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6
Nov
2020
All the leaves fell off my catalpa tree in a single day. In full foliage, it’s a dense mass of huge flat leaves.
Something about an unexpectedly early snowfall, coupled with an overnight cold snap, triggered a reflex in every leaf, leading them to separate from their parent tree.
The tree looks quite different now. Bare branches stand gaunt against a grey sky. I can see right through it.
Some years ago, I was given a book called Trees in a Winter Landscape, by Alice Upham Smith.
Most of the year, she suggested, we know trees by their leaves. The underlying structure doesn’t become visible until the leaves fall. I think that might be true for more than just trees.
Categories: Soft Edges
Tags: trees, winter, structures
1
The day after the election in BC, the same day as the election in Saskatchewan, another vote took place at the other end of the Americas.
The people of Chile voted overwhelmingly to abolish the constitution imposed by dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973, after his military coup deposed elected president Salvador Allende.
The two Canadian elections didn’t change even the flavour of government in the two provinces, let alone their ideologies. The Chilean vote changed the direction of a whole country.
Chile’s current president called it “the beginning of a path that we must all walk together.”
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: change, Chile, Pinochet, constitution
29
Oct
There’s a patron saint for almost everything. Even Protestants carry medals of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers. St. Veronica has become the patron saint of photography.
There’s even a patron saint for the coronavirus. St. Corona, the saint for epidemics, plagues, and pestilence.
St. Corona was a 16-year-old girl in Syria, in the second century A.D. According to the legend, she saw a Roman soldier being tortured for converting to Christianity. She defended him. She claimed a vision of the two of them wearing crowns -- hence her name, St. Corona.
For becoming Christian, the soldier had his fingers chopped off, his eyes put out, and was beheaded.
For offering compassion, St. Corona had her ankles lashed to the tops of two palm trees that had been forcibly bent to the ground. When the trees were released,
Tags: Chile. Allende, Pinochet, referendum
18
So what’s with apologies, anyway?
Over the last few years, we’ve heard lots of apologies.
In June 2008, then Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered a formal apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, on behalf of the government and people of Canada.
The United Church of Canada formally apologized – twice, in 1986 and in 1998 – for failing to respect traditional indigenous values and beliefs. All other major denominations have done something similar, confessing their complicity in an unjust system that they failed to question.
Maple Leaf Foods apologized for producing meats tainted with listeriosis.
Tags: Apologies, confessions, reparations, cash
15
I wanted to buy an airline ticket for my 16-year-old granddaughter, to come home for (Canadian) Thanksgiving, using the points on my credit card.
I found the flights online. I chose the dates. I couldn’t complete the booking. The program denied access. It slapped my wrist, so to speak.
So I dialed the number on the back of my credit card.
I was expecting trouble. Sadly, I expect any negotiation with a giant corporation to be more a curse than a blessing. Especially if I have to converse with a synthetic voice that’s supposed to pick up key words and respond intelligently.
Instead, I got an amazing agent.
Tags: airlines, credit cards, blessings