NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

“What started out as a dream to showcase the food, music, comedy, and characters of the True North, strong and free, has turned into Canada’s longest running dinner musical.” [Moose Paper, 24th edition, 2017]   My husband & I, along with a bus load of seniors, attended the 4560 presentation of this show now in its 24th year - a rollicking musical offering that spans the gauntlet from coureurs de bois to Leonard Cohen, a celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.   While it was well-done by a talented cast, I came away feeling that it was not MY Canada that was on display. Rather it was the Canada of my parents with a few nods to modern songs and celebrities. And for the seniors in the room, it offered a nostalgic, albeit updated look, at the Canada of their formative years. But what about the large number of Grade 8 students celebrating the end of the school year who were also in the audience. What would they take away from it? Missing was any mention, even a passing no

  “Takers will have more, but givers will sleep better.” This sign outside the church brought me up short. It made me angry and it took awhile for me to discover just what the source of that anger was. After all the sign itself seems perfectly innocuous  I finally realized that what this sign expresses is the gospel proclaimed by our culture today. Since the industrial revolution, when industrial capitalism was introduced by David Hume and Adam Smith and capitalism became the dominant global economic system, it has become the encompassing system worldwide.  The sign is referring to this system with the ‘takers’ referred to being those at the top of the economic pile who have gained that spot by acquiring wealth, and the ‘givers’ are those who give some of that wealth away. It is not talking about the takers as those globally who are in need, nor is it talking about givers as those who give their last dollar to provide for those in need. And that is why it bothered me!

“Many people say, “Who’s my  doppelgänger ? ” when maybe they should ask, “Whose doppelgänger am I?” Carson Cistulli [an American poet, essayist] A doppelgänger is defined as being the double of a living person. It seems that I have, or rather had, one. Just lately I had the experience of meeting after 60+ years, someone from the village where I grew up. Now this wasn't just anyone, this person was a cousin of one of my best friends and as such I have heard her name over the years as my friend recounted the news of her extended family.  She remembers me vividly as someone who, along with her cousin, walked her to school daily when she was in Grade one thereby protecting her from the snowballs being thrown at her, but more importantly, she watched my feet for that whole 10 months, envying me because I was so graceful - due she was sure to the ballet lessons I was able to take! Now I would never tell her, but I have absolutely NO memory of walking her to school. Indeed

“Ignorance of the law is not a defence.” So said the Crown Prosecutor to everyone who was gathered in the courtroom waiting to plead innocent to a traffic ticket. Traffic tickets come with photos these day, so trying to say you didn’t park overnight on that street or in a handicapped spot is pretty useless. That leaves  “I didn’t know it was against the law” as the go-to defence. And apparently this wasn’t going to work!!! In an age where information is more available and easier to get for most people than it has ever been before, people are strangely uninformed. They get most of their facts from social media, never bothering to check them to see if in fact they are true, or if they are ‘fake  news’. If it is in print, if Joe-blow said it is so, then it must be right.  But this was different reality. They were being called to account and so there were some confused faces in that courtroom. It seemed they had never heard anyone say to them “You broke the law and we have proof. You

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” - Jane Goodall Do we really believe this? How many people have you heard say, “there’s nothing I can do. I am too old, too young, too poor, too busy? Take your pick of these and a myriad of other excuses. And that’s all they are. For we make a statement with whatever we do. If we sit at home, if we go to a rally, if we  ignore the homeless man on the street corner, we are making a statement. about who we are and what we believe.  My friend mentioned in her workplace that she was attending a lecture that evening on Current Issues in the Indigenous Communities. The following day someone in her workplace comment on her going adding the words:’ They just need to go out and get themselves a real job!’ My friend was upset not knowing how to respond, and felt badly about her inability to do so. Wh