I turned on CBC yesterday morning by chance and realized it was the investiture of our new governor-general, so went to my computer to watch as well as listen. It was extraordinary. Mary Simon is an inspiring, beautiful Inuit woman who gave an inspiring, beautiful talk. Imagine, she said among many other things that working to de-stigmatize mental illness will be one of her priorities! She spoke in lyrical English, fluent Inuktitut, and brave French about her childhood in the Arctic; “Canada is an Arctic nation,” she said, and went on at length about the crisis of climate change. She spoke about the generous hard unsung work being done by Canadians in communities across the land and specifically thanked frontline health care workers. And of course, most importantly, she spoke about reconciliation with the Indigenous first people of this country.
Such a warm, welcome presence in our land. Long may she reign!
I was invited out for lunch yesterday – another first after many months – by Ron Hume, a member of the men-only book club who are such vociferous fans of “Loose Woman.” Ron, who’s in his eighties, was an entrepreneur who once marketed books and had marketing ideas for me; he said the memoir is so good, it should be much more widely known and wants to try to help me get it into book clubs. “A superb writer like you shouldn’t waste a minute on marketing, you should be writing,” he said, music to my ears, but unfortunately not possible. His ideas are interesting but do involve time and effort and are a long shot, so we’ll see if anything works.
It does make me sad that although the reviews have been uniformly positive, my book, without any media coverage, is relatively unknown. But not sad enough to make me spend hours a day burbling on social media, which is the job.
At lunch, during which lively Ron, his interesting poet wife Babs, and I consumed a bottle of Pinot Grigio and delicious lobster ravioli, he told me their Covid ritual; at 5 every day for an hour they both have a glass of single malt Scotch and listen to jazz. He curates his favourites for her with the help of Spotify. She has learned to love jazz too though she grew up in Liverpool and is a huge Beatles fan and invited me over to their house to dance.
Also heard a fascinating CBC interview with James Nestor, author of a book called “Breath,” about the importance of breathing through your nose and other facts about breathing which should be self-evident but aren’t.
Today, I’ve another podcast interview on Zoom. I will be breathing through my nose.
Yesterday evening a walk in the ‘hood with my neighbour Gretchen, our first face to face encounter in many months. I spotted something in the grass: an angel mushroom. Not sure if it grew this way or is a regular mushroom damaged, but it’s a magical thing, don’t you think?
