Perspectives by Rev. Clarence Witten

The Great Potter

During a pre-marriage counselling session, the councillor showed the couple a picture of a potter-house and asked each one of them to identify with one of the picture’s elements; the picture basically contained three elements: the potter, the wheel and clay. 

After a considerable time of silence…….both of them said: “the wheel”.

Generally, not only in marriage life, we might be too polite to express our deepest wish to be in the place of the potter, but we are defiantly against being the clay.

Conventional Pottery (the act of making pottery wares) has changed very little through the centuries. The wheel is now turned by an electric motor, but that is about everything. Even this is still controlled by the foot of the potter. The clay is the same as it has always been. 

Not long ago, we (human race) were more humble; this picture of the potter sitting behind his wheel forming and creating a useful pot or a beautiful decorative vase was inside the mind and soul of each one of us. 

We saw our life in the hands of The One who is ultimately knowing, able and loving. Before we went to sleep we would put our thoughts and concerns in his palms. As we left our houses in the morning, we asked him for guidance and when fear and sadness hit us we ran to him for help. 

The picture was present in the language we used and in our attitude from everything around us. I believe, not long ago, we lived in the world of the Great Potter.     

But, gradually, something changed; there has been a growing desire in us to be the potter of our own life and everything in it. 

We seemed to love the idea of being able to create something useful and beautiful out of a messy chunk of clay. We wanted to believe that what happens to this clay can happen to anything that comes our way; we are creative, smart, willing and we build something new almost every day, so why not to see ourselves as great potters??      

Since we (the human kind) started to uncover the laws of our world and later to control them we wanted nothing to do with clay; we felt that we’ve been there too long and we’ve paid our dues! 

When we look at all that has been achieved in the fields of science and technology we are more convinced that it was the best thing we’ve ever done when we claimed the seat of the potter. Who needs a great potter when he/she is that good?        

Bear with me this story: in the Bible in Old Testament there is this story about a person whose name is Jeremiah. The people in Jeremiah’s time have, at least, one thing in common with us today; they have lost the concept of the Great Potter from their life. God thought he needed to talk with Jeremiah about that.

The amazing thing in this story is in spite of the fact that potter-houses were at every corner and everybody (including young children) knew exactly what a potter house was and what happened in it, God still asked Jeremiah to go down to one of them. 

He told him: “go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words” (Jer. 18.2). 

Jeremiah could have received the words elsewhere, but God wanted him to be looking at the fingers of the potter holding the clay, his foot turning the wheel and his craftsmanship transforming the idea into reality. 

“I will let you hear my words” meant more than hearing words; it meant helping Jeremiah (in behalf of his people) to rebuild the connection between the picture he once owned in his mind and soul and between God telling him the words: “Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” 

This story teaches me that there is hardly any use if I keep telling myself: “I can’t be the potter of my life.” Or “there is no sense of meaning or true purpose when I’m trying to give a shape and use to my days.” I became defensive every time I did this and (to my grief) I worked hard to prove the opposite. 

Instead, I needed to find the picture of the Great Potter in my mind and soul. I needed to build the bridge between that picture and the words: “Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”

I wonder, if you saw a picture of a potter-house and were asked to identify with one of the picture’s elements, what would you pick? I hope not the wheel!

[…]

There was a sense of anticipation as we waited for the new Premier to be selected by the Liberal party.  

This process was initiated by the former Premier Dalton McGuinty, as he tried to quiet the outcry over two gas power plants that were cancelled to retain four Liberal seats in the 2011 election and the following cover-up of the cost.  

Now eleven months after taking over as Premier, we are yet to see Kathleen Wynne table any legislation that would reduce the regulatory and financial burden that is making our businesses uncompetitive. 

Instead, we have witnessed her office under an OPP investigation triggered by the Privacy Commissioner’s report into the illegal deletion of sensitive government records.  

While her government initiated dozens of feel-good bills designed solely to attract good press, 600,000 Ontarians are still out of work. In a province with the best-qualified workforce in North America, this is an unacceptable waste. 

The Auditor-General’s team was also busy fulfilling their role as the financial watchdog of the Province. 

Their first two Special Reports detailed how actions taken by the Liberal government to keep the true cost of the cancelled power plants hidden, unnecessarily drove the bill up by hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $1.1 billion.  

The third special report confirmed that the sale of Ontario Northland will cost the taxpayer $800 million rather than saving $200 million as claimed by the Liberals.  

In her Annual Report, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk highlighted numerous examples of waste and lack of oversight, including the excessive executive compensation and murky hiring practices at Ontario Power Generation. 

The scale of waste perpetrated by the present Government is now undeniable, and urgent action is needed.

Our prosperity rests with a healthy private sector that generates wealth and jobs. 

Unfortunately, 2013 saw many plant closures, such as Heinz, Kellogg’s, and Novartis. The Government knew of the problems faced by job-creators in Ontario as they were informed by Heinz’s and others’ in the spring. 

Since Kathleen Wynne became premier, over 38,000 net manufacturing jobs have left our province. 

My fellow PC Caucus members and I have been reminding them daily that high energy costs and over-regulation have made us uncompetitive. 

Their insistence on failed policies, instead, brings about inevitable job losses.  

We need to make tough decisions in order to secure our future and this Liberal government is just not up to it.   

We need a government that will rise to this challenge and bring Ontario the prosperity needed to protect our health care and our quality of life.

On a more local level, I was able to hear from a large number of residents and the business community at events throughout the year or in our office when they needed help dealing with the provincial government.  

Our PC leader, Tim Hudak, was in the riding to meet with residents and stakeholders in the agricultural, health care and construction industries.  

Vic Fedeli, our energy critic, also toured a number of locations, addressing concerns over the skyrocketing electricity rates, now forecast to rise another 42% over the next five years.  

I also tabled three bills to address problems raised by small businesses and municipalities on the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), labour relations issues, and under my new critic role for Municipal Affairs and Housing, a bill to revise the Municipal Elections Act. 

Our Caucus also continued to release our policy White Papers that detail the action a PC Government would take to create jobs and secure the public services we all treasure.

The opportunities I had to meet the wonderful people of Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry at the many festivals and social events, including the special activities to celebrate the area’s historic War of 1812 battles and the remarkable contributions of the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, made 2013 a very busy and very rewarding year. 

It has been a very challenging year for the province as a whole, as well for many Ontarians and local communities. 

I remain optimistic that we can do better and that the future can be bright if we take the right action.  It will require some tough decisions that are made for the benefit of all, and you should accept no less.

In closing, as your proud representative of provincial government, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the Very Best in 2014.

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