My knowledge of Greek mythology is slight even though herself taught it at the university. However, through osmosis, I learned a little on two trips to Greece with university students. So when I came upon the minor god Tantalus in a book review I knew enough to equate Tantalus with our use of the modern word ‘tantalizing’. The book review had something to do with ‘Hell’ but I was soon intrigued with Tantalus, not the idea of hell.
Tantalus got himself into trouble with the major gods away back when by trying to steal some nectar and ambrosia to sell on the black market. Then he prepared a feast for the gods using his cut-up son in a stew and that did not go over very well either. The head honcho meted out some eternal punishment by having Tantalus stand in water under a fruit tree. Every time Tantalus tried to drink the water, it flowed away from his reach. Whenever he reached for a fruit to eat, the tree withdrew the fruit out of his reach. You can see that this would be one heck of a way to spend eternity. No, there was no bottled water or energy bars back then.
Tantalus did have some small claim in literary history, as he was the great grandfather of Agamemnon and Menelaus. But it was the tantalizing thing that caught my attention.
We’ve all had tantalizing experiences. You are looking to buy a new vehicle and you are standing there sizing up a little Ford Fiesta with monthly payments of $159 per month and right beside it is the Lincoln Town Car with monthly payments of only $259 per month (for life). Tantalizing until you do the math. Or you try to get a larger loan from the bank which is akin to getting a drink of cool water from the receding pool at your feet.
Then there are the promises of wealth that are just out of your reach despite the bank telling you that you are richer than you think. Or someone offers you a deal that seems wonderful until they ask for your credit card number. Maybe it is not a scam and that share in a Nigerian gold mine could be worth thousands. Those luscious grapes are just out of reach. Maybe your luck will change when the Casino comes to town.
You hear again the tantalizing dream of a Costco or an Ikea or Red Lobster coming to North Bay only to realize our dwindling population cannot support those high-traffic businesses. They are just out of reach. Maybe if we had those extra 10,000 people . . . or maybe that tantalizing dream the Economic gurus have of using our 10 million dollars will bear fruit within our reach.
Then there was the tantalizing proposal to use the surplus from our water conservation efforts to lower our water rates – just a little. Was that just a ploy to keep us dreaming and reaching? Nevertheless, be of good cheer for the tantalizing dream of a splash pad does appear to be within reach. The children using the pad can work on the symbolism of the water running away from their feet and down the drains like property taxes. The tantalizing prospect of those of thousands of visitors to our proposed new arena down in the swampy Netherlands maybe within our reach – certainly the water is there for a Tantalus project.
There was the tantalizing report by the Baylor group but I think we all now know that was beyond our grasp. There is still the vision of new businesses up on the airport property and one can only hope the gods will smile on us there. Maybe that Swiss sub-orbital ride thing was never going to get off the ground.
Our motto of being ‘Just North Enough to be Perfect’ surely must be tantalizing in the crowded GTA area but the reality is that we are just out of reach by about 200 kilometres. Besides, there is all that farmland suitable for growing row upon row of townhouses just north of the ever-expanding boundaries of the GTA. And there are no Blanding turtles there to inhibit urban sprawl. The raccoons and woodchucks might slow the encroaching humans a little but not for long.
Perhaps we should be grasping and nourishing those things within our reach. Maybe we should be building year-around greenhouses instead of ice arenas. No, I wasn’t thinking of weed ops, but veggies that will fit into the new Canada Food Guide. As tantalizing as fish farms may look to old fishers we don’t have a good track record on fish sustainability, but things could change. The Hole in the Hill keeps tantalizing some people but other than a novelty hotel or mushroom farm, I think it is just a relic of the cold war, which is something most young entrepreneurs never experienced. And just as well, too.
Now if we could just find something to do with all this snow. Maybe we could ship it to Tantalus in Hell – I heard it is warm down there.
