Erin's Journals

Just a thought… Invisible threads are the strongest ties. [Friedrich Nietzsche]

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. So here are about 380 more of them, to go along with a special shot taken yesterday.

Today, as we heard of a friend’s mom passing away at age 87, not of COVID-19 exactly, but most likely, her son says, due to the loneliness of the disease’s accompanying enforced isolation in her seniors’ residence, we were reminded of the importance of connection.

Matthew had been to see his mom, who lives in Montreal while he resides in Toronto, just the day before. She wasn’t ailing, but was frail; just the same, her passing was not expected and she will be sorely missed by the friends and family she leaves behind. As always, the “at leasts” are for them to say.

It just reinforces that it’s not so much the material things that we long for these days, but the hugs and the smiles, the heartfelt relatedness that lets us know we were part of something bigger. Something solid.

When I last saw my dad, it was to celebrate his 86th birthday. He was – as he is now – in good spirits and healthy for his age. And as we read the daily news, we are grateful for those things, but especially for his companionship in the form of the “girl next door” where he lives: his sweetheart Dawna.

My two Kelowna sisters are responsible for this picture: Heather, who sewed masks (one with musical notes for Dad, the other in a tiny floral print for Dawna), and Leslie, who delivered them and took this shot.

No, the doggie in the window in that shot isn’t real, although I had to do a double-take, too! And that heart? I assume it’s a paper one stuck in the window, but you just never know, do you?

With the breadth of despair hitting so many families who have loved ones living in senior care, many of whom – like our friend – are having to plan long-distance funerals on Zoom these days, we count our blessings that fate was so kind to my dad in bringing him a late lifemate, especially during these times of such aloneness.

I hear from so many readers who are heartsick at not being able to visit their aged parents, many of whom don’t have the mental capacity to grasp what it is that’s keeping their families at bay. And we know that Dad is in good hands in so very many ways. How lucky we are!

And if everyone rushes back to “normal,” the last seven weeks will have been for naught. Will this be the hindsight that 2020 provides?

I’ll be back with you tomorrow.

Just a thought… In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. [Donny Miller]

I don’t know what we’ve done to deserve friends like the ones who dropped off a chocolate Bundt cake (with icing and chocolate chips drizzled over the top), peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, homemade pasta sauce, plus dry pasta and fresh basil yesterday. But whatever it is, Rob and I will try to keep doing it!

We’d already promised them a drop-off of chicken cacciatore (plus dry pasta and a chunk of Parmesan wrapped with bows) but honestly – dessert, too? We’re not worthy!

Just seeing them in our driveway yesterday for a brief, distanced chat raised our spirits immeasurably. As usual, talk turned to masks and Rob and I remarked that our recent rare grocery outing saw us as two of only four people in the whole store wearing masks. I just don’t get this. And I’m going to keep wearing a mask so I don’t  “get it,” if you know what I mean.

I don’t care if we look as if we’re erring on the side of caution; I keep in mind that I wear mine not to catch it, but to prevent spreading it in the highly unlikely case that we have the virus. (Where would we get it – dog walks or freshly baked cookies? Doubtful.)

As voices around us in protest over self-isolation and the shutdown of so many sectors of our economy continue to get louder in their agitation – and don’t get me started with the COVIDiots with their guns in Michigan recently – I’m still going to withstand the online taunts that I’m some cowardly granny. I don’t give a rat’s behind what some stranger says.

I was gearing up (in my busy, busy head) for someone at the store to laugh at me or say something about my mask. I was prepared to lie, borrowing my sister’s illness and saying, “How do you know I don’t have lupus, a–hole?” just to see what their response would be. I don’t have it. But what if I did?

That imagined altercation was sparked by a conversation we had with our friend and my former radio pal Mike Cooper. He said he was in a store in Peterborough a few weeks back and was wearing a mask while trying to avoid a fellow shopper who was back-to-back with him in the aisle. The guy said to Mike, “You know the whole thing’s a hoax, right?”

I’ll give you a multiple choice option as to what you think Mike responded. Was it:

a) Please tell me what the source of your news is. I’m most interested.

b) Hmmm….I hadn’t though of that – you’re probably right!

c) Oh, f–k off, you f–king idiot.

If you guessed a) or b) – Welcome! I bet you’ll really enjoy meeting Mike one day.

Of course, the answer was c). And then – after we’d stopped laughing – Mike told us that, naturally, the guy was right behind him at the checkout!

I reminded Mike that – mask or not – he has some of the most distinctive eyebrows on the planet! And that is, if his voice didn’t give him away.

Then again, the guy he had the “discussion” with probably tunes into Rush Limbaugh anyway.

That’s part of what made Mike and me the team we were: such polar opposites. While I would have fretted for days about even asking someone why they’d comment on my mask if I had an auto-immune disease, Mike revelled in letting the expletives fly and land where they might.

I’d say we all need a little Mike in us, but then he’d take that entirely the WRONG WAY (while correcting me about the “little” part).

Hope you got a laugh as we all get through this together. And thanks for coming along for the ride.

Just a thought… Sometimes laughter or crying are the only options, and laughter feels better right now. [Veronica Roth, Divergent]

I hope you’re doing well on this Sunday. Even though we’re freelancers and many of our days are the same as the previous and next, our weekends are quieter and at a slower pace here; I don’t have as many auditions to dash into the studio for, no phone meetings or recordings to do. It’s quiet.

A bit of cleaning, some chicken cacciatore bubbling in the slow cooker, rain outside our windows, frothy cups of cappuccino, a video call with Colin and his family, a deer nibbling determinedly at whatever she can find growing in our backyard. Nothing here to complain about at all.

I thought that since I’m in a mellow mood today, I’d just take a little break from putting words in order, and share with you a video that was sent to me.

If you’re like me, you’ll notice that the videos come in in droves: inspiring, profane, funny and profound. These times are giving people the space to be creative and, more often than not, that’s a very good thing!

This video of a song about our Great White North is sweet and, oh, so Canadian. I thought you might enjoy it – Rob and I sure did, as have nearly a million people (as of this writing).

Take good care and I’ll be back here tomorrow. Oh, and see if you notice the hunky Aussie whose picture is shown where a Canadian playing a superhero should be!

Remember when you wished the weekend would never end…?

Thanks to totimes.ca for this little write-up about the song you’re about to enjoy.

“Up Here, in Canada” video features a clever Canadian song by BC musician, Clark W. The YouTube video released a few days ago already has over 21,000 views. It is no surprise as the song and a video provides humorous insight into who we are as Canadians. In fact, it could go down as one of the most defining Canadian-themed songs outside of our National Anthem and Bob and Doug Mackenzie’s “Twelve Days of Christmas.”

According to the musician and The Okanagan Mixing Studio that created the video, it is “dedicated to all the good people in Canada and all the things that make us uniquely Canadian” covering pretty much everything that makes Canada the greatest country in the world.

Just a thought… What’s a week-end? [Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey]

The question was posed by @ThatEricAlper this past week: what happened to you in grade school that you remember to this day?

There are a great many things. There were the awful occurrences of bullying (a girl named Susan who would wash my face with icy snow when I started grade 5 in Alberta, a girl with whom I eventually – and successfully – made the effort to become friends) and the wonderful moments like making my drama teacher pee herself laughing at a mime sketch.

But the answer that I gave was a misspelling that I’ve never forgotten.

It was the word “rhythm” which is ironic because that’s the failed birth control method my Catholic parents used, resulting in four children! I have never forgotten the order of the consonants in that word. Anyway, my lack of rhythm got me bumped from a spelling bee. Maybe it contributes to my crazy eye for misspellings to this day?

There was an incident that comes a close second, though, and it also comes from being a newbie: not just in a school, but in a country.

Miss Bridger was a spindly, humourless and brittle woman who taught one of the forms I attended (rather than grades) at Fox Hills Junior School in Bracknell, Berkshire, UK. At the time, I thought she was about 86, but she was likely in her forties.

I have good memories of those days that year, most of them strangely centered around food: little glass bottles of milk for each student, with a foil top that hid a delicious, thin layer of cream on top; ice cream that was served in a cylindrical paper roll at lunch. Custard (the Bird’s Eye type) that accompanied nearly every meal we had at school, and the mandatory learning of “Hot Cross Buns” on recorder.

But again it was a spelling test that stands out most clearly from those days in Miss Bridger’s class. As she paced the aisles between neat rows of desks, she dictated the words we were to spell.

“Aeroplane. Aeroplane.” (In my memory I hear her voice as that of Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey.)

I reluctantly rose my hand and said, “Could you repeat that?”

She said “aeroplane” again. I shook my head, not recognizing the word she had said.

“Don’t you have aeroplanes in Canidder?” (And yes, that’s how she said Canada. I remember it that clearly after all of these years.)

Of course, I spelled it arrow-plane and, you guessed it, I got it wrong. What we call “airplane” is called an “aeroplane” in the UK. Lesson learned.

So here’s the big question: after all this time, why do these moments stick out in our minds? Is it because the hot flash of humiliation that I felt that moment comes back in HD clarity? Perhaps.

I don’t remember the words I spelled correctly that day, but I am reminded of the wisdom of the Dalai Lama who said, “If you lose, don’t lose the lesson.”

Spell ya later. If you would like to add the word that caught you up, please join the conversation at facebook.com/erindavispage.

Talk to you here tomorrow!

Just a thought… Do things that make you happy within the confines of the legal system. [Ellen DeGeneres]

Hello May! If you don’t have that Mother’s Day card in the mail yet, you’re risking it being late. Yes, in the three years we call self-isolation, it’s easy to lose track of things that are coming in the month ahead. While everything’s been cancelled, Mother’s Day has not. It’s a week this Sunday: just a word to the wise.

So, what else can we look forward to in May? Warmer temperatures, for one thing, and, of course, the cheery optimism of flowers and blossoming trees.

In Toronto, some screens will be filled with High Park cherry blossoms, whose impending silent explosions are now being streamed live. But don’t go to see them in person; fines range from $750 to $5000. And since flowers may, but money definitely does not, grow on trees, you’re better off staying home – as in all matters these days.

Meantime, if gardening is your thing and you’ve been itching to get your knees dirty, this is for you. (A friend brought us a plant the other day and assured me that even I couldn’t kill it, so you know that I’m including this info solely for readers!)

According to a story in the 2011 Neuroscience journal, research showed that a beneficial bacterium common in soil triggers the release of serotonin in the human body, elevating mood and decreasing anxiety. This is just what a lot of us need right now!

And in case you don’t garden, a little joke is included in the article. Did you hear about the guy who hauled in a load of soil to top off his garden? The plot thickened.

Ba-dum-bum.

From the green, to your screen: May 5th, there’s a new Jerry Seinfeld special dropping on Netflix. It’s called 23 Hours to Kill and, if the trailer is any indication, it promises to be fun. I’ll link to it at the bottom so you don’t go away from there and then start perusing weather guys with their dogs or something. Oh, I know how the youtube rabbit hole works!

Here’s some more great news for May if you loved her book, as I did (from TeenVogue.com):

Author and former First Lady Michelle Obama will soon be inspiring viewers on a Netflix screen near you. The streaming service shared a first look at Becoming, out May 6, which follows Obama as she tours the U.S. for her memoir of the same name.

The initial look at the documentary shows Obama meeting with a group of young people in Philadelphia and opening up about the transition from First Lady to author. Responding to a question, she admits that all paths in life are different, and each requires a new lens of viewing. “It takes time to process your life and figure out what it all means,” she says at one point, explaining that “so much” of who she is was formed before her time in the White House.

There are lots of familiar shows and movies returning to Netflix this month – and there’s a link to a list of them here. Love Actually? Why not? Have the kids seen Back to the Future and B2TF2? They’re coming back, too.

May 18th is Victoria Day or, as we might well call it, another day at home. Hopefully, it means extra pay for those who are doing their jobs so we can stay safely in our houses and apartments; our thanks are appreciated but some extra income to help make ends meet would, I’m sure, lessen the burden of their daily lives just a little.

Hang in there and please continue to do your part to flatten the curve and make sure that there’s not a rebound of this virus, an occurrence that is being predicted by many in the know. All we can do is take care of each other – of ourselves – and wait this out. With patience and maybe impatiens (the flowers of course) we’ll avoid becoming patients. Try that sentence in your next spelling sessions with the kids!

Here’s that Jerry Seinfeld trailer. And I’ll be back here tomorrow with a Saturday journal (or whatever day tomorrow is).