When my wife Janice and I announced our engagement in 1990, my mother, pondering her new role at the wedding as a first time mother-in-law to be , jokingly wondered if she would be expected to “keep her mouth shut and wear beige.” While my mother did wear beige from time to time, I’m glad to say she never felt the need to shut her mouth. If her wit, creativity, and convictions had not gotten a chance to be expressed, we would all have been the poorer for it.
Some examples:
My brother James says that Mom “decided his career for him in 15 seconds” at a time when he couldn’t choose between a number of conflicting interests. She suggested he go to cooking school, and the rest, as they say is history. The initial push helped Jim find an amazing talent within himself, and use that talent in a very successful career as a chef.
My brother Dave has the following story:
“In the eighth grade I had a looming deadline for a science project. The project was to be on manufacturing and it had to be related to the electronics industry. Before going to school one morning I mention to Mom that I hadn’t found the subject for my project and I was feeling a little stressed about it.
That day while I was at school, Mom put her incredible research skills to work and found a General Electric plant outside of Waterloo. They manufactured giant transformers for the power grid in Canada. Mom contacted the plant and had arranged a tour for us later that week.
So of we went, Mom, Dad and I for a fascinating tour which was guided by the plant manager and we saw how they assembled these enormous transformers from start to finish.
We left the plant hours later and I had a box full of sample materials and a head full of information to start my science project.
Mom watched quietly from the sidelines as I put together a project that I would later receive 100% on.
Mom you always found time to give help when asked, provide inspiration when none was there, and provide gentle guidance from the side lines when needed. For that I thank you and love you.”
My sister Ainslie and I both have special memories of the many family Christmases. As Ainslie says, Mom “was Christmas.” The care and detail with which she approached that special season made it magical for everyone, from the decoration of the tree with beautiful ornaments many of which she made herself, to the fabulous food, Mom made Christmas what it was for us.
Ainslie and I also have very early memories of being young children in St. Therese in Quebec. Every day, Ainslie and I would watch Mr Dress-up, and then insist that Mom help us make the craft of the day, no matter how difficult or impractical. She always did, although there are times I’m sure she would have liked to have had words with Ernie Coombes.
Halloween costumes were also special, both from my day, through to the amazing Teletubbies costume she made for her grand-daughter Katie. Everything was detailed. everything was precise. Everything was perfect. Everything was beautiful. Everything showed how much she cared.
Everyone who knew our Mother knows of her sense of humour. Jim would rent comedies from the local video store, and they would watch the movies over and over and laugh together. Jim mentioned to me when they watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, she would laugh so hard she would turn purple. A huge fan of Rodney Dangerfield, when she first met her future daugfhter in law Mary, when Mary said her favourite movie was “Back to School” starring Rodney Dangerfield, her eyes just lit up.
And she could crack jokes and witty comments with the best of them. When the family got a dog in the 1980’s, in recognition to how hard it was to get him housebroken, she promptly renamed him “The Golden Reliever.” And after her anuyrism in 2005, if anything, her sense of humour got even sharper: once, during challenging physio-therapy involving using parallel bars to walk, she said she felt like “a drunk, stumbling between bars.”  When I last spoke to my mother on a recent visit, even then she cracked jokes that had me laughing. By her own her own admission, my mother was “a master of the delicate art of locker room humour.”
One of my favourite sayings is by Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music still in them”
Thankfully, this saying did not apply to my mother. A lifelong lover of music, a member of many choirs, she sang. In her children, and grandchildren, she sang by installing a similar love of music, and by doing this she continues to sing. In the stories she read to us as children, she sang.
In her crafts and arts she sang through her amazing creativity, and when any of us look upon her work, we will hear her singing.
In our memories of childhood, and the memories of her held by her grandchildren, she sings. And even for her very youngest grandchild Sarah, the one she lived to see by defying the odds for so long, there will be the warm echo of the song of a grandmother who adored her.
And now, finally, she has taken her place in a greater choir, and I know she is singing. May her song never end.
I decided to have some fun this morning, and came up with a Gilbert & Sullivan Parody about the current economic crisis. (Sung to “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General”, from The Pirates of Penzance.)
I am the Very Model of a Wicked Wall Street Billionaire
I am the very model of a wicked Wall Street billionaire; Because of me you’re unemployed. I’ve got my bonus I don’t care. I’m talented and wonderful, I’m indispensible you see. It takes a lot of money to retain finance gurus like me.
I really cannot take the blame for killing the economy. If I was smarter I’d have found a safe job in astronomy. I fleeced you suckers royally and it’s too late to call the cops. I took you to the cleaners, selling mortgages and credit swaps.
As long as I am justified by Fox News and CNBC, I really couldn’t care less for the cost in human misery. To me it doesn’t matter if the economic system’s fair. I am the very model of a wicked Wall Street billionaire.
I’m really much too busy to find out how homeless people live, I’m trying to disintangle my involvement in derivatives. It isn’t up to folks like me to find our way out of this crash. You lost your home, well woop-dee-do, I’m still entitled to my cash.
The prospect of a penniless retirement makes you feel ill. The party’s over, we’ve gone home, and you’re the ones stuck with the bill. We sold you an illusion, and your hopes and dreams are snatched from you. I’m in the Cayman Islands; I will raise my glass and laugh at you!
The accusations of the middle class are starting to sound old. I’ll piously spout off the Golden rule, since I’ve got all the gold. To me it doesn’t matter if the economic system’s fair. I am the very model of a wicked Wall Street billionaire.
I own the sand box and the toys and I was never taught to share. Yes I am the very model of a wicked Wall Street billionaire.
“The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name, others for the sake of mere gain”
Martin Luther wrote these words in the 1530’s. I ran across this quote yesterday and I was struck about how closely it sounds like some of the comments one hears today about blogging, social media and monetization.
And here’s another Plus c’est la change, plus c’est la meme chose quote:
“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.”
I had no idea this film (which I first saw in a political science class in first year university more than 25 years ago) was available (legitimately) on the web. The subject of the film is the Algerian fight for independence in the 1950’s.
I cannot recommend it highly enough, for its stark, unflinching look at terrorism vs. colonialism, and what it does to people. Sadly, given what is happening in Gaza, Iraq etc. it is just as relevant today as when it was made, decades ago.
I’ve always found it ironic that the United States, a country which prides itself on the repudiation of the concept of a monarchy, can get so wound up with coronation fever at presidential inaugurations. I don’t normally watch CNN, but whenever I have flipped by it the last few days, it seems almost all of the coverage has been regarding Obama’s upcoming inauguration. IT seems the entire world is breathless in anticipation
While I am happy that Obama won, I have to say my expectations are muted to say the least. The problems in the U.S. run too deep for quick solutions. I believe that the economic issues will be especially difficult to solve in a culture of “Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what kind of tax cut your country can give to you”, and a military industrial complex that has gotten all too comfortable with its snout in the trough of public money (or publically assumed debt, to be more precise).
What I am hoping for is a display of humiilty. Mr. President, don’t call yourself the leader of the free world. No one outside of the U.S. got to vote, and the history of U.S. support of totalitarian regimes, and the use of torture within the U.S. makes it hard for me to see the U.S. as a shining moral beacon. This is a position you will have to earn back (if it was ever truly deserved).
As for the economic crisis, don’t assume you can claim a position of leadership in its solution, and dictate terms. The crisis has “Made In America” all over it, and is a crisis of greed, bankrupt leadership, and an overarching sense of entitlement.
What I want to see is an acknowledgement that American exceptionalism is a outmoded concept. Other countries have elected leaders who were minorities, and have even elected women (something the U.S. hasn’t quite managed yet). Other countries are leading the charge in the 21st century.
Get over yourself, become a team player and not a bully, and maybe the reputation of the U.S. may rise again in the world. But only if the reputation is earned.
While I was working this morning, I had the Discovery Channel on in the background, with a show about Stephen Hawking and his contribution to cosmology, and the search for a unified field theory, sometimes referred to as the “Theory of Everything.” A good program, showing vast intellects wrestling with some of the most fundamental questions regarding existence and the nature of our reality.
But then it was time for a commercial break, which led off with a voice asking “Do you still have flakes?”.
Somehow, the nature of the universe seems more important than what brand of dandruff shampoo one uses.
I am writing this from the Starbucks inside the Indigo bookstore inside the Manulife Centre in dowwtown Toronto, with cheerful if nondescript pop music playing softly in the background. To get the bookstore I had to walk from the Bay subway station through a portion of the underground mall complex where almost all the stores were still closed. Throughout this area, classical music is being played (something Baroque to be specific).
I feel fairly certain that this music is being played to keep teenagers out; it wouldn’t be the first time that this tactic has been used in Toronto. Classical music has been used in the past in an attempt to keep teens from loitering in certain subway stations.
I find this misuse of music deeply offensive; it does a disservice both to the music, and to young people, as it uses some of humanity’s greatest cultural jewels as a tool for exclusion. The assumption that teenagers could never enjoy classical music is a shallow one, and says much more about those making the assumption, than the young people being targeted.
In the same vein, although even worse, is the use of music as a method of torture by the U.S. military. Various artists have recently banded together to protest this profound perversion of their creations.
About a year or so ago I saw a man on the subway wearing a T-shirt that stated “Music is My Weapon.” While music has been used as a defensive weapon of sorts over and over again throughout history in a positive sense, as a response to oppression, slavery and injustice, music, it was never meant to be twisted in this manner.
Call me naive, but I believe the only valid products of music are joy, serenity, peace, a call to action, spiritual connections, and a deeper understanding of what we are. If the products of music are the inflicting of pain, and the enforcement of alienation, then it is not music.
Even the sweetest songbird can be made to produce the raw, discordant sounds of agony.
One thing I want to do with my On the Log podcast this year is fewer sermon/rant episodes, and more episodes with guests. Here are some topics that I might have approached solo in 2008, but this year would like to involve show guests with:
Digital Photo frames vs traditional photo albums
Is there a technology no longer in use that you miss?
Is there a techology you hate? Maybe one that makes life more complicated rather than easier?
Do you miss lawn darts? Are we living in Nanny State?
Will 2009 mortally mound the idea of recreational shopping?
If you an an opinion on any of these, or know someone who is just itching to comment, let me know!
It’s not news that 2009 is shaping up to be a very challenging year on a number of fronts, and maybe that is exactly what we in the West need: to be forced to into a painful separation from what I’ll call the “Culture of Easy.” The Culture of Easy is marked by an impatience for in-depth thought, an avoidance of challenge, and a belief that entitlement and privilege will continue more or less automatically.( I should reinforce the point that this is a Western phenomenon; much of the world doesn’t have the luxury of being familiar with the culture of easy).
The idea for this post came while reading Mitch Joel’s Mass Media - Mass Destruction blog post from December 30th. One of the points he makes is about the decline of reading, and the insistence on bite-sized, easy to digest bits of content. I see the decline of reading as one of the prime symptoms of the Culture of Easy; why read a challenging book or article on an important topic when you can watch a thirty second Youtube clip? To gain a deeper understanding of an issue is seen as too difficult; it’s someone else’s issue’ let me get back to watching the reality shows.
The economic aspect of the Culture of Easy is pretty obvious and has been widely discussed: easy credit, the blurring of luxury and necessity, and in the case of business leaders, obscene riches without accountability, or having to personally experience the effects of downsizing, off-shoring, etc.
The third item I’ll bring up may not be as familiar to some, but personally it is one that I see a lot of, and this is the “Easy” trend in church liturgy; many people who still go to church do not go to be seriously challenged to examine themselves, or to participate in active social justice; they go for a “happy-clappy” experience, and to have their sense of entitlement reaffirmed. If church is not “easy”, people will not attend, or so the church leaders fear.
We are indeed permeated by the Culture of Easy, and 2009 will definitely shock many out of complacency, and indeed that is a good thing. So many marvelous ideas, inventions and artistic creations have been created in a sense of urgency, challenge, and need. There will be litle need to seek out challenges in 2009. The challenges will find us.
I had a conversation with a customer at work today; a first generation immigrant from Romania; she mentioned that she would frequently shop at a Russian store. I mentioned that I thought that was interesting, given that people of Romanian origin would not have fond memories of Soviet era domination and repression. She replied that she, and others like her, were able to leave that behind when coming to live in Canada.
She then went on to mention that she and her husband, of Pakistani origin, had friends of Indian origin. When they had these friends over for a visit recently, their friends remarked that this kind of socializing would be difficult, and perhaps dangerous, in India or Pakistan. She then remarked that they also had Jewish and Muslim friends who were also able to maintain a friendship, despite the most recent troubles in the Middle East.
After the conversation, I sat and reflected on how incredibly lucky I am to live in this country, and in this city. We’re certainly nowhere near perfect when it comes to cross-cultural relations, but this kind of story fills me with optimism. Canada may not be a “nation-state” in the traditional sense, and we often worry about what Canadian culture is, or if it even exists. But maybe, our culture (or what it could be ideally) is not defined in an ethnic sense, but rather an attitudinal sense, about celebrating diversity in a positive sense, and transcending bloody conflicts, long-held bitternesses, and lingering resentment.
We don’t always achieve this goal, but what a wonderful goal by which to define our country.
