June Opined

"If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there ...

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there"

Scott McKenzie, San Francisco


What can I say about this except that I will always associate flowers

with 1967, 'the summer of love',

 which didn't actually arrive in Canada until 1972.

"In the spring, at the end of the day,

you should smell like dirt."

Margaret Atwood

The petal of this iris looks alive.

It looks like what I imagine the skin of a stingray looks like -
although I'm sure no self respecting sting ray would be
decked out in white with mauve accessories.

“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful.

 But this picture will remain always young.

It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . .

 If it was only the other way!

If it was I who were to be always young,

and the picture that were to grow old!

For this--for this--I would give everything!

 Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!" 

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

 

 

Spring seems to be a time for many writers and poets to lament their lost youth.

And I must say it isn't easy getting old.

Catching a glimpse of myself in a mirror someplace by accident,

I often wonder who the old lady is.

But the memory doesn't last. 

I forget quickly

and then wonder who the old lady is when I pass the next mirror.

 

"It is dry, hazy June weather.

We are more of the earth,

farther from heaven these days."

 

Henry David Thoreau

Well ain't that the truth.

"Of all the wonders of nature,

 a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable;

 with the possible exception of a moose singing

 "Embraceable You" in spats."

Woody Allen

I'm not a big Woody Allen fan,
but I must say he does have a way with words.

" Summer makes me drowsy.

Autumn makes me sing.

Winter's pretty lousy,

but I hate Spring."

Dorothy Parker

Maybe she had allergies.

Maybe she hated to see the hockey season end.

Maybe she hated gardening.

Maybe she hated to see everyone else so happy.

Maybe she hated reruns.

Maybe she hated rain.

Maybe her husband left her in early June.

Maybe her husband returned in early June.

Maybe she just made that up.

Anyway, enjoy this beautiful month of June, everyone!

This'll Kill Ya

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

There was an out-break of diphtheria in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada in 1976.

I was living in the Yukon at the time and remember the wave of fear that rolled across the North.

The hospital in Whitehorse quickly announced that a special clinic would be held for anyone who wished to be inoculated.

I suppose they should have known what was going to happen.

After all, the North has a large indigenous population and the Aboriginal people haven't forgotten how their ancestors were almost wiped out in earlier epidemics.

 The rest of us had parents or grandparents who remembered a time before there was a vaccine. It is a deadly disease.

The next day after work I joined the procession of people wanting to be vaccinated.

As our endless line of quiet, frightened souls shuffled forward, a doctor, probably cranky because he was missing his supper, came out of the clinic and stood on the porch looking at us.

Suddenly he put his hands on his hips and shouted, "GO HOME! IT ISN'T ALWAYS FATAL!"

Thirty-five years later I had a 'deja vu all over again' kind of a feeling when I read  Monte Sonnenbergs editorial, Benefits of cell phones far outweigh the risks, St. Catharines Standard, Thursday, June 2

Though the disease in question isn't diphtheria - it's brain cancer,


and the problem isn't that it is contagious, it's the fact that more and more studies are linking brain cancer to cell phone use,

the message to suck it up and quit worrying is the same.

Here is a little bit of Mr. Sonnenberg telling us to 'go home because it isn't always fatal':

TheWorld Health Organization study says the incidence of certain types of brain cancer has doubled over the past twenty years for regular users of cell phones in Scandinavia.

However, even if the rate in this part of the world has doubled, it still represents a very small percentage of the population...

Not everyone who comes down with brain cancer dies of the disease.

Gee, thanks, Mr. Editor.

We feel so much better now.

Related articles

• Cellphones could raise risk of brain cancer: World Health Organization researchers (healthzone.ca)
• WHO Cancer Research Says: Heavy Cell Phone Use May Cause Type of Brain Cancer (socialtimes.com)
• Cell phones could raise risk of brain cancer: World Health Organization (healthzone.ca)

The Gay Month of June

Image via Wikipedia

It's Gay Pride month and this year I'm not going to complain about Toronto's annual parade, (Toronto's Gay Pride Parade - a Commentary from Somewhere in the Middle Class 6/25/10.)

But, me being me, I am going to make a comment.

A few years ago an old friend got in touch with me via face book.

She told me that she teaches at a College in California now but was coming to Canada for family reasons and then she asked if I would meet her and her female partner for coffee.

Her female partner?

I had to do a quick mind adjustment. 

A. is a lesbian?

And what did that mean anyway as far as friendship and memories go?

Nothing, I realized.

A friend is a friend.

We met at Tim Horton's and it felt like 1966 again.  We hugged and laughed and I liked A.'s partner as soon as we met. 

She is so warm and motherly you can practically smell fresh cookies baking when you are with her.

We spent some time catching up but not all of the stories we shared were happy. 

I was shocked to hear A.'s life story after we lost track of each other and until she met her present partner and came out. 

My heart ached for my old friend.

Everyone has the right to acceptance and equality.

My wish is that someday, if one is lucky enough to find a life partner, it will be the kindness and decency of the person that matter to others and not his or her gender.

My best wishes go out to the Gay and Lesbian community during their month of celebration.

Just behave yourselves at the parade, okay?

Related articles

• Anti-Israel group can join Toronto Gay Pride parade (jta.org)
• FYI - Obama Recognizes June as LGBT Pride Month. (jwitness.wordpress.com)

Women Drivers

Image by ozgurmulazimoglu via Flickr

Manal Al Sharif, a 32 year old Saudi Arabian divorced mother of one spent nine days in jail recently because she dared to post a video of herself driving a car.

She was released this week by Saudi officials and warned not to drive and not to encourage other women to drive. 

 Jeesh.

It isn't as if she can get together with her friends and vote to change things.

Women are not allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia either.

As usual I was outraged by this latest injustice until I read a comment by Mahal Akeer, a critic of her country's patriarchal customs and realized that I have to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia is not Canada.

 

Ms Akeer said, "... we are not asking for women's rights according to western values and lifestyles ... we want things according to what Islam says."

I have absolutely no idea what an egalitarian Islamic society would look like but I do know that what the Quran says about women is not the same as what Sharia Law says.  Thank heavens.

We should support and tell the stories of women like Manal Al Sharif as they struggle to find their voices within their own society.

And you never know, we might learn something about true equality along the way...

Related articles

• You: Saudi woman driver freed after agreeing to quit campaign (guardian.co.uk)
• Manal Alsharif another women standing up in the Middle East (rajcairnsreport.wordpress.com)

13 Canadian Bears

I just can't figure out why the world doesn't take us seriously.

Hate Crimes at Wal-mart

When I was in Teacher's College my parents kept free range chickens for awhile.

It was, in general, an all round unpleasant experience.


Who knew that fresh eggs are so poopy?


And collecting the eggs was a major ordeal.

The roosters used to attack me with talons, beaks, wings and if they'd had them I'm sure they would have used tiny little assault rifles.



The worst thing about keeping chickens, however, was seeing the weakest bird being pecked - sometimes to death.



When it comes to attacking the vulnerable it seems that we aren't far removed from those chickens.



I'm not talking about gangs of teenagers swarming unpopular kids or old people. I'm talking about something more insidious.



Someone is deliberately targeting a certain class of people while they shop at Wal-mart.


(Get it? Tacky store = worthless people.)



Someone is going out of his or her way to take pictures of the poor, the sick, the uneducated and the mentally or physically disabled when they are at their worst and posting the photos online.



Pictures of people who soil their pants in public...

Pictures of morbidly obese people who have to wear clothes that don't fit.

Etc. etc.



It is supposed to be funny.



This kind of thing marginalizes and degrades people who cannot defend themselves.

People who have as much right to dignity and privacy as the photographer.



If you come across these photos, speak out.



Because they are a labour of hate.

Extreme Doggie Makeover

Yesterday my dog looked like this.

Today my dog looks like this.

Jeesh!

  What a miracle makeover.

I know where I'll be getting my next haircut.

Woof.

Grave Faces VI

To everything there is a season ...

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Spring is a time to tend to graves.

It is a time to do right by the guardians who have weathered the storms of winter.

This little fellow looks as if he's been waiting an eternity for someone to come and tidy him up.

I've seen students wear that look of resignation when they've been waiting for something necessary but mildly threatening to happen - like a dental screening.

Maybe boy angels don't like their spring baths.

Faeries originated in pre-Christian times and  aren't very common in the graveyards I've visited.

Not surprising because faeries are wild and magical creatures, capable of stealing a person's soul.

This one has a bit of a zombie-ish look but seems friendly enough.  

I found it sitting on the ground in front of a weeping angel.

Pagan and Christian. Two very different attitudes towards life in the other world.

Someone wanted to make sure that all of the spiritual bases were covered, I suppose.

As a rule I don't touch another family's guardians, but this little creature looked so vulnerable I just couldn't leave her on the ground.

I imagine that the spring sun will wake her up.


Or a quick scrub under the faucet if the family gets to her before the warm weather does.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!"

It looks as if she heard me coming and quickly got into position without having had time to wash her face or brush off the flotsam and jetsam of winter.

Not as carefully formed as the last two, but on the other hand she is much younger.

Almost an embryo angel, or one just out of the shell.


She looks chilly, as if she should be snuggled under the wing of her angel mother instead of already on the job.

I seem to have startled this sweet blue bear and timid furry bunny.

They are a poignant reminder that Death comes not just for the old

I imagine them sitting on the child's window sill and watching over the crib the way they now watch over his or her resting place.

Blessed are those who mourn

For they shall be comforted ...

Matthew 5:4

It is extraordinarily peaceful here and although I have found that time doesn't lessen the pain, I hope it has brought some measure of acceptance.

***

Related articles

• Faery Kingdom (thefaerieworld.wordpress.com)
• Faeries, Aliens and Otherworlds - Keys to Parallel Worlds and Multidimensions? (loupdargent.com)

For the Love of Boobies

High school kids love boobies.

We know that because so many of them across North America have been threatened with suspension this week for wearing bracelets that say so.

The naughty little bracelets are part of a breast cancer awareness programme aimed at teens.



Apparently Proctor and Gamble doesn't love boobies as much as the kids do.



Proctor and Gamble is using parabens, a chemical preservative, in their Oil of Olay Regenerist skin care line - even though parabens have been found in human breast cancer tumours.


I found out about this because I follow Toronto artist/writer/woman with a green conscience, Frankejames on twitter and she mentioned it this week.



***

I haven't been using the Regenerist line but I have been using an Oil of Olay face wash so I decided to get out the magnifying glass and take a look at the ingredients.

I didn't find parabens listed on that product but I did find a cheery looking substance
called methylchloroisothiazolinone.

"Well, well," I thought, "what's the good news here?"


I googled methylchloroisothiazolinone and found that although not proven to be a carcinogen (yet), it  "can be a skin and membrane irritant or cause chemical burns.

It was largely removed from most cosmetic products except for those with only short duration skin contact such as rinse-offs".   (wikipedia)



Eek.





 

Frankejames suggested looking for a cosmetic line with an Ecocert logo.

My quest for a safe facial product started and ended at The Body Shop.

 The woman who waited on me was quite familiar with the Ecocert logo and suggested the Nutriganics line, suitable for women "in their prime", like moi.

Not only does Nutriganics have the Ecocert logo, it also has the FCS* logo.

Organic and ethical!


Jeesh.


How much on the side of all that is right and good can one woman get??



Anyway, wearing my new Saint Frances persona, I am suggesting that if you love your boobies you read the ingredients on your cosmetics jars


and

if you love other people with boobies you suggest they do the same.

* FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council.
It means the product came from a forest that environmentalists, developers and first nations people have worked together to manage ethically.

$ Note:  I bought the 50 ml day moisturiser and the 50 ml  night moisturiser @ $22 each and as there is sale this week at The Body Shop, I got the Face Wash for free. 

 

Related articles

• Cosmetics Ingredient Alert: Parabens (fitsugar.com)
• How to Find Paraben Free Products (brighthub.com)
• 'I love boobies' campaign deemed offensive by school board (parentcentral.ca)

The Old John Deere

I am the main care giver for my elderly father.


My observation from this is that old age can, at times, be a frightening journey along a path of pain, depression and great loss.


This past winter was particularly hard on Dad as the doctor finally took his driver's licence away.

His anger enveloped the small house for months.




***



Dad has an old John Deere lawn mower.

It didn't work at all for much of last summer and by rights it should have gone to the junkyard a long time ago.


Yesterday I was puttering around in the garden, worrying about the overgrown state of things and the damage to the barn caused by the violent wind storm we had in April.

I was wondering how we were going to manage this summer when Dad limp/hobbled onto the porch and told me he was going to look at the lawn mower.


"Okay," I said, then thought, "Like that old rust bucket is going to start after sitting all winter."


I braced myself for another major meltdown.


A few minutes later the garage door flew open and my 87½ year old father came rumbling down the driveway on his John Deere, which, unbelievably, cut the grass as if it had rolled off the assembly line yesterday.

The moral of this story is this:

 You can take away a man's health,

 his friends and his driver's licence

but

as long as there's a breath in his body

you'll never get his old John Deere.

Poutine on the Outside

You've heard the term 'apple Indian'?


When I lived in the Yukon in the 1970s and 80s it was a derogatory comment that referred to a native person who had been judged by his or her peers to have become too much a part of the Anglo establishment.

Red on the outside, white on the inside.


I don't know if Quebecers have a similar term for French people who have become assimilated through marriage of geography.

Maybe something like 'poutine on the outside, vanilla pudding on the inside'?


Whatever they call it, if they do call it anything, the fact is the people of Berthier-Maskinongé Riding have one as their new NDP MP.


Ruth Ann Brosseau doesn't speak French and doesn't live in their riding.


Now I do think it is absolutely imperative that we get more women into Parliament. And thanks to the NDP things are better this time around than they have been - 25% of the MPs are now women

BUT there is something not sitting right with me about this.


It isn't the fact that she doesn't speak French - that can be learned, or that she went to Vegas during the campaign - she probably had a pre-booked ticket, or that she let her name stand - that is fairly common, I was aware of something similar in Niagara during the last election.

It is the fact that she had never been to her riding and not only did she not campaign she didn't bother to even visit Berthier-Maskinongé during the election.


Such profound disinterest from a person they chose to represent their party doesn't bode well for the future of the NDP.

The people in that riding were making a statement.


It happens in politics, and Canadians need to be able to trust our political parties to have serious candidates in place for just such an occurrence.


The message o' the week from the press has been to 'give her a chance.'

She'll get her chance. There is no alternative

BUT


if she was my elected representative in the House of Commons I wouldn't be very happy with the NDP right now.

How It All Began

These are the first wild flowers I found this spring
in the Short Hills Provincial Park.

Spring! At long last.

Rebirth. Hope.

Creation.

Here is a lovely Chinese story that explains it all:

Let it be told of a time when there was nothing but chaos,

and that chaos was like a mist and full of emptiness.

Suddenly, into the midst of this mist came a great colourful light

and from this light all things that exist came to be.

The mist shook and separated,

that which was light rose up to form heaven and that which was heavy sank,

became solid and formed the earth.

Now from heaven and earth came forth strong forces

and these two forces combined to produce

yin and yang.

I actually had to hunt to find anything that wasn't yellow. 

Soon though, these delicate wild flowers will carpet the forest.

Picture yang like a dragon

- hot, fiery, male, full of energy.

Imagine yin as a cloud

- moist, cool, female, drifting slowly.

Each of these forces is full of great power.

Left alone they would destroy the world with their might

and chaos would return.

Together they balance each other and keep the world in harmony.

I love the play of shadows in this clearing.

So still and quiet.

This then is yin and yang

and from them came forth everything.

 

The sun is of yang and the moon, yin.

The four seasons,

winter, spring, summer and autumn

 and the five elements,

 water, earth, metal, fire and wood

 sprang from them.

 

So did all kinds of living creatures.

This trillium was growing on the Steve Bauer Trail.

Evidently it isn't against the law to pick our provincial flower.

But who would want to?  They are so beautiful and hard to find,

most people are content to let them be.

So there was the earth,

floating like a jellyfish on water.

But the earth was just a ball without features.

Then the forces of yin and yang created the giant figure P'an Ku,

the Ancient One.

P'an Ku, who never stopped growing every year of his great long life,

set to work to put the earth in order.

He dug the river valleys and piled up the mountains.

Over many thousands of years he shaped and created

the flow and folds of our earth.

I love this picture. It looks as if the trilliums are growing

between the toes of the tree.

But such work took its toll.

Even mighty P'an Ku could not escape death

and worn out by his struggle, he collapsed and died.

His body was so vast that when he fell to the ground

 his body became the five sacred mountains,

his hair the plants

and his blood the rivers.

From his sweat came the rain

and from the parasites living on his body

came forth

human beings. 

This is how it all began.

*

According to the Educational pages of the Hampshire Count Council,

http://erros@innovationslearning, the belief in the balancing forces of

yin and yang lies at the heart of

the Chinese philosophy and influences the way the Chinese people

 treat their environment.

They see the earth as a living being which

must be cared for properly and kept in order, so that the powerful

forces of yin and yang are kept in balance. 



Think of the BP oil spill, 911 and nuclear power plant accidents

as things that happen when the yang is unchecked.


Women have been learning to use the yin 

by speaking, by voting, by boycotting, by protesting,

 by organizing, by supporting, by representing. 



I believe the yin and the yang may at last be

 starting to move slowly towards a healthier balance.