Blog # 126…February 2022

Quite a few years ago, I enlivened a job I’d taken in a hospital, out of financial necessity, by involving art students…it was a win/win situation. By bringing in artists, I enhanced their lives, broadened their experience and influenced their practice as well as my own. Oh yes, it also enriched the environment and the people there, brought smiles to both patients and staff who felt less isolated and focused on illness.

There’s a natural relationship between art and science – dancers need to understand the physics of movement, painters depend on chemistry to get the subtle effects in their work and musicians and mathematics work hand in hand. And scientists often use imagination and creativity in solving problems

Over the years, I’ve seen art and artists appear in a variety of roles in unique settings, collaborating with other specialities and putting these connections into practice. Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto employed poet Ronna Bloom who ran workshops for staff to help them process their experiences. The late and wonderful Priscilla Uppal was  in residence at the Rogers Cup for tennis, the Vancouver Winter Games and the Summer Olympics in London, rendering the spirit of sport in lyrical and moving poems. 

The latest initiative involves palliative care doctors at Toronto Western Hospital and the Art Gallery of Ontario. The stress of delivering sad news to families and friends can be overpowering and the opportunity to have a close and thoughtful interaction with art in a group helps provide some relief and room for reflection and mindfulness. Equally important is talking about what they’ve observed and felt, bringing the group members together and enhancing awareness of others' thoughts and opinions, deepening their capacity for empathy and making them better doctors.

As we struggle with the isolation of the pandemic, it seems to me there’s a big role for artists, many of whom have lost their livelihood. Mental health issues abound in schools, workplaces and long term care facilities…how about actors recording stories to read to kids and elders, dancers leading movement groups, visual artists introducing sessions on observing form and colour  in the world around us. I know it’s a leap, but a hopeful one -better than some of the stuff on screens -  and important things often begin with a small thought. Maybe if even a couple of you who read this blog take a step to include art in your lives in some way, and talk about it with your friends, some ripples will expand.

Remember that we look more attractive when we smile, so search out some reasons to do it, or better still to have a laugh...here's one from a recent New Yorker.  

We'll be back in March, look forward to those longer days and a more controlled pandemic!

 

Blog # 125…January 2022

Here we go again, launching a new year with high hopes in the face of grim circumstances…never more important to take refuge in the joys and sorrows of a good story. And what a wealth of stories our Canadian writers have to tell!

They live in every corner of the country and come from every corner of the globe…they’re old, young and in between and from a range of ethnicities and genders. They tell true stories, their stories, and the stories of others, real and imaginary, set here and elsewhere. If you feel like a laugh or need a cry, you’ll find it in between the covers of a book. And Bruce Cockburn has some advice ”Pay attention to the poet, You need him and you know it”.

I’m grateful to books that have helped me process personal emotional conflicts over the years. My name in the front of The Alexandria Quartet is written in a tentative small script that reflects the way I felt in my early 20’s, when it helped me understand that the world is full of very different people and no one really fits in.  More recently the Mummy Noir genre has given me a sense of the real joys, but also the hard and ugly feelings involved in motherhood. I’m still struggling with understanding life and each book I read urges me along.

I haven’t taken up bread making or weaving or learning  a language this past year and have spent most of the time reading…here are some of the things I’ve enjoyed. I now give myself the luxury of abandoning something I’m not liking, so this is the cream of the crop.

First, although I love fiction, some nf sometimes creeps in…I was intrigued by an interview with Kamal Al-Solaylee, a writer and professor at Ryerson (wish they’d get that name change going) about the notion of returning to home. He left Yemen as a teenager and has lived in Egypt and England, settling in Toronto several decades ago, losing his fluency in Arabic along the way. Recently, he’s started thinking of leaving Canada’s safety, health care (and winters) to return to a cabin that he knows is really a figment of his dreams. Prompted to examine other returns, real or imaginary, he speaks to individuals who have gone back to Jamaica, the Basque counties, New Zealand, Ghana, Taiwan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, discovering the unique qualities of each return (the book's name btw).

And the fiction I’ve loved: Watching You Without Me by Lynn Coady; And Miles to Go Before I Sleep by Jocelyn Saucier; Fight Night by Miriam Toews; A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson and Louise Penny, punching above her weight with The Madness of Crowds.

Books by Canadians looking at life through the lens of another culture: Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez; We Have always Been Here by Samra Habib; What Strange Paradise by Omar Al Akkah: Butter, Honey, Pig, Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi and How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammasonga.

A nod to two American women, Samantha Power for The Education of an Idealist and  Stacey Abrams for a great thriller - While Justice Sleeps  - the latest in about a dozen books - when did she have time for politics…and a life?  

This is a partial inventory rather than reviews and this year I have no intention of learning a language, baking bread, weaving or doing anything other than reading more books!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, see you in February when it’ll be lighter later.