Please read this from Scott Dagostino, whose writing makes me admire the way his mind works. Being someone who might preemptively describe myself as naive (which endears me to world-wise friends and the ne’er do-well-alike), I must say the title of Scott’s post took me in with more than its most obvious sarcasm and led [...]
I know, I know – George Frederick Handel’s famous work is actually an Oratorio. (A musical would require lots of period costumes and at least one big dance number! Now imagine combining that with Mel Gibson’s gratuitously blood-letting Passion of the Christ. No, let’s not.) This was the time of year, probably forty years ago, [...]
Everything I am feeling in this moment is in the context of having watched, via television and Twitter, the roller-coaster of events in Egypt these past 18 days, of having just listened to the Feb. 6 (2011) edition of Tapestry from CBC Radio with Mary Hines, and of having made the seemingly Herculean effort to [...]
“I brought a book I think you’ll find interesting,” my cousin said as we sat down for lunch recently, handing me a paperback copy of The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I believe, now having read it, that she might have been nudged to give me this book because she knows, perhaps as much as [...]
I cannot remember a time when music was not a vital part of my life. Music is in my genes, especially from my mother’s side of the family, with my grandparents having been matched up in the early 1920s as a violinist/fiddler being accompanied by his pianist. What I wouldn’t give for a cell-phone video [...]
Holiday stories are nothing if not repetitive. These memories crossed my mind again today so, after double-checking to see that I had covered mostly everything, I’m left only to re-post! From 13 December 2009, I give you Christmas church candles and Coca-Cola chuckles.
During a lunch meeting with friends today someone spoke of past states of generalized anxiety which professionals often tried, unsuccessfully, to pin down – fear of flying, fear of social situations, “What are you afraid of?” That didn’t work. Then, my friend recounted, while sitting with people she didn’t know she blurted out her frustrations [...]
Each author in this series has generously given me permission to post their work. The views and experiences shared are their own. Where applicable, links will also be provided at the end of the piece. AIDS didn’t become important to me until somebody I knew died. I imagine that is also the case for most [...]
I’m the only one, I dare say, who can appreciate at this very moment – Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 04 04 06 01 EST – both the frustration and the ‘been punk’d’ feeling I have after experiencing countless “(Not Responding)” messages from any number of programs I’ve successively tried to employ in writing [...]
I am by habit, if not by nature, quite a loner. As an example I often recall the extraordinary lengths I went to in learning my way around London ahead of a trip there with a group of fellow high school students. Why? So I could go out on my own unencumbered by group decisions [...]
Crédit-photo: Massicotte et Dignard Une traduction ( +/- ) suit. That glass atrium between the church on the left and the social hall on the right was, until renovations began, an empty space most of the time – except in the weeks leading up to Christmas when a pre-fabricated wall, about half the height of [...]
“The universe is unfolding as it should” came up in a discussion this evening and it reminded me of the place, literally and figuratively, “Desiderata” had in my home growing up – particularly through the 1970s. A sheet of faux parchment paper, poster-size as above, was available wherever Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin posters were [...]
Millions of Roman Catholic pilgrims climb the 283 steps to St. Joseph’s Oratory – praying on their knees. In the early days of my AIDS diagnosis I used to go to a “healing mass” at Our Lady of Lourdes on Sherbourne Street here in Toronto. I can’t say I wholeheartedly believed there was much hope [...]
