1:07 AM - 03.12.04
Four Quarters
I was packing up some donations this evening while watching a couple of specials on television. Some of the charities here pickup second hand treasures and resell them in stores like Value Village. They receive a portion of the proceeds in return. It's a very practical form of charity and one that I have seen from both sides. For years after the boy's Dad left, the only Christmas I could make for my sons was through going to second hand stores. Since my usual purchases for them were games for the game system they'd bought with their flyer route money, books, and puzzles it didn't really matter to them if they were brand new or not. Besides it was the best I could manage. Into the bags tonight went puzzles and books. Things I had intended to recycle anyway. The problem arose when I actually tried to put some of those books in the bags. Just couldn't do it. Some of my oldest and best friends are in those book shelves. Finally managed to clear out a couple of shelves worth of material. I'll do better next time.
The specials on television had nothing to do with seasonal cheer. One of Canada's greatest writers died two days ago at the age of 84. I think he may have written one book for every year of his life. Pierre Berton was unique in many ways even for a Canadian. He had been born and raised in the Yukon. He only wrote two non fiction books, one of which was a children's classic. All his other books were about things Canadian. His most well known books were about the building of the railroad, "The Last Spike" and "The National Dream", but my personal favorites were the ones he wrote about the Arctic and the life and times of people who arrived there during the Klondike gold rush. Rollicking tales of adventure and true every one - more or less. Write what you know.
The second special was a lush reproduction by a Quebec opera company of a baroque opera first written and performed for the court of Louis XIV. The story was based on the classic legend of Perseus (Persee). It hasn't been performed in 200 years because it was so closely associated with the French royals as it was written just before the time of the French Revolution. Obviously the court of the time had a unique sense of humour. Medusa was played by a male baritone in drag. That scene was very entertaining. The costuming was fabulous although being laced into a corset with the added insult of using hockey laces for the ties seemed a bit unkind even to do to sopranos. The dance numbers brought back memories of high school gym classes where we learned the classical patterns of European dance, much to the disgust of our male classmates. One, two, three, turn, two, three, back forward ..... As they say if it isn't Baroque don't fix it.
This morning featured a return call from the interviewer I saw yesterday. As I mentioned in my last post, I emailed her after a discussion with the head of HR in one of the big law firms made me doubt the direction in which I've been moving. It was a very productive discussion and more clarity about the legal industry was established. Again the nice thing was that the give and take between us meant we both came out with new and useful information we didn't have prior to that.
This afternoon I had tea over at one of the women's homes who worked with me in the last election. My first Assistant for this election made a point of telling me I should never socialize with people who I hired - especially never going into their homes - but I pointed out I had spent social time at his home with his wife and him. "That's different". I can actually see a certain amount of logic in that when one's "executive" position is long term, but other than during elections, I am just one of the crowd in the community as far as I am concerned.
We chatted mostly about the scandal going on after all the elections the past couple of months. One of the things that is really upsetting a lot of people in this community is that the incumbent provincial representative sent out a voice mail to voters homes the evening before the vote accusing his rival of fronting a special interest group intent on taking over this area - that of one particular east asian culture and faith system. Under Canadian law that could be construed as inciting hate of an identifiable group. The irony is that the incumbent is also of east asian origin but a different culture and faith. When his campaign manager was quizzed by reporters he said he meant what he had said in the call out. A my partner in tea commented, she was very glad that one of her children hadn't picked up the phone and heard that message. It would be hard to undo the damage that might cause for some of them.
The balance of the discussion was work and family issues. Not anything out of the usual. Her cat that came back returned as Ms Kitty had - the babies were born two weeks ago. Beautiful little critters. When I arrived home, our felines were mighty suspicious of the scent of other cats on me though. It was obvious I had been put on probation for showing such flagrant disloyalty. Oh well.
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