Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

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14

Apr

2022

Facing up to life’s losses

Author: Jim Taylor

Thursday March 31, 2022

 

A summer evening, in beautiful Butchart’s Gardens, near  Victoria. B.C. On a grassy meadow, people -- young, old, and in-between -- sprawled on blankets, listening to entertainment from the Gardens’ open-air stage. 

            The singer was belting out a Barry Manilow piece. 

I write the songs that make the whole world sing.

I write the songs, I write the songs.

            Several people got up and left. I felt sorry for the performer.

            It must be discouraging for any performer to watch people leaving. It would have been discouraging for Barry Manilow himself, if he’d been there. No matter how many million songs you’ve sold worldwide, it hurts when people don’t want to hear your song. 

            Who are you, when what you’re good at doesn’t appeal anymore? 


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2

May

2018

How to respond to tragedy

Author: Jim Taylor

Sixteen members of a hockey team dead in a bus crash in northern Saskatchewan. Ten strangers killed on a sidewalk in Toronto. My mind reels. How do the survivors, the families, the friends and lovers, get their minds, their emotions, around these and countless other tragedies?

            A caveat -- I write this column as a personal expression.

            What do you say to someone who has just experienced a massive loss? What do you do?

            Some responses are less than helpful.

            The students at Marjorie Stoneham Douglas high school in Florida rightly told President Trump to keep his meaningless “thoughts and prayers” – instead, to do something about gun violence.

            That doesn’t mean you can’t offer prayers, or that you can’t feel sympathy. Given a choice between someone offering prayers, and someone NOT offering prayers, I would certainly choose the former. But platitudes are too often a way of avoiding getting involved. And you have to get involved. Even at some personal pain. 


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Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: Losses, helping

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