In the days ahead we’ll be seeing more tremulous, slow-talking, slow-moving people in public life. This is inevitable; our world is growing older. It’s also a good thing that we can help that become a normal thing.
Last week, I attended the Weston International Award for Nonfiction at the ROM which was given to Leslie Jamison, the American essayist and memoirist who writes deeply confessional pieces for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. My interest was professional; I, too, had written a recovery memoir.
Jamison speaks quickly, with manic energy. As with most events like this, the author spoke about her work, then she was interviewed by a high-profile person in the world of writing, then she answered questions.
Her interviewer was journalist Marni Jackson, who was also on the judging panel. Jackson has been writing books and magazine pieces for decades, mainly about women. I hadn’t seen her since before COVID and was shocked to see her right hand shaking slightly, as she sat opposite Jamison asking her questions. Jackson spoke more slowly and with greater effort than she ever needed before. She moved in the chair slowly as well, and had a hard time keeping her papers still in her lap. It was clear to everyone that Marni Jackson has Parkinson’s Disease.
A hyper-kinetic awardee opposite a slow-talking interviewer worked in a surprising way. A faster Jamison or a slower Jackson would have been hard slogging for everyone in the room. But rather than feeling embarrassed for Marni Jackson, we all felt empathy. We embraced her in the hard task she had set out for herself, her fight not just to get through the interview, but to do her subject justice.
Something similar happened back in May. A distinguished McMaster professor stood up in front of 1,000 graduates to accept an honorary degree. He was not an interviewer, asking questions like Marni Jackson. He gave an 8-minute speech, labouring mightily through it to offer advice to students who would easily dismiss what most ‘normal’ 75-year-olds have to say. But they, too (and their parents), didn’t squirm or turn to their phones in order to avert their attention from the ponderously slow speaker on stage. Indeed, they were with him, silently urging him on, and likely thinking: “Jesus, is this what I’ll be like 50 years from now?”
Last week, as we were streaming out of the ROM, I asked a friend of Marni Jackson if she ever writes about her Parkinson’s. Yes, she does, and noted that “staying in the public eye will help normalize the condition.”
This is all to the good and speaks to the normalization of conversations on degenerative neurological diseases the way we talk about diseases like alcoholism and addiction.
Today, we’re hearing a lot about and from neurodiverse people, those afflicted with autism, ADHD and dyslexia. They, too, have been largely invisible and unheard for…well, forever.
So let’s start giving the podium to that large and growing set of neurodiverse Canadians, those who are suffering from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s (750,000 of us), Parkinson’s (155,000), Huntington’s (6,000), and ALS (4,000).
And good on you, Marni Jackson, for what you did, and on The Writer’s Trust, who run the Weston International Award – for taking a first big step in creating a new view of diversity.
Meanwhile…
1. Advanced life skills. How to approach strangers at a party. How to nod off in the afternoon. And how to book a flight on the best day of the week.
And this just in…“The New AirPods Can Translate Languages in Your Ears. This Is Profound.” That New York Times headline led me to read this: “I was wearing the new Apple earbuds arriving in stores on Friday. The $320 AirPods Pro 3 use artificial intelligence to do real-time translations, their most significant new feature…As my friend spoke, Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, acted as an interpreter, speaking in a robotic voice that immediately converted the Spanish words into English in my ears.”
2. Where traffic stops turn into a deportation pipeline. Two exposés from Bellingcat, the online investigation group: the first on ICE’s smash and grab tactics; the second on how activewear commercials become neo-Nazi fight nights. And finally, a newimmigration enforcement dashboard.
3. The departure lounge. Why Jerry left Ben & Jerry’s. Plus Jimmy Kimmel on getting fired, and on returning to work less than a week later. And it will all be okay as long as we obey.
And clarification on the fact that energy drinks – even just one drink a month – can raise your risk of suicide. This isn’t from some wacko health site, but from Medscape, and it says: “A meta-analysis of more than 1.5 million participants has suggested that coffee and energy drinks have opposing effects on suicide risk. High coffee consumption – more than 60 cups per month – was linked to significantly reduced suicide attempts, probably because of its stimulating and mood-enhancing properties. In contrast, even a single can of an energy drink per month was observed to increase the risk for suicidal thoughts and attempts, with a dose-dependent effect that can triple the risk at higher consumption levels.”
4. Still crazy after all these years. I know Louis CK is long-ghosted, but his skit aboutWiFi on airplanes still rings freshly true. Plus, America now has dynamic pricing for beer?And how do chimpanzees become heavy drinkers? Access to excess. Season 4 of The Morning Show, with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, premiered last week on AppleTV+, and it’s more chaotic than ever.
5. Problems redefined; problems half-solved. Here’s the world shown as 100 people over the last two centuries. Plus how to re-bond with your cat. And if you’re an intellectual, these jokes are for you and yours.
Plus the true cost of poverty in Canada, via Dr. Andrew Boozary. And how Volkswagen can save your life if you nod off at the wheel, not some day in the future; now. And finally, 118 videos, each of them on one of the 118 periodic elements.
6. Three ways AI can ease your burdens. One and two and three. Plus, how to feelless anxious about AI and so much else.
7. You heard it here best. Brian Cox (the physicist) on how the cosmos is so big and we are so small. Happiness expert Arthur Brooks on booze. And the BBC on how the Bangor Cathedral choir was suspended for ‘singing an inappropriate hymn.’ And in case you missed Trump’s 60-minute rant at the UN, here it is in 4 minutes. Speaking of missing Trump…Get Off the iPad!
8. It’s fat bear week! – The annual competition to choose the brown bear most prepared for the Alaskan winter opened this week. It’s a huge deal up there. As The New York Times noted: “Viewers around the world tune in to watch a livestream of brown bears feeding at Brooks Falls, a favorite salmon run in the park, in preparation for winter hibernation…The contest was created in 2014 as a small, one-day affair, with the goal of drawing attention to the bears and to the importance of having a place for them to thrive. Eleven years later it is a marquee event, with more than one million votes cast in each of the last three years.”
9. Best before dates. How long it takes for food to go bad, and for bites to kill you (just 24 hours from a Deathstalker Scorpion and 1 hour from a Golden Frog)…and for teeth to tell all.
10. I’ll watch Gillian Anderson anywhere. Especially as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at The National Theatre. I’ll watch Katharine Hepburn too. And anyone at Crow’s Theatre and Soulpepper in Toronto.