The holiday season and the last days of the year are a time to reflect, writes Rosemary Ganley - Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star file photo
Now, in late December, there is earlier dark, more silence and snow; slower driving. I am reading some books I have longed to get to, and using Kindle to do it. Books, such as Miriam Toews' Women Talking and Andrew Harvey's Savage Grace. My doctor recommended the Harvey.
We're coming to a year-end, tending to reflect. I'm paying more attention to my inner life, paying scant attention to Facebook, except for witty cartoons, such as the one where a harassed radio host assures his listeners that indeed mommy gave her informed consent before being kissed under the mistletoe.
I'm moving towards vegetarianism. Am I on track for minimalism?
Advocacy work is so visible in the month of December, one can avoid all the excess of the consumerist society. Not to be Scrooge or anything, one can still arrange a gift for one's loved ones. (I just bought the gift of a car wash, and for another, a Reframe Film festival pass).
On Dec. 6, there was a moving vigil in front of the orange-lit City Hall as we again remembered the murder of women engineering students in 1989 at Ecole Polytechnique, and all gender-based violence.
On Dec. 9 and 10, Amnesty International Group 46 organized letter writing for 10 women human rights defenders in such countries as Ukraine, Iran, Morocco and the U.S. I have learned over many years that Amnesty data is to be trusted. One can grab a case study and know it is not exaggerated. It is beholden to no authority but truth.
There were three opportunities in our city for people to take 15 minutes and put one's name to an appeal for a woman who is detained, and maybe worse, for non-violently speaking out for human rights.
At Emmanuel East United Church on Dec. 9, there were scores of signers and writers after service. At Whistlestop Cafe on Dec. 10, more conscientious citizens of Peterborough, aware of the plight of the oppressed somewhere else in the world, came to write. Total 175 letters. On Dec. 13 at Kenner Collegiate, 100 students, organized by Lydia Etherington, brought together classmates for an earnest letter-writing session.
I was moved by a lad, scarcely literate but very sincere, who wrote his letter to some tyrant with just the words: "Please don't be so bad."
Moreover, social justice work and the arts are inextricably linked. This city can hold its head high in this regard. The arts provide cries of pain which are indelible. Cottagers and Indians, the powerful play by Curve Lake playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, drew overflow crowds to Market Hall. Infused with compassion for the two parties in conflict, Taylor's work provokes needed conversations both here and across the country.
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In the same Market Hall venue, New Stages director Randy Read brought a stunning production of A New Brain, a complex musical which showcases 13 singers and 3 musicians, many with Stratford credentials, after which I marveled that, right here at home, in an affordable seat, I could hear such a score and ponder such a story line. The homeless woman in the cast asks passersby for some change. Change indeed.
This town is churning with learning. There was the talk by Gordon Laxer, author of the book After the Sands. There are blood donor clinics, toy drives, seniors' singalongs, caroling in neighbourhoods, and In from the Cold concerts. No column is long enough to outline all the Peterborough works of charity and often, justice, which take place this month. All of them engender hope in the observer.
Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope is the thing with feathers/ that perches in the soul/ and sings the tune without the words/ and never stops at all."
From the Christian mystics comes some help. "The journey to the wellspring of hope is really a journey to the innermost ground of our being," wrote Cynthia Bourgeault. "Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal," said British philosopher Bertrand Russell.
Maybe as wide as the globe. And as local as skating on the canal.
Rosemary Ganley is a writer, teacher and activist. Reach her at rganley2016@gmail.com
Rosemary Ganley is a writer, teacher and activist. Reach her at rganley2016@gmail.com
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