. I was touched by Opie’s story, by his friendly demeanor and by his art. It was the perfect message to deliver to a bunch of business people striving to find a way to help Merritt and spread good will in the world. Spend time with your kids first. The rest will fall into place and we will be able to help others.

Thanks Opie—I’m going to bring my kids fishing this weekend and feed the bugs for a while.

—John Morash