Mingle, Mingle, Mingle

Company parties are not my thing.  I find company parties forced, phony and basically a drinking bash.  However, I must confess that this year I again took the plunge and attended a party that turned out to be quite a lot of fun.  What was the difference for me from previous years?  I pushed myself to mingle.  This is well beyond my comfort zone but I did it.  I moved around the room, stopped to chat for a few minutes with someone I knew, then excused myself and moved on to the next victim.  In other words, I did what everyone else has always done to me.

       It seemed ruthless but I felt that I was in control.  Now isn’t that a peculiar way of enjoying oneself at a party?  Being rude, almost.  However this seems to be the established mode of cocktail parties, mingle, chat, and excuse oneself before you get bored with the person you are chatting to so move on before they do.  I stopped and had a little snack here and there, refused wine and stuck with bottled water, and finally gave out and sat down when my knee started talking back to me.

       It was a true learning experience for me in how to have fun at a Christmas Party.  I just hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.  And hey, I got a memorabilia picture out of it!

Remembering Kennedy

As a Canadian it’s interesting to realize that one of the most significant moments in our political life may have been the day John Kennedy was assassinated. Certainly for me it is one of the moments that I remember.  I was 10 years old, in grade 5 and had never heard of President Kennedy until he was dead.

       My classroom had a door that went to the principal’s office and that day our principal opened the door for the first time, beckoned Miss Bailey over, whispered in her ear and before our astonished eyes she burst into tears.  She quickly composed herself, the principal went back into his office and as she turned towards us she said “President Kennedy has been shot”.  We all looked at her in wonder, not at all comprehending.  And then Susan Kennedy, who sat across the aisle from me, whispered across “So sad, and a relative”.  That struck me as funny although of course I did not laugh.  I was pretty certain that President Kennedy was not her relative.

       Having that experience in a small Canadian town, I can only imagine what it must have been like for American citizens on November 22, 1963.  I’ve seen plenty of media coverage, movies, read the books on the Kennedys and the conspiracy and still I find it an awe inspiring moment in history.  For many it spelled the end not only of the Kennedy era in the White House, but the end of an era of building up, of innocence and a belief in the American Dream. 

       John and Jacqueline Kennedy had brought glamour and style to the White House.  They brought youth, intellectualism, idealism and charm.  As much as there is to criticize and condemn there is even more to admire and inspire.  The Kennedys brought poets, artists and intellectuals into the White House.  Jacqueline Kennedy restored priceless art, furniture and curios in the White House and returned it to former glory, indeed, she made it more glamorous than ever before.  Celebrities flocked to the White House, fashion took on a whole new life with a young Jackie wearing charming little suits and pillbox hats.  And let’s not forget the oh so cool sunshades of both John and Jackie.

       I remember my father bought a comic book telling the life story of John Kennedy and of the summer camp counsellor who confiscated it from me and refused to give it back to me.  It’s probably a collector’s item now.

       Flash forward 5 years and I remember how Jackie, the young widow suddenly became vilified because she started to date and then ended up marrying Aristotle Onassis.  How fickle the American public became.  Their icon had fallen in their eyes.  It was many decades before she went back up on the pedestal again.

       50 years later, the Kennedys are still glamorous.  Still the number one story of the ‘60’s.

What is a Citizen?

Citizenship can take on many guises and embrace many different philosophies but in today’s world what do we mean by being a good citizen?  Obeying the laws of the land, participating in elections, being a good neighbour, carrying on the economy by being employed, these may be some of the elements of being a good citizen.  Other clichés come to my, such as “giving back to the community”. 

       In a nutshell, how are we being informed?  We can listen to mainstream media via radio or television but just what are we being told about how the world is run?  So if we begin to suspect that we are being lied to we can start going to the Internet and search out conspiracy theories, or look for elements that seem to confirm what we may suspect.  However, there are  avenues that may be more legitimate and more balanced even within the mainstream media.  There are magazine style programs such as “60 Minutes”, “W5” “The Fifth Estate” or “The Nature of Things” that go a little deeper into a story although even here one wonders if there are axes to grind.  One program that I find particularly interesting is “Moyers & Company”.  For one thing he is a well spoken moderator and I find his guests articulate and frequently “non-mainstream”.  After listening to the guest I find myself searching out more information on the internet about their topic, their blogs or websites, or their books.

       Being a citizen means different things to everyone but one of the best things an individually can do for themselves is to be informed but their neighbourhood, province, country and the world at large.  There are so many topics today that ultimate affect the individual that at the every least one ought to understand the topic.  Perhaps we cannot all form an opinion on every topic going, perhaps we cannot engage in changing the outcome of every topic that comes along, but don’t you think it would be a good thing to know what may harm you?  I think it's important to be engaged in topics once in a while even though most of us struggle with the day to day matters that help us put food on the table and shoes on our feet.

      Several very interesting women were on Moyers & Co in the past couple of weeks speaking on similar topics that boils down to the illusion we live in called democracy.  I encourage you to visit this website, it is an eye opener.

http://www.popularresistance.org/issues/

Third Anniversary

It’s hard to believe this month is the third anniversary of my blog. I’ve run the gamut of thoughts running through this brain from childhood reminiscence to political musings.  I’ve talked a lot about values and the confusion created by a rapidly moving, technology driven world.  When I commute on the city train each day I observe individuals many of whom I see on both the morning and evening commute.  I wonder about their lives, how similar are they to mine, and I wonder about the reason we all toil as we do and to what end.

       I recall a gentleman I worked with some years ago, he would muse to any of us his colleagues with the question “what’s the meaning of life” and reflecting back on it now I realize that he must have been in a very serious older mid life crisis (I suspect he was in his late 40’s or early 50’s at the time).  Thinking about my 60 years I feel “venerable” but only from the point of surprised and shocked.  Somehow crossing over that threshold has me in a state of constant incredulity.  It’s not that I dread age per se, I just feel very surprised that I feel as I do at SIXTY.  I don’t feel the way I would expect an older person would feel.  I still feel very young and giddy.  So I observe the people on the train / bus and wonder “what are they thinking about”, to what end are we all toiling our lives away.  Naturally I understand that we have to survive, we have to earn a living.  But is this all there is?  Are we really meant to work so hard and enjoy life so little?

       It’s a disturbing thought.

       But I am lucky to have my mother with me still and I can tell my readers this – even at 80 the questions are the same, the sense of humour is still alive and rip roaring.  There’s still a lot of enjoyment in life 20 years down the road, despite aches and pains.  So despite my sense of surprise even dismay, I can smile and realize I still have a lot of laughing to do.  I hope you do to.

Energy, Energy, Energy

Discouragement, anxiety and doubt are all emotions that can drain one of energy.  Perhaps the most draining of emotions is poverty.  Poverty is not only a state of being but a state of mind.  Poverty drives humanity to actions that can be horrendous; it can make a person desperate or drive one to acts that they might not do under different circumstances.

       On the other hand, excitement, curiosity, wonder and belief in the positive can create energy.  If one has been on one end of the spectrum is there any way to swing the other way without doing some extremely hard work, soul searching and forcing energy into the mind and body?  Well, there is this little thing called luck.

       The question is, do we bring luck to us, does it become “ones luck” or is there really such a thing as luck?  How many books have there been written about the power of the positive?  Hundreds in one form or another.

       This is just one person’s belief but I believe that we create our own luck by being positive.  When we have positive energy we attract good things to us.  It may take time, it may take practice and it may take a lot of trust in that positive energy, but I honestly believe that in the long run the positive, like the good, is the energy flow that wins.

       It takes real effort to get out of bed when you feel your world is crashing around you but it’s worth it to make the push; somehow we can all come out at the other end of the tunnel if we really try and we really believe.

       And sooner or later, the world pendulum will swing back to centre.