WATBEAR'S HOMEPAGE (AKA: DJBEAR or CANADABEAR)
Interests:

Swimming



Reading



Doing new things



Attending Live Theatre



Movies - mystery, comedy, romance, historical



Travel


Work



Politics


Christianity



I enjoy growing roses and other beautiful flowers but it is not my life






Some people might ask me to define my philosophy. That is so hard to do for someone like myself who for years buried any true feelings about likes and dislikes and about my emotions. I guess my birth family was not very emotional. I am thus going to try to rectify all that by expressing some feelings about my interests listed here.




I think the first thing to realize is that I have always tended towards religion. I taught Sunday School, was on a Chruch building committee and official board before I was out of secondary school. In the first church I was a member of after marrying, I served as a deacon and Chair of the CE Committee. When my oldest boy was 12, his Sunday School teacher asked us not to bring our son back to Sunday School. That was a turning point for me. For a year I did not attend a Church but I needed a local congregation to connect with and so started attending the Missionary Church, a bible-believing but tiny denomination.


The denomination does not matter - what I learned in the subsequent 19 years is that there are two types of Christians - those who believe in judgement and are willing to condemn both the sin and the sinner, and those who believe in love no matter the appropriateness. It is not for us to judge. Only God is our judge! I believe in a righteous and loving God who will love me particularly if I confess to Him my sins, but He holds me accountable. Just as He will condemn those who like the Pharisees, live by a bunch of rules and fail to display the Love of God. I am not condemming those who behave that way but there are days when I feel that those who live rigif lives like that create more problems for the Church than they help win souls.


It is my firmly held belief that our strength as Christians is in numbers and support. I have belonged to a men's prayer and study group (two in my present church and one while I lived in the U.S.). Whether those have been connected with Promise Keepers does not matter. What does matter is that men ought to be helping each other by being caring and loving and supportive in the struggles we face as men in the workplace and in family life. I recently learned the hard way how a man who lied could hurt my career and how being truthful can be harmful to career but with prayer, I have been able to avoid retaliation and I admit it took prayer to stop me from wanting blood.




My other interests are more self-explanatory. I have to say that I enjoy some physical, some non-physical activity but I have a need (and I have only recently recognized it) to be doing things all the time. I realize that some people can sit and contemplate. For me there is nothing I hate worse than to sit and contemplate - I contemplate when driving, or as I drift off to sleep BUT I prefer to have a computer, a book, or the TV going if I am going to sit down and get the weight off my feet. Mind you, a lively discussion of politics fits the bill but going over what others have said just does not cut it with me.
MOI: TAKEN IN MARK TWAIN TERRITORY

Right now, there are some things moved in so you can learn a bit about me. As I move more in, you will find out more about more about me obviously. This picture was taken while my wife and I were doing some student recruiting. My wife of 32 years took the picture.


This picture was taken in Hannibal Missouri in February 1998.






BEARS: WONDERFUL CREATURES!

See the bear on this page! I know there are those who wish to know what a bear is. It is a term applied to men who enjoy the company of masculine men. It is a term applied to those who have beards or moustaches and hair on chests and backs. It is a term applied to men who like to be themselves. Bears tend to be supportive and they may even eat too much if fed improperly. I am one of those bears who has eaten more than I should!




Here is where I reveal something about myself. I have been married 32 years and have three grown sons and one daughter-in-law. No grandchildren yet! I was born in Ottawa, Ontario during the last days of World War II and grew up in the Windsor/Detroit region. I did all my schooling including undergraduate degree while in that area and lived there for 18 years.



There I stayed until I moved to London England to do a Masters Degree at London School of Economics and Political Science - a year I much enjoyed and a year in which I learned so much more than through my other degrees. When I moved back to Canada, I moved to Edmonton Alberta with my bride of 3 days. While I worked towards my Ph.D. , she was doing her education diploma. She never taught because family became a priority as we adopted our oldest son while we lived in Alberta.


Eventually I ended up in Kitchener-Waterloo where I am in my 30th year of university teaching.
Within the first five years in Kitchener-Waterloo we had born to us our other two sons. We also bought our first home and quickly moved to a larger home which we have lived in 25 years as of the end of August 1998.



The year I was promoted to full professor, was the year I realized I had hidden much about myself. It was a watershed time for me. My interests were broader than just trying to get ahead. I wanted to see and experience new things. Yet, it was not until 1992 that I began to realize how to use things like ftp, and the The Zen of the Internet to learn more about myself and my life.
It was also a time of rapidly changing focus in research and as doctoral faculty advising distance education adults, I was anxious to learn.



You will find a web page at Wilfrid Laurier University home page with assignments, CV, and such on it. That tells you about my professional stuff. You can also turn to some of my favorite URLs to learn more about me. I will continue to add to this page and will be always changing it, hopefully for the better.
Favourite Links

Greenleaf University
Interested in Distance Education Graduate programs?


Wilfrid Laurier University
In my 30th year here.

Email me on:
[email protected]

This page has been visited times.