Leapification

Here we are at another Leap Day, a day that turns out to be full of odd celebrations and customs.

And really, February 29th holds a lot of potential as a great date for some rare and eccentric traditions. Just think, we'd have a full four years to plan our escapades.

Not a day for jumping, only leaping. We could leap to conclusions without fear of reprisal, feel our hearts leap at thoughts of true love, or spend the day in inspired speculations, making leaps of faith and logic.

About the only leaps I made today were small leaps of progress in the garden, as I gave both raspberry and blackberry vines their annual mega-prune. It's a job that always grants a share of satisfaction, maybe just because I know how tasty the summer crop will be.

As for the bridge sign above, the water flowing beneath it was beautiful and inviting. I think you were just supposed to swim from the bank below rather than cannon-balling off the railings.

Must admit to having several leaps in mind for myself, as I suppose we should all have a dream or two that requires, at the very least, some leap of imagination. Leap on.

Exercise your freedom...to read

It seems I usually am reading more than one book at a time. Okay, not reading with books in both hands, but one for afternoon reading, another at bedtime, and poking my nose into some other book or two throughout the day.

One of the books I've been reading (actually, re-reading) is George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. It's amazing that it's held up so well over the many years since it was published. But I'm finding that quite a lot of it seems a little too spot-on, with ubiquitous surveillance cameras only one of those aspects.

Other parts of it that seem a little too close to reality are those that concern both writing and language.

Much of the writing depicted in the novel is actually re-writing -- the re-creation of history that's become inconvenient -- often because an individual was too caught up in the mores of his time. And yes, that individual is generally a man, but then that simply reflects how our histories have been written. And what the protagonist (Winston) must do in his job seems not all that different from ways we have recently been revisiting some of our own history. 

Even more chilling to me as a creative writer is the notion of machines spinning out novels. As with the revision of history in the book's Ministry of Truth, an entire department is devoted to the creation of Fiction. Books are conceived by directive of a committee, then the words are spun out by a machine. Sure, there's a department for rewriting, but somehow it doesn't sound very literary. And the same process is also true for pornography in Orwell's dystopian society, though only women are permitted to work in that section. Much too stimulating for men. Harrumph.

But even more bothersome to me is his vision of what he called Newspeak, a word that showed up yesterday as one of the answers to the New York Times crossword (one of my morning addictions, along with coffee).

Newspeak's goal was purportedly to simplify and clarify language (right...) by paring down the dictionary to only the most basic words, all of which could be modified with simple prefixes and suffixes. Thus, 'bad' becomes 'ungood' and a person who is particular righteous and law-abiding would be described as 'goodthinkful'.

And we can't forget Newspeak's brother, doublespeak, whose presence lingers in our midst like a bad smell. Examples that come to mind include "It's all good" (especially when things might be anything but) and "Have a good one." (A good what, I ask myself.)

I find it worrisome to have 'good' be the basis for such meaningless remarks. It seems like shades of the simplistic 'ungood' to have 'good' as the foundation for so many of our offhand, rote remarks. Although really, it isn't that I don't want life to be good, it's the diminishment of language that rankles me.

Anyway, this happens to be Freedom to Read Week, and I'm glad that even my socks (in the photo) have something to say on that. My advice? Learn a new word -- or better yet, go find a book that's been banned and read it.

Who knew, eh?

By one of those flukes of taking my time reading the weekend newspaper, I ran across an article on 'homegrown literature' and the importance of reading exactly that. It claimed that today has been proclaimed as "I Read Canadian Day."

Only, as it happened, I was in a bookstore today and as I made my purchase, I asked about the observance. The employee gave me the deer-in-the-headlights face, and said she didn't know what I was talking about. If the booksellers don't know about it, no wonder there's no promotion.

I remember that, during the '80s we had "Canada Book Day" and it fell on, I'm pretty sure, April 23rd. And whaddya know, apparently it still exists (though even the entry about it admits that few people know about this).

It really was quite the celebration, as the Canada Council provided a box of Canadian books to libraries that made a request.

And next week, there'll be another Canadian literary observance. If it doesn't come to mind immediately, you might have to check back here, as who knows, I might even do a post about it.

Read on -- and when you can, think about reading something written by a Canadian author.

Yesterday was for learning

Yesterday meant that a decade had passed since Vancouver's Olympic Games officially opened. There are plenty of stories online about the many ways this anniversary is being observed, as well as recaps of all that went on, right down to the glitches that were part of the torch-lighting ceremony.

But more important to me than attending the relighting ceremony might have been was my good fortune over being invited to attend a luncheon where the Calgary's mayor, Naheed Nenshi was the featured speaker. After hearing him, I'm not at all surprised that he was once named the Best Mayor in the World.

Because he was addressing members and guests of the Surrey Board of Trade, much of his talk concerned commerce and trade -- and even included his city's commitment to investments in art and culture. When he came into office, Calgary doubled its funding of the Arts, and since then, despite economic woes in Alberta, the City has managed to protect such funds.

But the real focus of his talk was how we need to start listening to each other. He said that in essence, we all want the same things: we want to save the planet in a state that will remain habitable for future generations and we also want prosperity for all. A big ticket to fill, to be sure.

One thought that I'm taking away from his speech is an anecdote he shared early on. He pointed to his necktie and told us that for nearly ten years he's been wearing purple every day. He reminded us that it's a secondary colour, made up of two primary ones, red and blue, which just happen to be the colours representing the two major political parties, long held as two viewpoints that stand in opposition to each other.

This idea of blending the two points of view, and of being able to hear both sides is the message that stays with me today. I'm hoping I might from now on be able to hear both sides better, and want to start practising something he said (and I'm quoting Mayor Nenshi): "I like to listen with both ears." Yes.

Brave

That's what I thought when I encountered this little primrose, its white petals couched in the white of a surprise snowfall.

Here I'd thought the groundhog would have been right -- after all, I don't think he saw any shadow the other day. And isn't that supposed to mean that winter is over?

I'm just hoping that next time I look at this little flower it'll be surrounded by green.

It's been a long time...

 ...and will be an even longer time until this happens again. The event? A numerical palindrome. Yep, along the lines of 'Madam I'm Adam' or my perhaps favourite, 'Do geese see God?' But not made up of letters, but numbers.

And today is one of the most remarkable of such dates, as the palindromes only seem to build and build on each other -- worth reading the article in this link for the many crazy details.

I'll admit, this morning when I'd looked at the number residing at the bottom of my computer screen I'd thought they looked cool. But it was only while I was watching golf on tv (yes, one of my many guilty pleasures) that one of the commentators remarked on the palindromic factor. So yes, I tried finding a way to create an image that would suit it.

Badly posed, but this kind of date event won't happen again while any of us are around. In fact, this level of palindromic effect in a date won't occur again until 03/03/3030 -- and who knows whether we'll even be on the same digital version of the Gregorian calendar when that rolls around. I suspect "Stardate whatever" might be more likely by then.

And yes, the most lovely representation of the figure two I found during my search was one of the brass swans who keeps me company on the ledge above the sink when I do the washing up. A very special and graceful number two for this pretty special 'two' of a day.