Blog # 162...February 2025

With so many demonic figures front and cente in the news, it was refreshing to start the year with a series of interviews celebrating the latest  Orders of Canada recipients on CBC's The Current.`I know, it's becoming quaint to listen to the radio, I also have a landline and I'm cheering up with a festival of Mike Leigh films on my DVD player. and spinning jazz on my turn table.

The individuals named to the Order are doing important work but often are  unfamiliar names to most of us .  They're fighting hate crime, documenting and speaking out about climate change, developing methods for people with aphasia to communicate and promoting business opportunities in the Arctic. Vancouver artist Joe Average is anything but - after contracting HIV /AIDS when he was 27, he began using his art to advocate for other people living with the condition.

Many of the people honoured by Canada are well known outside the country in international scientific, political or cultural areas. In an interview in The Paris Review in the sixties, Beat poet  Jack Kerouac called bill bissett “The greatest living poet today”  That was well over half a century ago, and last December, my friend bill was welcomed into the Order of Canada. 

At 85, bill continues to publish and perform his poetry, draw and paint. What endears him to me most though is his long time commitment to The Secret Handshake, a peer support group for people with schizophrenia that he co-founded with Jordan Stone in 2010.  In a gallery in the Kensington area of Toronto they host art exhibits, literary readngs and other cultural events  that bring the community together and celebrate talent. On the right, bill gets cozy with Canada's Governor General Mary Simon in Ottawa, how great is that photo!

Symptoms of schizophrenia tend to marginalize those who suffer. Their behaviour, as they respond to visual and/ or auditory hallucinations can be frightening, both to them and to people around them. Most individuals are able to control their psychotic  symptoms  with medication, but the negatives - disordered thinking, flat emotions, lack of motivation and difficulty with self care often remain. These are mote difficult to treat and have a lot to do with the isolation experience. The Secret Handshake and the arts bring people together from within and outside the community to enjoy the creative process.

My interest in bringing art forms into the lives of people with mental illness began in the 80's and 90's when I worked in inpatient psychiatry at Toronto General Hospital. I had a side  hustle making documentaries, and I've attached one. If you've  got a spare 20 minutes, are interested in hearing more and meeting the wonderful Joan Erikson...and seeing what I looked like 35 years ago, here it is.

https://youtu.be/Pjx0gTuivs

See you in March, wishing you a Happy Lunar New Year in the meantime. I was born in the year of the rat...sly and shifty!

 Blog #161...January 2025 

Welcome to the new year with a fresh set of hopes and dreams, still waiting for some of the  old ones to arrrive!

One important thing that did happen in 2024 was the re-opening of Cathedrale Notre- Dame  de Paris, inspiring me to write about  my interest in conservation. Building of Our Lady began in 1103 and was completed in 1345.  

Although she was significantly damaged during the Revolution in 1792, she went on to withstand weather, wars and worshipping, until the devastating fire on April13th 2019 destroyed the wooden spire and severely damaged much of the roof and upper walls.                                      Despite  a great deal larger cost, the decision was made to conserve her, using the original techniques and materials, respecting the history of the building, its place in French culture and the skills of the original craftspeople. And, although it took more time as well as money, the world watched her open her doors on December 7th 2024, just about the 5 years President Macron promised.                                 We always love a Canadian connection and there's one here...Montreal blacksmith Mathieu Collette was charged with forging ax heads identical to the ones that would have been used in the 12th century to fell the trees!

I always revisit A Child's Christmas in Wales and this year I was struck by William Prince's The Sound of Christmas... Manitoba's tip of the hat to Dylan Thomas. Check it out on your nearest YouTube.

And friends have recommended a couple of books that interest me: Karen in Nova Scotia suggested Hope for Cynics by Janni Zaki and Fiona in Collingwood is reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.   I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I would like some hope to lighten my cynicism, and i probably have some habits that could use some tidying up.

So here we are a quarter of the way through the 21st century that just seems to have started. Remember the millenium Y2K scare that the world would implode or explode, I can't remember which. We're still here, well some of us, and I know we'll salvage some goodness and appreciate it when we come across it.  Did you know they've eliminated malaria in Egypt?

Back here in February.

 Blog #160...December 2024        

Dark days and falling leaves...I'm beginning to write this on Remembrance Day, always melancholy and an occasion to look back. I fell in love with London when I lived there in in the late 50's.  The city still carried visible and invisible scars from WWII and working at Hammersmith Hospital (which had a midwifery school) was like playing scenes from Call the Midwife.

When I saw Lee Miller's photos of the blitz in the film Lee,  I was transported back to walks around our Earl's Court  neighbourhood where bombed out buildings were a common sight. Watch for Lee on your streamers, it's a great story of an amazing and little known woman. Played brilliantly by Kate Winslett, Lee Miller was a Vogue model in New York in the 20's who travelled to Paris in the 30's and arrived in London just as the war broke out. She began taking photos and became a courageous and skilled war photographer, covering the liberation of Paris and the last days of German occupation and the camps. Toronto Metropolitan University's Image Gallery has a show of her work as well.

Steve McQueen's film Blitz follows a young black child evacuated from London's east end who jumps off the train carrying him and hundreds of other children to safety in the north. On his journey on foot back to find his mother he encounters some small acts of kindness, along with the atrocities of war and the cruelties of racism  - see if it turns up streaming too.

I've enjoyed the creative work of artists in their nineties lately, very encouraging. Clint Eastwood, at 94 recently released Juror # 2,  a court room thriller exploring moral issues - bringing the count to 60 films that he's appeared in, produced or directed, sometimes all three.

 Alan Bennett 90, the quiet member of Beyond the Fringe has survived his pals, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook to write plays, screenplays and novels, most recently Killing Time. His true experience led to The Lady in the Van starring the late Maggie Smith who missed being 90 by just three months. And Penelope Lively, I mentioned her memoir last blog, is now 91. 

Many people I know are in a book club, or a choir, maybe both. I love reading, and singing but have never felt drawn to do either in a group...until now. The book club emerged organically about a year ago. I'd been chatting from time to time about what we were reading with a friend I'd made in the locker room where I swim. Our meetings are never planned, only last a few minutes when we happen to be changing clothes at the same time and we don't always read the same books. It's an unconventional book club but very satisfying all the same.

The choir, also made up of two members, is more recent and consists of me and a friend with some health challenges.  We both seem to have a huge store of lyrics in our memories and derive lots of pleasure belting out Al Jolson or Cole Porter songs either on the phone or in person. Singing gets oxygen to the brain and releases endorphins -  like running and it's good if you're not inclined toward vigorous exercise or it's a rainy day!

All these things\ - movies, books, singing help keep the darkness out, and there's been so much of it lately. The sadness of Murray Sinclair's death, made meaningful by the wonderful Anishinaabe memorial on November 10.  Seeing Mary Simon, Wab Kinew as well as Justin Trudeau join Niigaan Sinclair and the Assembly of \First Nations chiefs to express their love and appreciation for Murray warmed my heart.

I'll leave you with a quote from Isiah Berlin that sums up one corner of our current distressing world  " Freedom for the wolf often means death for the sheep."  And from Margaret Atwood, as The Handmaid's Tale jumped back on the bestseller list right after the US election, "Despair is not an option, it helps no one."

We'll see each other again in 2025, God willing and the creeks don't rise. Until then  look after yourself, and each other. And, read a book, watch a movie, sing a song!

 Blog # 159...November 2024  

When he celebrated the fifth anniversary of his publication Reasons to be Cheerful, David Byrne said "We imagined we might do it for a few years...Now, nearly a thousand stories later, we’re looking toward the future with more optimism and hope than ever before. " 

Same for me with this blog. In September 2011, thinking it was a one-of, I wrote about the young musicians devoted to the patients, families  and staff at the Toronto Grace Hospital. Since then I've continued to notice how art and artists enlarge and enrich our thinking and feeling worlds. Hopefulness is my feeling of choice and for me it's connected to a sense of  home.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what constitutes home. I remember when, where and how I've felt at home over the years,  I moved many times when I was in my twenties and thirties, able to work and live in different countries, languages and cultures. I was surprised not to feel at home when I came back to Toronto...we'd both changed.

Today,  I'm very grateful to have this view from my front door. My sense of home continues to shift as the house reflects years of experience - met too,  especially my eyes and ears...they've seen and heard so much. I'm  getting used to feeling at home with the person I am now and working with what I can and want to do. When I used to rush out, I probably never noticed the beautiful yellow of the ironwood tree that only lasts a couple of days once a year. 

And I'm conscious that wherever I am, it's the people who surround me that create my home.

I recently discovered novelist Penelope Lively's memoir (thanks Sara!)written ten years ago when she was eighty. She captures many things I've felt about aging, putting in place "feisty, grumpy, focused on the past" as features rather than the stereotypes they've become. Although we are very different people, I felt understood when I read her thoughts...at home.

On a much more serious note is the journey made by thousands of people leaving their homes to escape wars, climate and economic conditions. They arrive here to share the country we're so lucky to call home.  I often wonder if they feel the safety and opportunities gained have been worth the loss of country and culture. And of course, the people right here attempting to make a home on the street or in shelters are constant reminders of the inequities around us.

Just as an artist prompted me to write this pensive piece, another artist will take us out.  David Byrne seems to be a glass full kind of guy, encouraging us towards cheerfulness. Writer Elizabeth Renzetti, pretty glass full herself, cautions us not to rest on our oars about equality, especially where women\s rights and positions are concerned. Her work always manages to bring some humour into serious matters without diminishing their importance. Her new book What She Said reminded me that I could keep worrying and still laugh, sometimes at the same time.

It's getting dark now, time to get some treats on board to rage at the dying of the light.  See you in December!

 Blog # 158...October, 2024

"There' is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."   How often poets manage to capture a feeling and lead us into our deepest thoughts. These days there seem to be cracks appearing  everywhere. I keep waiting for the light to come through and am so grateful for the occasional glimmer.

One day last April, I had a wonderful surprise when I happened to walk by the British Columbia legislature building in Victoria.  People of the Haiaa nation were in full regalia celebrating the third reading of the bill giving them title to the land they had occupied lovingly for centuries. Indigenous languages have no word for landscape, the distance from nature that it implies has no meaning when they live within it. They have much to teach us as we struggle on many fronts with our environment.

We've all become used to land acknowledgements at every public event, evidence of a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations issued almost a decade ago. Confrontations over land rights continue to occur in most parts of the country, a strange counterpoint to the public statements being made. The Haida agreement heralds a shift to an era of collaboration rather than confrontation; discussions around a table rather than battles in court.

As I'm getting ready to post this, it's the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As well as sitting through the land acknowledgements, many of us have wondered what else we can do, how to match words with deeds. First we need to have an understanding of where we are and how we got here. There is a wealth of material to introduce contemporary indigenous culture. CBC has documentaries, music programs and Indigenous people reading news and hosting shows. Among my favourite reads are Michelle Goode's  Five Little Indians and Who Are We by Murray Sinclair. I always love anything by Richard Wagamese or Drew Hayden Taylor and I'm looking forward to The Knowing by Tanya Talaga, both a book and a four part series on CBC Gem. 

For an unbiased exploration of the history from before the arrival of Jacques Cartier in 1534 to the present, your best bet is the University of Alberta's free online course in Indigenous History which I've taken once and intend to repeat:                               https://www.ualberta.ca/en/native-studies/programs/continuing-education/index.html                                                                                            There's one whole session near the end on art and artists that is brilliant. It's a major miracle that so many  cultural forms and practices have survived our concerted efforts to extinguish them.

Knowing how the past shapes the future and becoming familiar with the rich linguistic and cultural history of Indigenous Canada is the key to reconciliation. We all have much to gain from walking alongside each other, watching for the light to appear through the cracks.

So, it'll be November when next we meet, time flies while life unfolds. 

 Blog # 157...September, 2024

September is always a nostalgic time for me - the departure of summer and, my birthday starts another year in a long and full  life. When we think back on this summer Jasper has joined Lytton and  Fort McMurray in reminding me of the names of  battles, evoking human loss, devastation and also courage. Richard Ireland, mayor of Jasper who spoke with tears in his voice of supporting his fellow citizens as he viewed his own home utterly destroyed emerges as a hero.  I suspect there are many others.

Memories help us to make sense of the present and plan for the future, sometimes appearing unexpectedly.  Two books I've read recently, written by two people I know, have brought different eras into focus for me. 

David Goldbloom, a Toronto psychiatrist, was a colleague in the 80's and 90's at Toronto General Hospital. He' s followed How Can I Help? with We Can do Better. In the first book,  he traces a week in the life of a psychiatrist; in the second he explores innovations currently improving mental health access and care. Using a patient history to provide context for eight different mental illnesses, he outlines  an initiative already in place somewhere (almost always here in Canada) that is successfully tackling the problems. We see what is being dome as a plea for more.

As well as bringing me up to date after many years of being outside the field, We Can Do Better filled me with memories of the days I worked as an occupational   therapist on the inpatient unit at TGH.  I'm struck by the substantial changes in mental health delivery that began in  the mid eighties. Cognitive therapy is now universally accepted as an effective treatment. Cultural practices are recognized as integral to mental health rather than just exotic curiousities. And, there's a sense of collaboration between patient peer support groups and professionals, mostly replacing the hostility of the anti psychiatry movement..  We Can Do Better has lots about developments in genetic testing, helpful prompting apps, cognitive remediation, televideo assessment and treatment and online and telephone appointments. It's a very easy read if your interest is in mental health, and whose isn't?

 I met Sarah Cox for the first time in over 30 years at a launch for her first book in 2016. Breaking the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley's Stand Against Big Hydro tells how a small group of indigenous people and farmers fought against the mosi expensive hydro dam project in Canadian history. The eldest daughter of my longtime friend and neighbour Lynn Spink, Sarah is an environmental journalist in Victoria, writing for The Narwhal. Last year, she produced her second book Signs of Life: field notes from the Frontline of Extinction.

I was captivated in the first pages of Signs of Life when Sarah introduced me to the spotted owl, sadly gone now along with many of the old growth forests.  A number of other species of animals, as well as insects and plants, are vanishing yearly, others barely managing "to hang on by fin, hoof or claw". Sarah's lyrical prose makes this a wonderful, if distressing read. One recent winter morning I spotted a snowy owl perched on the eaves of the house across the laneway from mine. Although it was a thrill for me, it was also alarming to see it, probably chased there by development in its home territory .

David and Sarah don't know it but are one degree of separation away from each other. Another couple met for the first time on Variety Studios' Actors on Actors series. Ten years ago Pete Davidson, at 20, was one of the youngest ever cast members on Saturday Night Live. He told the story of losing his firefighter dad on 911 in The King  of Staten Island.  Glenn Close,77 now, delighted him and many other kids as Cruella in 101 Dalmations while horrifying the rest of us in Fatal Attraction. Their conversation (on YouTube) was warm, funny and unusual.

 In his conclusion, David Goldbloom says "Things that have caught my attention, aroused my curiousity have given me hope."  Thinking about and composing this blog every month does the same for me; We all do better with the energy of hope than the paralysis of despair. Thanks for tuning in, back in October. 

Oh wait, the dazzling opening ceremonies of the paralympics just began. Elite athletes, competing with impairments, stand out parallel to the games that just finished...equally compelling and also full of heroes!  I'm particularly moved by the appearance in the parade of countries with one athlete, attending for the first time. It speaks to immense efforts to make social and attitudinal change. That's all folks!

 Blog # 156...August 2024

As I begin to write this, the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics are due to begin in about an hour and they will be spectacular… despite spoilers blocking three of the rail lines leading into the City. I'm certain Parisians will turn out to fill the stands and cheer the event. 

In the original spirit of the games, which included art forms as well as sport, Canadian double Olympian (hurdles and bobsledding) Phylicia George will read her spoken word poem The Gold Within.  Arts bring an added dimension to the games and it's particularly delicious to have one of our own athletes exploring "the gold within all of us" in her poem. 

Women are much on my mind lately for various reasons, specific ones like Alice, Kamala, Celine and Summer, as well as the many who suffer and sometimes die in the epidemic of intimate partner violence. It doesn't really fit my topic but needs to be brought forward, even in a piece devoted to art.

It's now later on Friday and the Olympics are officially open, with a. huge welcoming throng. Boats large and small filled the Seine. In a spirit of friendly rivalry, Canadian athletes shared a river cruiser with Cameroon, Chile, the Central African Republic and China. The artistic production moved from Victor Hugo to Lady Gaga and back again, honouring some of the women of the Revolution on the way. The best shot of all for me though was catching Emmanuel Macron's look of astonishment during Lady G's number. 

Back for now to my thoughts of women:                                               Thousands of words have been written about Alice Munro over the past weeks and it seems to me that Katherine Ashenburg sums it up "We look to art to reflect darkness and moral complexity, so we shouldn't be surprised that artists are as flawed as the rest of us”. But make no mistake, Alice’s flaw was major.

Kamala Harris is Momala to her loving step children. Wow, let's keep our finger crossed for the next few months until she's safe in the Oval office and we can lift our fists in relief at missing that particular bullet.                                                                                            

The breathtaking comeback appearance of Celine Dion on the balcony of the Eiffel Tower - what a dramatic moment in a couple of hours drenched in them...as well as with rain!  And a silver medal for Summer McIntosh for the 400 meter freestyle medley event.         

Most of all though, I think of Andrea Robin Skinner, Alice Munro's youngest daughter abused by her stepfather in the ultimate betrayal.  These women all inspire me in different ways with their talent, their perseverance and, in some cases at least, their courage.                           

I have mixed feelings about the Olympics, maybe their most useful role is distraction from the serious crises in the world, maybe a few meaningful relationships are formed, but does that make it all worth  the expense and climate destruction? My plan is to become  head of the IOC and build a permanent site in Greece where both summer and winter games will be held every 4 years with the emphasis on the sports rather than sponsors, TV rights and size of the audience…ah well, I can dream can’t I?

Doesn’t mean I don’t jump up and cheer when Summer wins gold…as a swimmer myself, although I can’t come anywhere near her speed or the distances covered by Marilyn Bell or Diana Nyad, I feel a watery kinship with them.

September will bring me back with something completely different, hope to see you then