What would I do without CBC radio to accompany my days? (Don't get me started on Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leith, who has stated that the CBC should be dismantled. )
Anyhow, today I heard an interesting show; Out in the Open. Today's episode was Who Gets to Go. It was all about public bathrooms. The part that really moved me was the interview with a bathroom cleaner. He talked about his job, with its risks of encountering germs and disease. When asked what he thought the public thinks of bathroom cleaners he replied, "We're invisible and disposable."
How sad is that?
It made me think about my own attitude towards all the people who clean up after me: the people who collect our garbage, the folks in shopping malls and airports who sweep the floors, empty the trash and clean the bathrooms. How often do any of us take the time to make eye contact, smile or thank these hard-working people? In my time as a teacher there were plenty of opportunities to interact with the cleaning staff. Many teachers had great relationships with the school care staff. Others clearly thought janitors were beneath them and only spoke to them to give instructions or complain.
In today's interview, the cleaner asked that people give them a little respect. We should respect the people who do these jobs and also respect the next person to come along and use that bathroom stall or that shopping cart. How many times do I find dirty kleenex in my shopping cart? Tonight as I left my local Canadian Tire store, I saw a young employee bent over, picking up garbage from the store parking lot. It was mostly empty wiper blade packages. Customers went in, bought their winter wiper blades and simply threw the empty packages on the ground, before driving off. Yes, it's all about respect and consideration of others.
Thursday, 1 December 2016
Wednesday, 16 November 2016
Trump
Well, I was hoping that maybe it was a nightmare, that maybe we'd wake up and discover it was the most horrible bad dream of all time. However it's been a week now and there's no denying it any longer - Trump is going to be President. What can I add to the scores of opinions written in the past week?
I'm happy that our grandchildren are too young to understand what has happened. We don't have to talk to them about this sad turn of events. I totally sympathize with the many parents and teachers who have expressed confusion about how to explain this to the young ones in their care.
As a retired teacher I can best relate this to my experience in the classroom. Over the course of the election I have been privileged to hear many of President Obama's speeches. Obama is a compilation of all the great kids I ever taught. He's intelligent, but not a show off, "look at me" kind of kid. He knows the answers and gets great marks but never boasts or makes the other kids feel bad about their lower marks. In fact he's the kid who offers to mentor others in the class. He's your class leader, the helpful kid, the one you can rely on. He's thoughtful and polite but he also loves to joke. He's a terrific athlete, an all round great guy.
Then there's Trump. He's a compilation of all the problem kids you ever had. For starters he's a loudmouth. When Trump constantly interrupted, with rude comments during the debates I was reminded of the smart aleck students who simply can't keep their mouths shut. No matter how many times you ask, no matter what strategies you employ, they always have to comment, to call out, to interrupt both teachers and fellow classmates. They think their rudeness, their jokes are a gift to the class. Maybe it's because these guys are often not so smart. They sure don't want anyone to realize that and so they goof off. Kids with learning problems would much rather be known as the bad guys, the class clowns, rather than the dumb guys.
When you call the parents of the problem student his are the parents who deny. They deny that he might have learning problems and they deny that his behaviour is an issue. It is the teacher's fault, the other student's fault, but certainly not his fault. The closest they might get to admitting his responsibility is when they laugh at an incident and say helpful things like, "Boys will be boys."
The strange things is that sometimes when you have a class election or vote for a class rep for student council, the troublemaker runs and often wins. What is it about the bad boys that attracts other students, that makes the girls in the class swoon? Why do they ignore the positive leader and giggle at the antics of the boor?
I wish I was just ruminating about a grade seven class election. I wish this was a nightmare but it's the real deal. It has happened. The Presidency of the U.S. will go from the top to the bottom of the class, from the best to the worst.
Good luck to all the fine teachers and parents who will continue to teach their youngsters about manners, morality and our responsibility to care for our neighbours and the environment. I am encouraged by the many fine leaders who are protesting, expressing their views and standing up for the rights of their fellow citizens. I am heartened by the leadership of folks like Michael Moore and even the Conference of Catholic Bishops in the U.S. , who yesterday sent a letter to Trump telling him that the church was committed to resettling refugees and keeping immigrant families intact.
It's been a week. It's real and it's time to think about the best ways to survive these next four years. If he visits Ottawa I'll be there, with the rest of the protesters.
I'm happy that our grandchildren are too young to understand what has happened. We don't have to talk to them about this sad turn of events. I totally sympathize with the many parents and teachers who have expressed confusion about how to explain this to the young ones in their care.
As a retired teacher I can best relate this to my experience in the classroom. Over the course of the election I have been privileged to hear many of President Obama's speeches. Obama is a compilation of all the great kids I ever taught. He's intelligent, but not a show off, "look at me" kind of kid. He knows the answers and gets great marks but never boasts or makes the other kids feel bad about their lower marks. In fact he's the kid who offers to mentor others in the class. He's your class leader, the helpful kid, the one you can rely on. He's thoughtful and polite but he also loves to joke. He's a terrific athlete, an all round great guy.
Then there's Trump. He's a compilation of all the problem kids you ever had. For starters he's a loudmouth. When Trump constantly interrupted, with rude comments during the debates I was reminded of the smart aleck students who simply can't keep their mouths shut. No matter how many times you ask, no matter what strategies you employ, they always have to comment, to call out, to interrupt both teachers and fellow classmates. They think their rudeness, their jokes are a gift to the class. Maybe it's because these guys are often not so smart. They sure don't want anyone to realize that and so they goof off. Kids with learning problems would much rather be known as the bad guys, the class clowns, rather than the dumb guys.
When you call the parents of the problem student his are the parents who deny. They deny that he might have learning problems and they deny that his behaviour is an issue. It is the teacher's fault, the other student's fault, but certainly not his fault. The closest they might get to admitting his responsibility is when they laugh at an incident and say helpful things like, "Boys will be boys."
The strange things is that sometimes when you have a class election or vote for a class rep for student council, the troublemaker runs and often wins. What is it about the bad boys that attracts other students, that makes the girls in the class swoon? Why do they ignore the positive leader and giggle at the antics of the boor?
I wish I was just ruminating about a grade seven class election. I wish this was a nightmare but it's the real deal. It has happened. The Presidency of the U.S. will go from the top to the bottom of the class, from the best to the worst.
Good luck to all the fine teachers and parents who will continue to teach their youngsters about manners, morality and our responsibility to care for our neighbours and the environment. I am encouraged by the many fine leaders who are protesting, expressing their views and standing up for the rights of their fellow citizens. I am heartened by the leadership of folks like Michael Moore and even the Conference of Catholic Bishops in the U.S. , who yesterday sent a letter to Trump telling him that the church was committed to resettling refugees and keeping immigrant families intact.
It's been a week. It's real and it's time to think about the best ways to survive these next four years. If he visits Ottawa I'll be there, with the rest of the protesters.
Monday, 31 October 2016
Hallloween
Happy Halloween!
Somehow it's the end of October already. As a kid I loved Halloween. Of course life was simpler then. We always made our own costumes from whatever we could find around the house. Cowboys and hobos were common ideas. (What kid would even know what hobo means today? When I think about that, it reminds me of stories that my mother-in-law has told me, about her mother feeding hobos during the depression. It's a word from our parents' youth, back in the thirties.) If we needed a moustache or beard my mother would find a cork, light it, let it burn a minute, then blow it out. With the blackened end she would draw the moustache and /or beard on our faces.
With a sister, friend or cousin we would set out with our pillow cases. As we got older we ventured farther and of course our parents had no idea where we were for all those hours. I remember being so exhausted. My legs felt that they might fall off and the pillow case was so heavy at the end of the night I could barely drag it along, much less carry it.
So I've always enjoyed Halloween; the candy and the costumes. It's really evolved over the years. This weekend talk shows on radio and tv have included discussions on creepy (scary) clowns, politically correct costumes etc. I won't waste much time on that except to say that I don't understand people who get pleasure in scaring and shocking people. There was a young man on radio last week who talked proudly about jumping out of bushes to scare people, even people in wheelchairs. I'm all in favour of folks having fun around Halloween but not at the expense of others.
In my youth the main decoration was a lit pumpkin. Now, of course houses are decorated, some weeks in advance, to get you in the mood. I enjoy walking around, seeing what people have put out. Here's one from our street a few years ago.
What I don't appreciate or understand is the notion of setting up fake graveyards on front lawns. Like the idea of zombies and zombie walks I simply don't get the notion of making fun of death. Death isn't funny. Cemeteries are not fun places. Death is final and sad. For anyone who has had a recent death in their family, for all the folks like our newest refugees, who are fleeing violence, images of blood and gore and death are anything but entertaining.
Enough complaining already. It's time to put the final touches on our decorations out front. Here's an idea we picked up a few years ago. You collect cheese graters (available at all garage and rummage sales) and line them up along your walkway. Put tea lights in them to make a twinkling path. It's so simple but effective. People love it. The only problem is you have to store the cheese graters. That's just one of the reasons our basement is so darn full.
Somehow it's the end of October already. As a kid I loved Halloween. Of course life was simpler then. We always made our own costumes from whatever we could find around the house. Cowboys and hobos were common ideas. (What kid would even know what hobo means today? When I think about that, it reminds me of stories that my mother-in-law has told me, about her mother feeding hobos during the depression. It's a word from our parents' youth, back in the thirties.) If we needed a moustache or beard my mother would find a cork, light it, let it burn a minute, then blow it out. With the blackened end she would draw the moustache and /or beard on our faces.
With a sister, friend or cousin we would set out with our pillow cases. As we got older we ventured farther and of course our parents had no idea where we were for all those hours. I remember being so exhausted. My legs felt that they might fall off and the pillow case was so heavy at the end of the night I could barely drag it along, much less carry it.
So I've always enjoyed Halloween; the candy and the costumes. It's really evolved over the years. This weekend talk shows on radio and tv have included discussions on creepy (scary) clowns, politically correct costumes etc. I won't waste much time on that except to say that I don't understand people who get pleasure in scaring and shocking people. There was a young man on radio last week who talked proudly about jumping out of bushes to scare people, even people in wheelchairs. I'm all in favour of folks having fun around Halloween but not at the expense of others.
In my youth the main decoration was a lit pumpkin. Now, of course houses are decorated, some weeks in advance, to get you in the mood. I enjoy walking around, seeing what people have put out. Here's one from our street a few years ago.
What I don't appreciate or understand is the notion of setting up fake graveyards on front lawns. Like the idea of zombies and zombie walks I simply don't get the notion of making fun of death. Death isn't funny. Cemeteries are not fun places. Death is final and sad. For anyone who has had a recent death in their family, for all the folks like our newest refugees, who are fleeing violence, images of blood and gore and death are anything but entertaining.
Enough complaining already. It's time to put the final touches on our decorations out front. Here's an idea we picked up a few years ago. You collect cheese graters (available at all garage and rummage sales) and line them up along your walkway. Put tea lights in them to make a twinkling path. It's so simple but effective. People love it. The only problem is you have to store the cheese graters. That's just one of the reasons our basement is so darn full.
Sunday, 2 October 2016
My Two Minutes of Fame
Well, here's an easy one. Instead of writing, I'll let you have a listen to me rambling on a bit, on Friday's edition of Ontario Today on CBC radio. When I learned that they would be discussing modern architecture and its lack of curves, both in our institutions and our neighbourhoods, I couldn't help myself. I was their first caller of the day but I was certainly not alone in my views. Most callers are dismayed by the proposed addition to the Chateau Laurier Hotel here in Ottawa. On the program's site you can see some of the buildings that were discussed. Here are a few photos of homes in our neighbourhood that illustrate what I was talking about.
 |
| Kelly Egan of the Ottawa Citizen has described many of our infill houses as "mini office buildings" |
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| This lovely home is one of the many that our neighbourhood has lost. |
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| Here's what I meant about new homes overpowering their neighbours. |
What I didn't have a chance to say was that there are plenty of places where existing architectural patterns are respected and protected. London, England is one such place Another is St. Augustine, Florida. Here's a story I heard while on tour there.
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| Tourists visit St. Augustine to see the historic buildings |
 |
This is a recently built parking garage in the historic district. City rules for the area meant it had to be built in the style of the surrounding buildings. Smart city!
Monday, 26 September 2016
September
September
September is perhaps the cruelest month; it marks not only
the end of summer but the beginning of the school year. While many students
look forward to their new schedules, fall often brings increased anxiety,
especially for high school students.
It’s been fifty
years since I started high school. I was reminded of that this summer when I
attended a Monkees concert at Ottawa’s Bluesfest. Two of the remaining group
members (heartthrob Davy Jones died in 2012) are in the midst of their fiftieth
anniversary tour.
I was a Monkees fan. In 1966, my Grade 9 year, The Monkees
were a new music group with their own television show. Over it’s two year run,
nothing could come between that show and me. Their posters plastered my bedroom
walls. Daydream Believer? Like millions of fans, I day-dreamed constantly about
Davy Jones.
On a beautiful July night I biked along the Ottawa River to
this summer’s concert. Memories of riding my bike along that same path, as a
teen, prompted all kinds of comparisons. It is the same path, along the same
river, but I’m different from top to bottom. My curly blonde hair is now
straight and gray. My runners,
like all my shoes, have orthotics. Even the name of the path has changed. For
over forty years it was The Ottawa River Parkway. However, like a number of
Ottawa landmarks, it was renamed during the Harper regime and is now The Sir
John A. MacDonald Parkway.
At the concert venue I stopped to chat with a couple of
female police officers. Now there’s a wonderful improvement from my high school
days. The idea of female police officers was unheard of back then.
The concert started with ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ and I
was instantly transported back to my Grade 9 bedroom with my LP playing on my
red and white plastic record player. From my vantage point at the concert I
could see the stage and screen but my attention was drawn to the sea of music
lovers walking by me to other concerts in the park that night. That parade was
far more interesting than anything on the stage.
In the 60’s your hair colour was whatever grew out of your
head. Many of the people who passed by me that night were sporting red, blue,
purple, green or striped hair.
Clothes are another story. In those days we were mortified
if a bra strap was showing. Now bra straps are part of the outfit. Or not. That
night I watched vulnerable young girls, looking uncomfortable as they yanked up
their strapless tops. Their shorts left little to the imagination.
In spite of Women’s Lib, feminist studies, and talk of
gender equality over the last 50 years, many young women feel they have to
display so much skin. Back in the sixties, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his
“I Have a Dream” speech. In part it reads, ”I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
colour of their skin but by the content of their character.” If
only today’s young women were confident enough to be judged by their character,
their talents and abilities, as opposed to the amount of skin they expose.
So here we are, in another school year. Teens enter high
school, nervous about their new surroundings, their teachers, the demands of
the high school curriculum, their friends. Back in my day The Monkees provided
me with a wonderful escape from those realities. Watching their show, listening
to their songs, gazing at their posters ...that was easier than worrying about
friends, pimples and my unmanageable curly hair.
The opportunity to follow teen idols is so much easier
today. What would I have done to keep myself away from the constant temptation
of the internet and social media overload concerning today’s stars?
Today’s teens face substantially more pressure than I did in
1966. Thank goodness I did not have to keep up my image on Facebook, Instagram
or Snapchat. Kids may have talked about me behind my back but I never found out
about it. Photos were something you took with a film and then waited a couple
of weeks to come back in the mail. There was no danger of someone taking my
photo and posting it for the world to see.
Images of war were in my history books, not in real time on
my cell phone. For me, war was something that had happened in Europe, a long
time ago. There was no knowledge of mass shootings, suicide bombings or random
acts of violence.
So my heart goes out to today’s students, especially those
starting at new schools. I hope they can find a balance between doing
schoolwork, spending time with family and friends, following their idols and
developing their talents. I hope they can learn to discern what’s important and
real. I hope they’ll be lucky like me and get fifty years after high school,
with family and friends to keep them company.
What did you do on your summer holidays?
Remember going back to school and having to write about your summer holidays? Over the past few months I have considered writing about many events in my very ordinary, but busy life. Here are a few ideas knocking around in my small brain:
How did we get this old? In July we celebrated our 40th anniversary - lucky us! We were married on the opening day of the Montreal Olympics. This summer we celebrated the occasion a few times. Our favourite was a weekend at a cottage with our kids and grandchildren. They prepared a spectacular dinner for us. We're so glad we could spend some time altogether and look forward to being together again, on Thanksgiving weekend.
September 21st was World Alzheimer's Day. My sister-in-law, Jan, died in June, of complications from Alzheimers. She was only 69. Her loss; the initial, gradual loss and now this final farewell, is very sad. We are now journeying with her mother, as she follows a similar path. In August she was hospitalized, had surgery and then moved. As we work to provide her with the best care possible, we often feel stressed with the many challenges we face. Underneath all the details is a sense of sadness, as we experience the gradual loss of the person we knew.
I could write about funerals and expressions of sympathy. It's always interesting how people respond or don't respond, when you experience a loss. We have appreciated every card, every greeting, every morsel of food that has been offered to us since Jan's death. In the weeks after her funeral we received letters from four different cousins, all recounting stories of Jan's childhood or adolescence. To receive handwritten letters in this day and age is a wonderful novelty. To hear anecdotes about a departed loved one is a real gift. I've come to realize that it really doesn't matter if you dash off that sympathy card in the first week after a friend experiences a loss. Those first weeks after a death are so busy, you don't really have time to appreciate all the cards. Those sent a month or two later actually get more attention.
Then there was our trip to Nova Scotia. The Cabot Trail was as spectacular as ever, Too bad we didn't plan that trip out farther in advance. Did we really think all those Bed and Breakfast places were just sitting idle, waiting for us? Turns out we were part of a huge wave of tourists in the area. The bonus of this visit was having Brendan as our tour guide.
Food - Although I hate facing the end of summer, I have to admit that this is the best time of year for eating. We are lucky enough to live close to an outdoor market. It's a pleasure to be able to buy fresh produce from the people that actually grow it. I know that we are paying a bit more than in the grocery stores but I'd rather support these people who are out there, in all kinds of weather, all day long. I will spend enough time in boring grocery stores the rest of the year. You simply cannot beat the taste of the corn that we get there!
The U.S. election - Happily, we were at a cottage with no TV during the Republican Convention so we didn't hear any of those speeches. The following week we were back home and watched a lot of the Democratic Convention. Call me corny, but hearing so many of those speeches restored my faith in the U.S. There were some truly inspiring messages. Two of my favourites were from Rev. William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP, and Khzir Khan, the father of a U.S. Muslim soldier. who was killed in combat.The calibre of these speakers is simply outstanding.
And yet last night, I heard a political commentator say that in tonight's debate, if Trump is even able to string together a few coherent sentences, he will have had a great night!? It's an unbelievable situation. It's going to be an interesting evening for sure.
Of course no comment on my summer can escape some notice about our adorable grandchildren. We feel so fortunate to have them in our lives. On our most recent visit we went for a "night walk" with them. Actually it was a bike (trike) ride. There is simply nothing to match the joy and wonder of experiencing a child's happiness. I loved walking behind Avery and watching him happily biking along and then stopping to jump three or four times in every puddle we came across. There are no commercials for that, no way to plan it out, but those everyday experiences with a young child are priceless.
So, I may go back and explore some of these ideas in more detail later. Or not. For now, I will post something I wrote about September, Grade Nine angst, and the Monkees.
How did we get this old? In July we celebrated our 40th anniversary - lucky us! We were married on the opening day of the Montreal Olympics. This summer we celebrated the occasion a few times. Our favourite was a weekend at a cottage with our kids and grandchildren. They prepared a spectacular dinner for us. We're so glad we could spend some time altogether and look forward to being together again, on Thanksgiving weekend.
September 21st was World Alzheimer's Day. My sister-in-law, Jan, died in June, of complications from Alzheimers. She was only 69. Her loss; the initial, gradual loss and now this final farewell, is very sad. We are now journeying with her mother, as she follows a similar path. In August she was hospitalized, had surgery and then moved. As we work to provide her with the best care possible, we often feel stressed with the many challenges we face. Underneath all the details is a sense of sadness, as we experience the gradual loss of the person we knew.
I could write about funerals and expressions of sympathy. It's always interesting how people respond or don't respond, when you experience a loss. We have appreciated every card, every greeting, every morsel of food that has been offered to us since Jan's death. In the weeks after her funeral we received letters from four different cousins, all recounting stories of Jan's childhood or adolescence. To receive handwritten letters in this day and age is a wonderful novelty. To hear anecdotes about a departed loved one is a real gift. I've come to realize that it really doesn't matter if you dash off that sympathy card in the first week after a friend experiences a loss. Those first weeks after a death are so busy, you don't really have time to appreciate all the cards. Those sent a month or two later actually get more attention.
Then there was our trip to Nova Scotia. The Cabot Trail was as spectacular as ever, Too bad we didn't plan that trip out farther in advance. Did we really think all those Bed and Breakfast places were just sitting idle, waiting for us? Turns out we were part of a huge wave of tourists in the area. The bonus of this visit was having Brendan as our tour guide.
Food - Although I hate facing the end of summer, I have to admit that this is the best time of year for eating. We are lucky enough to live close to an outdoor market. It's a pleasure to be able to buy fresh produce from the people that actually grow it. I know that we are paying a bit more than in the grocery stores but I'd rather support these people who are out there, in all kinds of weather, all day long. I will spend enough time in boring grocery stores the rest of the year. You simply cannot beat the taste of the corn that we get there!
The U.S. election - Happily, we were at a cottage with no TV during the Republican Convention so we didn't hear any of those speeches. The following week we were back home and watched a lot of the Democratic Convention. Call me corny, but hearing so many of those speeches restored my faith in the U.S. There were some truly inspiring messages. Two of my favourites were from Rev. William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP, and Khzir Khan, the father of a U.S. Muslim soldier. who was killed in combat.The calibre of these speakers is simply outstanding.
And yet last night, I heard a political commentator say that in tonight's debate, if Trump is even able to string together a few coherent sentences, he will have had a great night!? It's an unbelievable situation. It's going to be an interesting evening for sure.
Of course no comment on my summer can escape some notice about our adorable grandchildren. We feel so fortunate to have them in our lives. On our most recent visit we went for a "night walk" with them. Actually it was a bike (trike) ride. There is simply nothing to match the joy and wonder of experiencing a child's happiness. I loved walking behind Avery and watching him happily biking along and then stopping to jump three or four times in every puddle we came across. There are no commercials for that, no way to plan it out, but those everyday experiences with a young child are priceless.
So, I may go back and explore some of these ideas in more detail later. Or not. For now, I will post something I wrote about September, Grade Nine angst, and the Monkees.
Tuesday, 9 August 2016
Gone Fishin'
I'm sorry. This is so lame. Even though it's summer, life has been busy and not conducive to writing. That being said, I am totally enjoying travels and visits with family and friends. In September, when life returns to normal, I'll write more regularly. Thanks for checking this space. I wish you well as summer continues.
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