On the Road (sort of) 2014 #2

It must have snowed in the last twelve hours or so as the tree branches are layered with snow. I am a little bit disappointed that one can not see any more now than in the summer. But the bush is still just too thick and the three or four inches of snow on the branches and unused telegraph wires blocks more than leaves would ever. But it is gorgeous out there. While it has been dull and grey with a hint of fog, every once in a while the sun almost shows itself and then forest just glitters. It is quite clear that it has not been that cold as there are still small creeks that are still running and  few of the lakes still have wide open channels.

The few villages that we have passed through, even with wood smoke rising above their chimneys, have looked even more isolated than usual.  I am sure there are some months when living up here would be remarkable, but between the bug seasons that must last three months and the winter that lasts four or five months I am not sure if that would be enough for me. I suppose one either gets fully engaged with winter in terms of snowmobiling or else one just hunkers down beside the woodstove and waits for the good months.

By 3:30, the sun which has steadily been on our left side has started to sink behind the trees and low hills. I think that by the time we get to Hornepayne it will be dark. It will be a different town in the dark than on a warm day in June.  I have no reason to go out. I have enough food to easily get through the evening especially if there is still some vegetarian chilli  at the take out left  when I get hungry. It would however, be good for me to get out and about for thirty or so minutes; stretch my legs and breath some fresh air. Either a  lot of people in the car have a cold or the air is really dry. Regardless of why there seems to be a lot people coughing . On the other hand it looks cold out there. While the sky is generally clear and therefore it looks nice out, the wind has picked up sufficiently to blow the tops of the trees free of their snowy mantle.

A few minutes after typing the above, an announcement was made stating that we would be arriving in Hornepayne in fifteen minutes but due to the fact that we were running late we would only be there for fifteen minutes. We were reminded that if we missed the train that the next one would be through in three days. I was surprised that we were running a few hours late.We left on time and it did not feel as if we were stopped for long periods of time waiting for fright trains. Perhaps we we just going slower than normal. 

I went out for a quick walk, it was cold and the path was slippery. I fell down and in true fashion I have hurt my wrist. Not badly but it is a touch uncomfortable. I am glad that I did not plan on walking up to the store.

Almost as soon as the train started up one of the attendants walked through the car and announced that there were some musicians playing in the dome car. I thought it would be a good opportunity to hear some live music and get some chilli. The music (a fiddle and guitar duo) was just fine; the chilli....the best I could say was it was interesting. I had envisioned a waxed paper bowl filled with some somewhat spicy chilli and a couple of pieces of French type loaf of garlic bread. What I got was a cardboard container with a large spoonful of mashed potatoes, 10-12 pieces of green and yellow string beans, some scraps of lettuce along with a chunk of tomato and one of cucumber, some red stuff that had beans, carrots and other vegetables that I didn't recognize in it and one piece of ordinary bread, toasted and buttered with garlic butter. It was an insipid meal at best. I don't mean to brag, but my chili is a hundreds time better. Hopefully I will not try it again although tomorrow night there will be a different crew on and perhaps it will be better. But for now, I am really sorry I tried it....but at least the music was nice.

Free Speech

I had decided not do a blog of the soon-to-be dentist of Dalhousie University who have been so much in the news lately. The fourteen or so 4th year dentist who had participated on a Facebook page that was to say, at the very least, misogynistic and obscene were just too easy targets to pick on. I didn't think there could be anything  new to say about their lack of understanding as to what was appropriate in  2014. But after reading an article in the tablet edition of the CBC News, I can not restrain myself.

A professor from St. Marys University has argued that perhaps people should be allowed, under the umbrella of free speech, to say what ever they want - even if it is offensive and disturbing to others. According to the article one should be able to say that they want to rape a specific woman and have others agree with them online.

I am all for free speech. I think people should, especially in an university setting, be encouraged to express new thoughts and to critically explore the range of human expression (not that dentist are known for their wide ranging philosophical thoughts). But free speech can not exist at the expense of other people's feelings or sense of wellbeing. There are accepted norms of behaviour. For example there is a general understanding that one is not allowed to cry "fire" in a crowded theatre and one can not deny the existence of the holocaust.  To argue that one can discuss their desire to rape a classmate is their right  under any sort of free speech rule is absurd - such statements are a threat and should be seen as a criminal offense.

To argue that we need to engage in a debate about free speech instead of a national debate about how to assist men in understanding why the type of conversations that occurred on Facebook is offensive is to deny that anything wrong was done. How the university deals with this issue will be interesting - let us not confuse the issue by saying it was really okay to do in the first place.

Retirement/re-purposing #2

A few weeks ago the students from Frost Campus suggested that, as they were about to go on placements, and that they were the last class of Social Service Worker students to be at that campus, that we should have a beer or something in the student pub to celebrate the end of classes. I have been lucky enough to teach this particular group of students in all three seminars. They are, without a doubt, my favourite class. In fact they are the only reason why I came back to teach this fall. So getting together with them after the marks were all in, was a great suggestion.

It has never been my goal to be liked by people. Yes, it is nice when they do, but being liked was never in the job description. It has always been far more important to me that I do a good job; that I hold myself and others to a fairly high standard of performance and expectations. This has meant that I have seldom if ever won a popularity contest. I think, within the school community, people see me as a relatively hard marker with a limited tolerance for bad excuses or non-performance. I have not been one of those teachers who have encouraged students to cry on my shoulder or to expect me to be their therapists. Maybe I am just being lazy, but I have never been convinced that being praised for being nice is worth the work.

However there is no doubt in my mind that the relationship between this class and me ( and  if truth be told between them and all of their teachers) was something unique and rather special. It was a good way to end my teaching career. If I was to have a retirement party - there would have been no one else I would rather have had it with.

 Last Thursday most of that class and four of their instructors gathered for a few hours in the student pub for chit chat and celebration. They had bought a Dairy Queen cake for me and even bought some lactaid pills! I think somewhere within one of our many conversations I must have mentioned that (a) I really like ice cream and (2) I am lactose intolerant. It was a very pleasant time and I am so glad that they suggested it.

The difference between the students' recognition that I was leaving and my colleagues' acknowledgement of that fact was quite remarkable. While the Chair of the department did mention to me as we passed in a hallway "good luck in your retirement" (or words to that effect) and a wrapped package rather mysteriously arrived on my desk - the college made no note of my leaving. If I had not told my office mates and a few others, I don't think anyone would have known (or cared). The package contained what may be one of the ugliest and most uncomfortable wearing college sweatshirts I have ever seen (it is also a size too small), a pen and key fob set, (do I look like a key fob type of guy?) and some sort of infuser/water bottle type thing. Perhaps most importantly - there was no offer of any sort of exit interview. In forty plus years of working, it is only the second time when the possibility of some sort of final discussion has not been suggested.

I think I will do a letter. I have a few things I want to say.................

So my desk is cleared out, my books are piled on the floor and there is nothing that I must do today or tomorrow or the next day. May be I need to have a plan..... perhaps tomorrow I will think about that.
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Retirement/Recycling/ Re-purposing

I think this is going to be an ongoing conversation in much the same way as my hitchhiking in the summer or my occasional comments as to weaving and spinning sometimes sprout a series of monologues within these pages.

I am no longer an employee of anything. While I have some administrative bits and pieces to do next Monday and Tuesday, yesterday was my last day of contact with students. I will miss them. I will miss teaching them, spending time reading and looking for new sources to share. Most of all, I will  miss being challenged by them. Surprisingly, I think I will also miss the performing. Teaching, if nothing else, surely is performance, a play that gets constantly re-written. It has been a great few years. Fleming is a nice place to work, there have always been enough students to keep me hopeful for the future and the money has been great.

When I was at George Brown College 44 years ago, I thought that one day I would like to teach at a college, but I knew that I would need to work for a very, very long time to become anywhere near as knowledgeable as my instructors were. While I applied a couple of times for part time jobs, and in fact did teach one summer college course during the Rae Days, I never really thought that I would get to teach on a regular basis. It wasn't a failed dream - just one that I had lost sight off.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to teach 12 semesters at the end of my career when I might have had, on the good days, something useful to teach the students about my profession.

But it is time to move on. It is not that I am tired of teaching (people should leave a job well before they get close to not liking it), it is just that I have other stuff to do. I turned 65 last May and there is just too much that I want to do. Work was getting in the way. I was starting to resent not the job or the students but the time that it took away from my playing with wool and from visiting with my grand kids.  

In the past few years I have had to rush back from the west to be here at the beginning of the semester which at Christmas time meant I was only out west for six days. I seldom got to see my grand kids in Sudbury compete at school sports and never perform at a concert. Having more time to travel and more flexibility when I travel will be great. I may not visit any more often - but it might be at better times.

A number of years ago I wrote a detective novel. Not the world's greatest story but it was fun to do and folks who read it said it was interesting. I sent to a number of publishers, at least two of whom said that it was worth submitting but just not to them. I want to edit it a bit and then get it published on-line. I won't make any money at it - but hopefully some more people will read it. I have a couple of other stories that have been brewing in the back of my head for years. In one case it is just one sentence - but I think I may want to play with it for a few hours here and there.

So much to think about, so much to do....................

13 days and counting

It is just December 12th and I am already hating Christmas. The stores are draped with cheap tinsel and their PA systems ooze the syrupy pap of bad Christmas music. I am not sure if I can last another 13 days without screaming. There are times when I sympathize with my fellow non-Christian Canadians and their very occasional wishes that the Christmas celebrations were less invasive into their lives. While I can perhaps tolerate the Wal-marts, Targets and even Canadian Tire Stores (only because I never go to any of them) needing to dress up their stores to entice shoppers to buy items that are not needed, I am not as sure as to why Shopper's Drugs (a place I seem to be at far too often getting prescriptions) or the grocery store need to inflict upon me their pseudo pagan rituals. Can you tell that I am not happy with the season?

Last week CBC ran, on its news service a brief article as to "5 reasons to cut your own Christmas tree". One of the reasons had to do with spending more time with one’s family. It seems bizarre to live in a world where we use yearly celebrations to find reasons to spend time with family - as if the fact that they are family is insufficient reason within itself. We shouldn't need excuses to be with our kids or grandkids - we should do it because of that special connection we share. In fact I suspect that the additional pressure to visit family and friends, to try to re-establish those connections that have weaken over the preceding months is exhausting and perhaps even non-productive. While we all have friends for whom seeing once in a long while, with the occasional contact through social media, is sufficient, it is not for family. We need to create a world that in spite of the complexities of our personal and collective lives - we make time for those who are important. No that is wrong - we should not just make time for those people - they need to be our priority. All of the research that I have read and done with seniors suggests very clearly that the more social connections that we maintain with people who are important - the longer, healthier and happier our lives will be.

Perhaps we need to figure out how everyone (including those who work in stores), not just teachers get more time off at Christmas so that it is less hectic for all.

It may be because I am going through another career change that hopefully will allow me to spend more time with my kids and grandkids - but I think I have always been aware of the need to stay connected with those people. Forget about the presents, and the tinsel, the sappy music and the repeated again and again "classic" Christmas movies - just promise to visit them more often.