BERNIE RANGE'S WATER WELLNESS STORY
as told to and written by Beverley Viljakainen

Bernie Range lives with his wife, Anne, and daughters Alana and Erika in Walkerton, Ontario, a very attractive rural town situated in the rolling terrain of south-western Ontario. The beautiful Saugeen River that flows through and around the town is a popular canoe route through the counties of Grey and Bruce. Coming from a farming family and somewhat scientifically inclined, Bernie grew up understanding the fundamental value of water. As a long-time recreation/leisure administrator and facilitator, he also knows how invaluable water is to our sense of adventure, well-being and leisure-time activities.

Because Bernie was one of approximately half the town whose family managed to withstand the May 2000 E. coli contamination, I invited him to share his story as part of the 2002 Walkerton Water Stories Project. It has always seemed to me that the Walkerton people who drank the water and either didn't get sick at all or recovered easily and quickly may have something to share with the rest of us about health and wellness at a time when so much of our attention must necessarily be paid to the illnesses of so many. Bernie is one such person and we very much appreciate his willingness to participate in this way.

There were times over the years when Bernie and his family suffered minor intestinal complaints that, in hindsight, may have had to do with the water. However, their natural resistance always took care of the problem without them having to seek medical treatment. On the May 2000 weekend of the Walkerton "Boil Water Order", Bernie had been experiencing minor abdominal cramping that cleared up once they began boiling the water. His wife and daughters had no such symptoms and Bernie himself was spared the diarrhea and other more serious complications that sickened those more seriously affected. The family boiled their drinking water for about five days but continued to shower and cook with the tap water once chlorination resumed, as they had done for the many years they had lived in Walkerton. Why did he think they didn't get sick, I asked.

Bernie spoke of the positive attitude with which he and his family approached the problem and that was so evident to me as he reflected aloud on their story. As a boy, he was able to drink the water of the fast-flowing glacially-fed rivers in northwest Alberta where he was raised. Most farmers in that area, like his father, fenced off the parts of the creeks or rivers that flowed through their farms, the idea of cattle having free access to the water being totally foreign to them. So, when he came to Bruce County, the quality of river water and local farming practices with respect to allowing cattle free access to the river came to him as something of a shock.

He admits to approaching water somewhat philosophically. Since the dawn of the earth, he explained, there has been no new water. We are drinking the same water as the dinosaurs drank and the earliest bacteria thrived in. We human beings, he continued, are the only animal species to foul our own nests, a fact that he feels we definitely need to own up to and remedy if we hope to continue to prosper and be well. For some of us, this means remembering or sensing what we already know and governing ourselves accordingly; for others, it's a matter of learning why and how to relate to water differently. [Not surprisingly, and as an aside, the master's degree that Bernie is presently working on focuses on living according to the principles of voluntary simplicity.]

He believes that when people began leaving the land [in many cases involuntarily], our natural relationship to the land, water, and its cycles was weakened to such an extent that it has been all but obliterated. As a result, there has been a drastic change in our relationship to the environment and water quality over the past forty years. This he experiences firsthand whenever he swims or canoes in the Saugeen. The smell of the water and that of the nearby cattle who have ready access to the river is obvious to this sensitized, intelligent man who has known the relative purity of other waterways in less populated areas. He also laments the fact that water and a myriad of ways to purify it are now heralded as "product" [or private good]. New businesses are flourishing because of people's fear of the water, all of which takes away from the need to correct the root cause of the problem. Water, like the air we breathe, is a common public good that is owned by no one, should not be bought or sold, and should be freely accessible to all in its pure life-sustaining form.

Switching quite effortlessly to the positive, Bernie said that he and his family maintain their connection to the land by spending time at the Mount Forest farm that used to belong to Anne's parents and is now shared by her siblings. They've done their bit to protect the wetlands there by creating a pond and protecting this and a bulrush swamp with a well-constructed fence to keep the cattle out of this wetland. They also want to "go organic" on the farm, but probably won't until the soon-to-retire conventional farmer presently working the land is no longer involved.

Bernie describes his family's resistance to harmful viruses and bacteria as quite hardy. In his own case, he somewhat wryly attributes this to being raised on a farm "in harmony with" the cows, pigs and chickens, by which he means things were none too clean. The majority of North Americans live in highly sterile conditions, he noted, which means that our immune systems are not challenged enough, get lazy and don't work as they are designed to. He also knows that childhood illnesses are what develop and strengthen our immune systems and thinks that too many people don't expose themselves enough to the rigours of outdoor weather, yet another way to exercise our immune systems so they can work more optimally. Most folks are cloistered away in their homes in front of their TVs or computers, and spend a fraction of the time out doors as they used to.

When asked whether he thought their diet might have something to do with his family's resistance to harmful viruses and bacteria, Bernie acknowledged that, while he and his wife, Anne, are conscious of the benefits of eating more vegetable foods, they were still working on putting this into practice. This very much supports studies that have found diet to be only one of the many variables that promote health and wellness. The Ranges also consume less meat and fat than the average North American family. Other notable differences are that they grow some of their own vegetables organically on their Mount Forest farm and buy most of their meat from local farmers, all of which they find very rewarding and satisfying.

I also asked Bernie if he and his family were going to be tested at the new clinic in Walkerton set up for the purpose. He said that his wife and daughter have decided to apply and that he probably would, too. It's his understanding that part of this clinic's mandate is to study health, which means that they will want to include people like the Ranges in their study.

For me, the most telling features of Bernie, Anne, Alana, and Erika are the overall resilience, strength and enthusiasm that they each appear to have an abundance of. They are "can-do" people whose approach to their town's water problems commands the same resilience, strength and enthusiasm with which they have learned to meet all of life's contingencies, both the pleasant and the not-so-pleasant. This is the stuff that wellness is made of; this is the stuff that enables us to regain our health when we have lost it and then to maintain it for longer and longer periods of time. Bernie and his family are examples of how full life can be when we approach its more challenging aspects with intelligence, courage and a ready sense of humour. May they continue to celebrate life and may they continue to be well.

May 8, 2002
Walkerton, Ontario

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