Women’s Rights March - Victoria, BC

I’ll be honest. I was not going to go to the March for Women today.  I’ve never been to a march. I’ve never had any desire to attend any march. Today was different. Today, I wanted - no, needed - to see and feel this march. As I walked downtown, I expected to see women and men streaming to Centennial Square. But there didn’t seem to be much action. And then I saw them. Pink placards - Rights for Women! And pink hats - ‘pussy’ hats, and just ordinary - but pink or purple - winter hats.

There were, apparently, about 4000 people gathered with some peering from the tops of buildings. This march was organized by five different groups, spearheaded by the Raging Grannies. There was music by local musicians and, in chorus, many of us sang along. Speakers included Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, Carole James, MLA for the Victoria-Beacon Hill electoral district and Lisa Helps, Mayor of Victoria.

I could see the hundreds of people around me, but the crowd spilled down Douglas Street to Pandora a distance of several blocks. When the march began, we edged slowly out onto the street, filling it, blocking traffic on the cross streets as we wound down to Store Street and back to Centennial Square. Workers and staff coming out of their places of employment clapped and cheered as we passed.

I'm uncomfortable in crowds, especially big noisy crowds. This big noisy crowd did not scare me. The big noisy crowd told me that women, men and children in Victoria, as everyone south of the border and around the world, are paying attention. Paying attention to the threat to not just women’s rights, but to human rights, from the new leadership in the United States. People willing to stand up for their principles and to the source of these threats. Another disclaimer - I have not been clear about how a march will provide the resistance needed for change, however today I saw a critical mass of power. Visible and tangible. The power of citizenry that translates into votes and continued challenge to those who believe they hold all the power.

“I raise up my voice - not so I can shout but so that those without a voice 

can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

~ Malala Yousafzai

Author's note: Edited February 03, 2024

On the Train

On the Train  

Lining the rail corridor, pines nodded their white caps in respect as our passenger train climbed a gentle incline. Aroma of fresh coffee made me smile. A newcomer to train travel, I was enthralled with the steady rocking of the car. My breakfast was served with professional aplomb. White napkins, stylish dinner wear and silver cutlery. Passengers chatted quietly in the early morning. Breaking through the conversations, a cheerful voice over the speaker had heads up and not a few worried frowns. A blizzard was forecast for later in the morning. Looking out my frosted window, I watched as the wind chased loose fine snow alongside the train. The beautiful landscape was blurred at the edges. Only shredded strips of gilded orange sky were visible in the building clouds. My joy of this first train ride in such a beautiful snowscape was juxtaposed with the principles of safety - principles I hadn’t thought of when buying my tickets. I relaxed when our porters brought to our tables the safety protocols to follow should the blizzard warnings hold true. I opened my leather bound journal, uncapped my pen and began to describe the story of my train trip.

“We all wind up drawn to waht we’re afraid of, drawn 

to try to find a way to make ourselves safe from a thing

 by crawling inside of it, by loving it, by becoming it.”

~ Holly Black, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Springtime Silence

Sunlight filtered through tall drying old growth pines, dust motes defining it’s golden rays. There should have been sound on this beautiful spring day. The scratch and chitter of squirrels and chipmunks busily gathering and scampering.  Rat-a-tat-tat of woodpeckers echoing on high. Robins and wrens scouting the territory. Nesting should have begun. Weathered signage along cedar chip trails waited silently to direct absent guests deep along paths lined with ferns and overgrowth. The principle of any national park is to provide sanctuary for wildlife, for citizenry and yet there was only silence this day. 

“Only within the moment of time represented 

by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired 

significant power to alter the nature of the world.”

~ Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Drawing a Line

Standards, based in beliefs, create direction.
but are the directions true?
when beliefs are skewed but firm
based in principles divisive and cruel,
standards can be at great odds.

Standards, based in beliefs, create direction.
But are all directions easy?
when beliefs are fair and firm
based in principles of goodness and reality.
Standing up for these beliefs is a challenge.

Standards, based in beliefs, create direction.
in today’s world
balance differing beliefs
based in principles of benefit and loss.
Carefully choose your own standards.

“Aspire to decency. Practice civility toward one another. Admire and emulate ethical behaviour wherever you find it. Apply a rigid

standard of morality to your lives; and if, periodically, you fail - as you surely will - adjust your lives, not your standards.”

~ Ted Koppel

Book Review: the Truth According to us by Annie Barrows

Out shopping one day last summer, I scanned a table of books. Annie Barrows name caught my eye and the title of one of her other books The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. So I looked closer. The title appealed ~ the Truth According to us. My ability to choose a book to read is often this shallow. However, after having read it, I recommended it to the group for my selection when it was my turn to host. This month, the Truth According to us brought the heat of a 1938 West Virginia summer to January, 2017 in Victoria, B.C.

Macedonia is a fictional small town in West Virginia in the year 1938. Layla Beck, a senator’s daughter, has been abruptly cut off from her privileged life by her father. Her highest education is limited to graduation from a Finishing School. She is unemployed. In the Great Depression. Her uncle Ben, under duress from his brother, gives her work with the Federal Writer’s Project. Historically, this Project was an actual federal initiative funding written work and to support writers in this economically devastating time. Layla, assigned to write the history of Macedonia, arrives alone and quite penniless, but well dressed. At the train station she meets Bird, one of the young girls in this story, come to accompany Layla to her mother's boarding house. Willa, Bird’s sister, had fallen and was left behind and so missed this auspicious occasion to a home filled with secrets and eccentricities while displaying southern gentility.

The story unfolds as Layla learns how to be independent while learning the history of the town. Layla’s privilege and protected life is juxtaposed with the economically deprived lives of the residents of Macedonia. Which version of the history of the town is accurate?  That of the mayor wanting to bestow prestige and glory upon this tiny town? Or the story of the Romeyn Family? Which version is more principled?

Willa Romeyn, twelve years old narrated much of this story with the wit and honesty of a child, reminiscent of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She sees Layla as an interloper and threat who really doesn’t know much and who likes her father Felix. She describes her aunts, Jottie and the twins Mae and Minerva. Jottie is raising Willa and Bird while Felix is conducting 'his business'. Mae and Minerva have their own eccentricities. Willa’s main concern is tracking down her father’s business. 

The Truth According to us is an easily read story taking the reader into the complexities of small town history and fading class divisions.

“I’ve learned that history is the autobiography of the historian, 

that ignoring the past is the act of a fool, and 

that loyalty does notmean falling into line, 

but stepping out of it for the people you love.”

~ Annie Barrows, the Truth According to us.

Title:  the Truth According to us

Author:  Annie Barrows

Publisher: The Dial Press

Publication Date: 2016

Format:  Soft Cover

ISBN: 978-0-385-34295-7  (pbk;acid free paper)

ISBN: 978-0-8129-9784-2  (e-book)

Type:  Fiction

Turning the Clay

Ethics shape decisions

As much as a potter shapes

the clay on her wheel

while it spins on the base

Morals wash against the clay

Smooth jagged edges of cirumstance

While formless clay becomes a vessel

To last a day or a life-time

Ethics shape our lives

Fired and dried

Glazed with experience

Held up by our mentors and teachers.

Ethics shape decisions

As much as a potter shapes

The clay on his wheel

While it spins….

“Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment 

turns us inexorably in the directon of the rest of our lives.”

~ Mary Balogh, Simply Perfect

Follow the Leader

Leadership sets the bar high

…….or low.  

Front and center

In sound bytes and photo shoots

The batons of ‘follow me’ flashing principled messages to all of us

Blinding us and getting our attention

On a quieter note

Leadership sets the bar high….or low

From behind the scenes

In principled memos and newsletters

No flash, no dash

Assuming the front line attention

Leadership sets the bar high…..or low

Each of us leads in our own sphere

From our own beliefs and integrity

In principled word and deed

With passion or apathy

While getting the work done.

“Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. 

It is about one life influencing another.”

~ John C. Maxwell