Blog # 164...April 2025 

I just noticed today, March 6th, that views of the blog passed 100,000 sometime over night...that's since September, 2011. Some people click more than once (and I click to count the clicks).  The past couple of months, hundreds every day have been from France and the US, a while ago, it was Germany and Austria, before that Singapore, always a few from Brazil, Hong Kong, UK, Mexico, Colombia, Thailand, occasionally Russia, China, South Korea. The platform isn't sophisticated and some of the activity is probably AI trolling for language or robots kicking up their heels, who knows?

Some reflections on International Women's Day,  March 8th. We had a wonderful online conversation with Julie Lejeune and Devi Arasanayagam, who engaged and encouraged us  as they spoke about the work they do at the Fort York Food Bank in downtown Toronto...recorded if you're interested.  And in The NewYorker's very fat 100th Anniversary issue, a moving piece from Texas about the sisters of Mary Morningstar Oblature who decided to visit the women on death row in a prison in  nearby Gainesville, and the relationships that developed. 

Moving on to the present, our place in the world is front and centre in our attention these days, with many jokes, memes and inspirational pieces hurtling through our in boxes. My cousin Barbara sent me this from Victoria, complete with her emphasis.  It doesn't hurt to remind ourselves that it's OK to be idealistic, even patriotic.

"We believe in peacekeeping, not policing, diversity NO.T assimilation, where words are spoken, not shouted, where we feel and spread love, not hate, where we explore not conquer, where we use diplomacy not violence, where healthcare is universal, not exclusive, where we lend a hand, without expecting one in return, where we are all equal, not better or less. II we fail we learn and try again, if we fall we stand back up. Our strength is unity, and we will NEVER be bullied, intimidated or pushed around. We are loving and kind and NOTHING will ever change who we are, we would all rather die on our feet as Canadians, then live on our knees as something we are NOT. That is what it is to be Canadian, WE ARE CANADIAN."

And you can hear the voices of familiar Canadians on Valerie Pringle's last PBS broadcast  - about 60 of them with a couple of sentences each. If you have 27 minutes, it's worth a listen:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEf6EUQKm8o

With the two well known psychological tactics - splitting and intermittent reinforcement - being employed  to divide us and throw us off balance, we're  joining together, as a strong family does. 

 As well as inspiration, there's lots of anger out there and, always on the lookout for ideas, I found  a piece called The Art of Anger. Thinking back  back to the sixties and  the rise of widespread attention on racism, I remembered the anger of  the Black Panthers that erupted into violence, contrasted with the peaceful  activism of Martin Luther King. There's lots to get angry about these days, and important to get mad rather than disengaging, just try and find a direction to make a change even a small one.

We're just starting to realize how the tariffs will affect us directly...  workers in the steel and auto sectors are already suffering.  It's not just about leaving oranges and bananas out of our shopping basket - the grocery stores can survive with their range of products. I'm worried about the small independent book stores who support our culture so valiantly. Time for me to order a book from Ben McNally - by a Canadian writer.

See you in May...in the meantime, think about  the privilege it is to vote and head for your polling station on April 28

Got your April Fool ready yet?

 Blog # 163...March 2025                                                                                               

Last month I posted a photo of bill bissett and Mary Simon, overlooking that readers outside Canada (even some inside) didn't know who she was. I corrected it quickly, but if you 've been wondering, she is of course our lovely indigenous Governor General...masked because  she's suffering a cold.

In these times of sturm and drang, it's interesting to see what I'm doing, sometimes unconsciously, to keep my head above water. I realized recently that, although I'd never been a reader of biographies, I had in fact read a bunch in the past couple of years. Samantha Power was the first, followed by Michael J Fox, Mathew Perry, both Obamas, George Soros, Penelope Lively, Mike Nichols, Murray Sinclair, Candace Bergen, Barbra Streisand and most recently Jimmy Carter...whew!

I think I find it comforting to slide into another life for a while to feel more at ease in the world we share. In A Fine Balance, one of Rohinton Mistry's characters says "One day you must tell me your full and complete story...because it helps to remind yourself of who you are. Then you can go forward without fear in this ever changing world."

Stories can be dramatic - like the years Michael J Fox has spent adapting his life to the challenges and limitations of Parkinson's Disease while remaining in the public eye. Or they can be simply human like Jimmy Carter's beginnings on a farm in Georgia... actually most of the childhoods I read about were pretty unremarkable.

One of the popular pastimes these days, along with being mindful and playing pickleball, is journaling.  Capturing  and reflecting on your own life in your own words can help make sense of it, I guess... also get rid of all those saved diaries, notes, drafts and other remainders and reminders of time spent.  

Like many, maybe most, of you, I'm trying to put some order on the remainders/reminders without much success. Maybe putting it in words will trick me into action. There's always something more interesting to do, like read another of Lisa Genova's books - she writes novels from her background as a neuroscientist. 

Early onset Alzheimer's in Still Alice was her first, successfully made into an Oscar winning film. She's gone on to introduce and humanize head injuries, autism, Huntington's Disease and now mood disorders, through fictional stories.  I'm working my wat through all of them and finding them a much more compelling way to spend time than sorting through papers! Although the stories she tells are of lives totally different to mine, she has the wonderful talent of true storytellers to make me feel part of them.  Like Dickens takes me to 19th century England while I  read David Copperfield.

We'll be celebrating International Women's Day this month with a look at a Toronto   initiative helping some of the most vulnerable people living marginally at home or on the streets of our city. One of many reasons to hang on to hope for the future, How how many you can think of in your life?

We'll be singing with Al Jolson by the time you're reading this blog, so "keep on looking for that bluebird and listening for its song, whenever April Showers come along."

'

 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.