GO TO YOUR PORCH OR BALCONY. Like you, I’ve sung O Canada hundreds of times. Like you, I can remember nearly none of them. But there are two that have stuck with me over the years, both joyous, chest-thumping occasions when our voices choked as we belted out a national anthem that ranks, like its […]
The Plague-Ground – What are you doing at 12 noon on Sunday? Read More »
“Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. It’s almost uplifting to know that virtually everyone on earth is sharing the same concerns and uncertainties, with all focused on the well-being of their families and communities. Maybe we’ll finally awake to the reality that we are biological beings inhabiting a living planet.”
The Plague-Ground – They are not failed versions of us Read More »
As we sit at home watching our hair grow uncut, we’re deluged with ideas for how to rebuild a fairer, kinder world once life on earth returns to normal. Let me add this idea: Talk to Zita Cobb. She was born 62 years ago in Joe Batt’s Arm on Fogo Island. Her parents couldn’t read
The Plague-Ground – Does Our Future Already Exist on Fogo Island? Read More »
Mine sure are. They’re 70 years old. My wife Jean’s are seven years older. This puts us both in the high-risk category for dying from COVID-19 if we test positive. So our roulette is different. Of the 65 Canadians who have died so far from the virus, a huge majority have been old (me) or
The Plague-Ground – Are Your Lungs Older Than Your Denial? Read More »
I think one reason Canada’s doing ‘okay’ in beating back COVID-19 is that we have so many women in charge of fighting it. Half of Canada’s 10 chief provincial medical officers are women, as is Canada’s chief medical officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and Toronto’s, Dr. Eileen de Villa. This, in a land where there are
The Plague-Ground – Women’s Faces in Urgent Places Read More »
Many years ago, I interviewed a medic who flew with Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance service. My job was to write up a personal profile of him for the Ornge website. In our brief phone call, he taught me a lesson in life and leadership that we can all use today. I asked him what he
The Plague-Ground – “Not much use being anything else.” Read More »
Raise your hand if you don’t like music. Good. Not one person raised their hand. It’s amazing that 100% of us can agree on one single thing these days (even staying away from each other, as these darkly funny appeals from Italian mayors attest). Few art-lovers claim art is the universal language. Or dance-lovers, dance.
The Plague-Ground – THERE AIN’T NO MUSIC UNLESS THE WORDS SING. Read More »
COVID-19 isn’t the only thing going viral. It took just a week for us to be swamped with astounding new ways to help us cope with the dark days ahead. We can learn to cook everything in our fridge just by taking a picture of what’s inside. We can join a virtual choir to
The Plague-Ground – COMFORTS AND JOYS Read More »
“We’re all going to die!” No one I know is actually saying that, or even screaming it. But today I’m feeling it. I catch a story out of New York about a young man dying, and quickly shut it off. I talk on the phone with a friend who took his family south last week,
THE PLAGUE GROUND – A MOMENT OF DESPAIR Read More »
My 39-year-old step-daughter dropped off some toilet paper at our condo this morning. While we don’t need toilet paper, I was touched by her gesture. In return, I gave her one of our three tubes of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. Before last week, that interaction would have been unnecessary, unthinkable, preposterous. Today, it’s a tale of
THE PLAGUE-GROUND – PRACTICE SOCIAL TIGHTENING Read More »
This morning, I went into my Home Hardware on the Danforth searching for a metal box I could hide my secret stash of end-of-the-world cash in. They were out. But what they did have fresh in was a shipment of Clorox Disinfecting Wipes. So fresh the delivery guy was leaving when I was arriving. Limit
One island, 49 kilometres, 10 hours: This epic tour of New York City’s most populous borough is a marathon of sights and sounds — and dangers My wife Jean and I have kayaked on Ontario’s Georgian Bay for years, often sleeping on rocks on weekend trips. The farthest we’d paddled was 30 kilometres in a
Circumnavigating Manhattan by kayak Read More »
