Emad Barsoum: The Polar Bear Dip and a New Hope

For the last 37 years, we have been celebrating the New Year with a unique tradition called “The Courage Polar Bear Dip.” People of different ages go to the beaches of Lake Ontario and take a dip in the chilly water on January First. This tradition started in 1985, when Gaye Courage on the first day of the new year, challenged her two sleepy tired sons to leave the house and go to jump in Lake Ontario to wake themselves up after a long New Year’s Eve.

They accepted the challenge along with some friends and did it. The year after, more people had learned about it and joined the two brothers and their friends. Year after year, more people joined to take the challenge and dip themselves in the very freezing water of Lake Ontario. In 1995 the brothers decided to take their event to a different level that would include a higher cause. So, they teamed up with “World Vision Canada”, a not-for-profit global relief, development, and advocacy organization, and together they started raising funds for financing clean water projects around the globe in poor countries.

A few years ago, and I was hoping to join the event and dip in the Lake Ontario water on January First, so I decided to take the challenge in the year 2021, however, the event was canceled, for the first time due to Covid 19, but I kept my hopes high that I will do it in 2022, however again I learned that it is canceled because Covid is still prevalent.

Nevertheless, I am keeping my hopes even higher for 2023 because we humans can conquer all darkness and despair by strong hope and determination. Most of us think that life will not return to the one we knew before the emergence of the current pandemic, they believe that the face mask is part of our costumes, social distance is a new etiquette and the best we can do is to refrain from going to sports events, movie theatres or restaurants. People now look up in the sky and cannot see the sun, even if it fills the day, lovers became mute, claiming that the moon and stars do not like the earth anymore and have disappeared. Even music became shy, and the dances were fading.

That pattern of thinking about our status quo as a de facto should end, the only way to defeat these current situations is by keeping our hopes very high, by being very strongminded about our ability to change the situation and go back to live again.

A new year is here, a new hope comes with it, the hope of seeing the sun even on a cloudy day, whispering love words in our lovers’ ears, while the moonlight gently creeps through our windows on a starry night.

We must have our hopes that the music is filling the air while we can watch the dancing shadows around us of people joyfully holding each other in perfect harmony.

Our hopes are always alive through the beautiful smiles of the children and their loud innocent laughter that complements our lives. The hope should never be lost but is renewed with every sunrise and every born child.

Have a Happy New Hope in the New Year.