National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 7

CANADA A7 NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009 nationalpost.com 1- 7 nrtrsriK'jy it 1 i 4 -su 1 1 rr-ytMfrk LIVING AND DYING w. -'f fl 'If I I If3 Ar 7 1 i ll 'v 4 MM I Lbm -w, mini iurr i imn it 'tl Ini fimii in i tr rrvrTMwwni'w-wW-i' TYLER ANDERSON NATIONAL POST Quarrington fiddles with a fly fishing rod in Toronto: "I think I'll go fishing this week, getting to know Mother Ship Earth a bit better." BELLOW ON Continued from previous page And even if there were no physical effect, the emotional spiritual benefits of singing must be enormous. Our little ship combo, The Clippertones, led the passengers in some pretty rousing sing-alongs, and although it tended to be a little discordant, it was communion. Indeed, within a day or two, the people aboard the ship were as unified, as community-minded, as any congregation anywhere. Glad-tidings and laughter abounded, and, in my opinion, such things do not allow squamous sessile tumours to flourish.

Meanwhile, the ship was proceeding down the coast of Labrador. There Inuktitut word meaning "Place of Spirits," and it very clearly is. The mountaintops are usually shrouded in cloud, and it's easy enough to imagine the Spirits assembling there, going through the itinerary for another year. righty! We have some squamous sessile tumors to give In short, the Torngat Mountains took what little breath I have away from me. The thought occurred that I was on another planet, and that's when I realized, no, I'm on this planet, I'm just none too clear on what it actually looks like.

I realized that what I wanted to do was spend a little time getting to know the third stone from the sun; it has been my home for 56 years, but I have spent much of it The Torngat Mountains took what little breath I have away from me NATHAN DENETTE NATIONAL POST Aboard his houseboat in June 2008. go stand in a river just a few degrees above freezing and toss a yarn-fly into the current, over and over again, in the hopes of convincing some chromium-silver steelhead that the thing is edible. Or, I may simply go walkabout, kicking stones and major rock formations. I will build inuksuit (did you know that was the plural? I learned a lot on my and I will try to build them across as much of the landscape as I can. In the meantime, I will be singing, all manner of songs.

I will sing in Porkbelly Futures, I will sing with fiddlers and button accordionists, I will sing in Gospel choirs and Glee Clubs. Indeed, I'm going to play at Toronto's Hugh's Room on the 27th, and I hope that many friends will join me, both in the audience and on the stage. Of course, other forces have other ideas. I had tests done just before I left for Labrador a bone and CT scan which may well reveal that the squamous sessile tumor has managed to thrive. It's a life and death struggle I've got going on here, except that, you know, I wouldn't put any significant money on life raising the final flag.

But having decided that life is beautiful not a decision I laboured over, by the way, more a certainty that seemed unassailable one year should seem as full of beauty and grace as forty. National Post I Paul Quarrington is a musician, an acclaimed novelist and non-fiction writer, and an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker. His novel Whale Musk won the Governor General's Award for Fiction, KingLeary was winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal, and his books have also been short- and long-listed for the Giller Prize. Next Saturday, he will be the focus of a tribute at the International Festival of Authors, in Toronto. This is the first instalment in an occasional series about his journey living each day like it's his last He doesn't know where this story is going, or how long he will be telling it confined in the settlements.

I wanted to explore and examine, I wanted to interact yes, in the broadest, most spiritual sense, I wanted to go mountain climbing. So there, basically, you have the two main components of my plan for (what remains of) my future: singing and (spiritual) mountain climbing. For example, I think I'll go fishing this week, getting to know Mother Ship Earth a bit better. I think I'll is Myyi Jrry NPjnationalpost.com is an educational component to an Adventure Canada expedition, and we would put ashore and have things explained to us by experts in various sciences and disciplines. The itinerary was such that we progressed, basically, from places of complete desolation to habitation.

We visited the Nachvak fjord where the arche-ologjst Latonia Hartery (who is also a singer, filmmaker and, urn, strikingly beautiful) showed us the ghostly remains of a Thule (predecessors of the Inuit) habitation, the entrance and floor plan easy to discern once Latonia showed you where to look As we journeyed through the Torngat Mountains, I finally realized what this trip was all about, for me. First of all, let me get a little scientific on you. The Torngats comprised of Precambrian gneisses are amongst the oldest mountains in the world, almost four billions years old. They rise out of the water with enchanted austerity. Sitting well above the tree line, the Torngats are stark naked and make no apology about it "Torngat" is an Scan this code with your smartphone to watch a video of author Paul Quarrington or visit nationalpost.commultimedla What's this bar code? See Page A2 Inside the II OA, WP14 NATHAN DENETTE NATIONAL POST "So there, basically, you have the two main components of my plan for (what remains of) my future: singing and (spiritual) mountain climbing.".