Category Archives: Society

Society, Writing

Comforting Cross-Cultural Pre-Covid Memory

In this time of anti-Asian hate crimes and Covid frustration, I thought of a wonderful day back in June 2014 — a garden party in Vancouver with folks of many cultures.

I am sharing this nearly seven-year-old post here again because I hope this memory brings a wee bit of comfort and joy to others.

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Had a wonderful evening last weekend. A BBQ hosted by friends of ours in Vancouver. Lovely old house in an older neighborhood. An evening in a gorgeous, modestly groomed, but more wild, back yard, with many burgeoning fruit trees and raspberry bushes.

We were the youngest couple there, and we’re in our mid-40s to mid-50s.

We’re a “mixed” couple, and so was everyone else. And some were in their 80s and 90s, and enjoying life to the full. Former neighbors, still friends, now living in old folks’ homes but graciously picked up and driven to this communal feast in their former ‘hood..

As the evening eased by, there were smatterings of Korean, Italian, and Japanese in the conversations. Not all understood by all present despite efforts at interpretation.

But everyone was cool with that. We were all happy to be with other convivial folks.

And all were sure to ensure that all were happy.

The food was a wonderful mélange of those cultures, and more.
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We can, we will, get back to this . . .
Society, Technology

Grateful for Vaccinations in My Life

I just came across my childhood Immunization Record from the City of Saskatoon Department of Public Health.

At the bottom of the first page it clearly states:

“This record is necessary when child begins school. Please keep it carefully.”

It has dates and doses of my Smallpox and Polio vaccinations.

Apparently I had 5 doses of Polio Vaccine over the course of about six years from age 6 months to 6 years.

This was over 50 years ago.

Folks can draw their own conclusions, but I respect medicine and science, and am grateful to have been born into a world with vaccines.
Books, Nature, Society, Streamkeeping, Sustainability

Good Enviro Book: Changing Tides by Alejandro Frid

For my fishy friends, and anyone who cares for our beleaguered environment:

Just finished Alejandro Frid’s book Changing Tides: An Ecologist’s Journey to Make Peace with the Anthropocene.

Excellent work based on his experiences as an ecologist working with First Nations on the BC coast, integrating traditional knowledge with Western science.

With his own research into fewer fish, smaller fish, and overexploitation of marine and coastal resources, Frid maintains a positive outlook that humans can change and collaborate for a better future.

Japan, Nature, Society, Sustainability, Travel

Changing TV Habits – Less Violence, More Life

Our TV habits have changed over the last year.

For years we were heavily into all the NCISes, Hawaii Five 0s, etc. Haven’t watched any of those for a year or more.

Don’t miss them.

We’ve been watching a lot more nature shows over the last year. Many on TV Japan. Mind-blowing videography and research featuring weeks, months, and years spent observing species of wildlife.

We watch happy/goofy Japanese shows on multi-generational families. Not dramas, real families.

A washi papermaker who is the 13th generation at his craft. . . A potter who is in the seventh generation of trying over and over and over to replicate a long-lost style of pottery.

We watch slow-paced series on travel in Japan that focus on regional and local arts, and crafts, and food. Travel by train, travel by bicycle. . . And always amazing food, lovingly grown, cooked, and presented. . .

We watch “Somewhere Street,” a Japanese show in which a crew visits famous cities around the world and documents major historic and tourist attractions, food, music, nightlife. . .

It’s people. It’s nature. It’s life.

And it’s beautiful.
Photography, Society

Yumi landed a Tommy Hilfiger sponsorship for the 2021 John Deere Valentine’s Day Sledding Classic at Ron McLean Park in SE #Burnaby 🙂

She notes that the Hilfiger sponsorship, and the sled, were made possible through a partnership with Value Village and the Burnaby Hospice Society thrift store. . .

yumi sledding ron mclean park burnaby bc

Books, Society, Writing

Savoring Le Guin’s Essays, Reviews

Sat down after lunch to read for half an hour and got lost for three hours in Ursula K. Le Guin’s non-fiction collection Words are My Matter: Writings about Life and Books.

A collection you want to read slowly, and savor. . .

One of her best-known quotations, so pertinent to the times we live in:

“I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries – the realists of a larger reality.”—Ursula K. Le Guin
Society, Travel

Reconciling Driving with Climate Change

I had some errands to run today, and I have to admit that I took the long route. A very long route. Sigh.

Sorry!

Yes, I know, driving is not environmentally sound. I’ve always loved to drive, and did numerous multi-thousand kilometer trips in my teens and early 20s.

When I lived in Saskatchewan I drove to Toronto and Montreal several times to visit family. Also drove to BC to visit family many times.

Back in the mid-80s I got a degree at Carleton University in Ottawa, and did a year of writing at the University of Victoria. Both those adventures entailed long-distance driving – – in opposite directions from Saskatchewan.

And to be honest, I’d like to do a few more road trips as I approach my silver years.

Yukon trip. . . Cross-Canada trip. . .

We have a hybrid vehicle, but there’s still environmental impact. We have friends who have an electric car that they power with solar panels to a great extent. That would be great, but not in our budget now.

Ever since the “stay home” recommendations came into force in BC we’ve stayed within about a 45-minute radius of home, and limit stops and interactions.

Looking forward to more extended road trips if and when restrictions ease. . .

Business, Society, Travel

Zero Sympathy for Vacationing Canucks Stuck Abroad

One of my late Mom’s favorite aphorisms was “if you can’t find anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
 
She was also a brilliant, hard-working professional, and a community activist on issues ranging from education, to human rights, to racism, to inclusiveness, and fulfilling one’s personal capabilities.
 
And I suspect she’d be finding it very hard to hold her tongue about Covidiots, and deniers, and community safety abusers.
 
I’m sorry, but I have zero sympathy for Canadians abroad who are now facing tough, expensive, (finally) mandated and not just recommended regulations upon their return to Canada. Those who are whining on a beach somewhere.


If they had heeded public health advice, they would never have left the country for a vacation.

Business, Society

Taking Time to Think and Learn

In this time of fake news, Covid, societal troubles and tribulations, and rampant social media wildness, I remember the words of Ukraine’s greatest poet, Taras Shevchenko, from some 150 years ago:

Учітеся, брати мої!

Думайте, читайте,

Learn, my brothers,

Think, read. . .

Translation mine.

Don’t just mindlessly click. Read and think.

The great thinkers of centuries ago knew that education was key to confronting rampant poverty, and all its accompanying ailments. Not to mention entrenched social stratification.

And that subjugation and exploitation, be it by empires, countries, or soulless businesses, is evil.

Shevchenko was incarcerated for his words by the Russian Empire.
Not much has changed today, eh?

When a dictatorship fears words, they must carry meaning. . .

People in Ukraine, Russia, and beyond, have been subjugated for centuries, let the flowers blossom.

Please, people, take the time to read, think, and learn.
Nature, Photography, Society

Robert Burnaby Park Forest Sculptures

We had a blast wandering Robert Burnaby Park in Burnaby, BC, today searching for the forest sculptures created by Vancouver artist Nickie Lewis.

nickie lewis robert burnaby park forest sculptures

UPDATE (2/2): This was not approved by Burnaby Parks. While entertaining, and getting folks out into nature, there are also drawbacks like habitat denigration, erosion, etc.

Apparently the artist was planning to do more of these in other Burnaby parks, including Byrne Creek Ravine Park, where I’ve volunteered as a streamkeeper for over 20 years. Byrne Creek Ravine Park has a very fragile riparian zone, and attracting hundreds of people to trample through it would be disastrous.

When I heard this, I contacted Burnaby Parks, and was assured that they are aware, and have contacted the artist who has agreed to stop these activities.

Yes, I have to admit we enjoyed exploring Robert Burnaby Park, but upon further thought, it’s best to try to maintain what little urban biodiversity that we have left. . .