Mr. New’s dog died. This news is given to me by George. George is our indispensable helper who comes once or twice a week. He moves snow, chops wood, cleans up my kitchen a real wonder and even repairs things. I guess we had been away over Chanukah and when George came to help us again he felt he should tell me what happened while we were gone, or I may have asked him if anything happened while we were gone and he thought he would oblige by giving me the news he had. About local things. In his world, I mean. Or maybe this part is all a dream. I do not know Mr. New so I did not know he had a dog. I thought I should say something, to express an interest like, so I asked “was it a big dog”? I don’t know why I thought of this. No, it was not very big. Then I said something even more inane: “Oh, that’s too bad” which of course made no sense at all since the death issue would have been exactly the same no matter what size of the dog.
On Wednesday I took Brenda to Espanola where Dayv picked her up and took her to Sudbury to stay with Sarah while he flew to Ottawa for a Showcase for performing artists to promote his music and maybe get some gigs for concerts. So in Espanola I did some shopping at Winkels, the Independent Grocer there and this guy with a clipboard seized upon me to offer me two (2) “gifts”, one was a $5.00 coupon for cash towards my groceries, and the second was a credit card of some sort I would get in the mail and all I had to do was fill in a form, just take a few minutes and agree to give them my auto licence #. I said I would think about it. So I went to the washroom where I had already been headed when waylaid, and I did think about it. I thought that for me to accept the $5.00 bribe would contribute to the notion that anything and anyone can be bought for few dollars. I would be joining a mass culture of creating waste, and that some of the waste would be a few minutes of my life, of paper, of plastic and that the intrusion of this man and his bribe had already cost minutes of my life. Free gifts were not being offered. Free would be sunshine, wild herbs, and so on but there is no clean water any more, and there are a lot of hungry people in the world so I am glad I thought of this and I think that we all going to have to do a lot more thinking. And thinking about all of this is not being idle any more.
Well, everyone, you live and learn so never think you won’t have any more new and transforming experiences because as long as you are conscious and leave yourself open to change you can learn to see the world anew. I used to think I was good at Buddhism having read widely and thought long about it since my mid teens. But I see now that until I was truly elderly and past my three score years and ten, I was naïve about time. Youth have a poor grasp of time and how change works. This is developmental and cannot be helped. It would not of course hurt for them to know this as a biological reality. Change is going on all the time but we cannot see it until we have enough experience. If a man of 40 thinks he is still 18 and behaves accordingly expect trouble. I am leading up to telling you that last night BJ and I got home from a dash to Toronto. We left here Thursday last. On Friday we checked into the Holiday Inn and registered for the Ontario Liberal Leadership convention at the New Maple Leaf gardens. We were both Delegates and felt obliged to go after lots of thought and some arm twisting by our candidate. We joined a very diverse and cohesive group supporting Gerrard Kennedy and for two ballots we stuck with him. But when his support did not grow he asked all of us to meet with him in a private, press-free room to discuss what to do. Now this in itself was a wonderful and inclusive experience that has not characterized my involvement with politics heretofore. He told us that his strong personal feeling was to throw his support to Kathleen Wynne.
Now you have to know that KW is a veteran politician, an expert in mediation and consensus building and a gay woman. She made all this clear in her amazing introductory speech, one of the most candid, authentic, sincere and unadorned addresses I have ever heard. BJ and I were instant fans, so when GK asked us how we felt about his thinking, we, and virtually all his 280 supporters gave our very loud and vocal support. He asked if we would go with him as a group to Kathleen Wynnes’ camp and tell her we wanted to join with her and at this point as I write, I am overcome with emotion which I have until this moment been unable to express but which I felt very strongly at that time.
For some mysterious reason her followers were like herself and as we pushed our way through the throngs of people and it became clear where we were headed, the Wynne camp let out a shout that nearly took the roof off. They were already over 700 strong and they fed and watered us; gave us the Wynne scarves off their necks and hugged us. We gave them the votes she needed to become the first female Premier of Ontario, the first openly gay Premier of Canada and possibly in the world and then, for the first time in my life I felt that I was part of a cresting wave that really felt like a social revolution, inclusive, fair and free from the “mind forged manacles” of the past. I would not have missed this experience for the world.
Today the knee jerk neo fascist Right wing is already attacking her, but if they were not I would be worrying. We broke the mold as one of our new friends there said and the Reaction of frightened people is a good sign. The snow falls thick and fast again outside but inside my heart is warm with hope of a better world to come. I have learned to see change as it is happening and that is a gift beyond price.
