Posted on February 13, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

Mr. Valentin

 

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Thomas Merton

I was walking past the art room the other day at school and saw this very interesting “tin man.” Of course, I immediately thought about the Wizard of Oz and the lyrics to the old America tune, Tin Man: “But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn’t, didn’t already have.” Of course, now I have a serious earworm as I hum this song all day.

I marvel at people who are artistic like our ultra- talented art teacher, Zina. The “tin man” is her creation. I’m hoping to tell her story one of these days. I can’t wait to hear about her life path which took her from Russia to Kangiqsujuaq.

One would think that a person who has a bit of musical ability and a smidgeon of writing ability would have a small grain of artistic ability. You would be wrong. I remember playing Pictionary when we were younger. It was played in teams. You were handed a clue and asked to draw a picture. Your partner was then asked to tell what the image was. Anytime I played, my partner and our opponents would end up in gales of laughter as my rendering of an elephant might resemble a cloud or a big blob of cookie dough.

Back in elementary school, I loved Sister Mary Roderick’s art class. I still have my old report cards. She was a wonderful, kind, patient, and charitable woman. She knew I didn’t possess an ounce of ability but always gave me high marks for effort and enthusiasm.

I put away my paint brushes, scissors and glue for many years, but they surfaced again when my own children arrived on the scene. They were (are) quite talented and it was apparent to all that this skill set came from their mother’s side of the family.

Another generation passed without the indignity of me having to draw anything but conclusions.

Then my grandchildren came along and since then, I have spent countless hours watching them in awe as their creativity spills forth. “Bup (my nickname), why don’t we draw a dinosaur?” I run down to the bathroom and grab a mirror so that I can get the image as precise as possible. Thank god for Google. I ask Google how to draw a dinosaur and just like that, I become a burgeoning Picasso.

“And why, this rather lengthy and boring dissertation of my life as a non-artist?” you might ask.

As part of my duties as grade 5/6 teacher, I am supposed to teach art. When I was being interviewed for the job, I wasn’t concerned about the isolation of the north, the bitter cold winter winds, or the threat of a polar bear attack. No. What struck fear in my heart was the knowledge that I would once again have to humiliate myself by laying bare my ineptness in teaching art.

Thankfully, the charity of Sister Mary Roderick endures because a few of my fellow teachers have come to my aide and routinely give me ideas for art classes.

You can only imagine the plethora of Valentine’s Day flotsam and jetsam floating around my classroom this week.

Love is in the air. It is also on the walls and the floor and in the garbage can.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted on February 6, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

Yet another moving experience

 

“There are places I’ll remember, all my life though some have changed,
Some forever not for better, some have gone, and some remain,
All these places had their moments…”
In My Life. The Beatles

“Len. How is it possible to write 747 words about nothing? You have been writing these posts for nine years. Today is the 1080 th. Not only that but your readers must be awfully bored to keep reading stories about the most mundane things humanly possible. Surely everyone doesn’t live dull, uninteresting lives.”

This quote is not attributable to anyone in particular. Actually, I ask myself the same question over and over as I did on my early morning walk the other day.

If you are really bored, keep reading. Otherwise, you might want to go and do something meaningful like feed your cat or empty the compost bucket.

Yes. After three months, I have finally figured out how to get back to my early morning strolls. The solution was quite simple. Instead of going to the school at 6:30 every day to plan my day, I have decided to spend a good chunk of Sundays at school planning a week’s worth of lessons. I still must confine my walks to the town. The mornings remain dark and it is simply not safe to go wandering on the frozen lakes and the tundra alone. If you suffered a medical emergency, especially in these cold temperatures, you would be in big trouble. Recent polar bear sightings have also garnered my attention.

I’m on the move again. When I signed on for this teaching assignment, I was told that I would be living in a spanking new fourplex adjacent to the school. However, I was also told that it would not be completed until the new year, hence my temporary stay in my current apartment.
Well, I got the news last weekend that the building had been completed and was ready for occupancy so I will move into my new digs this weekend.

It seems like my life has been one giant moving experience. Maybe this is what attracted me to the Inuit people, long known for their nomadic way of life.

How many times in your life have you changed addresses and key chains?

I started to make a list and got quite embarrassed and stopped at 15.

Fifteen. Seriously?

My epic journey through life started with the two houses I occupied as a child on Hillcrest Street. Now, I am about to move into my second apartment in three months. I know you’re not bored enough to read about all fifteen (actually the number is now 17 with the two apartments in Kangiqsujuaq) but a few stand out. Back in the early 70s, I lived in a very old, rundown apartment complex in Victoria, B.C. I can clearly recall that the rent was $85 a month. If you had seen the apartment you might think that I got ripped off. Here’s a recap of life in the “Bongo Pad”. https://www.week45.com/the-bongo-pad/

I have lived in houses, Co-op apartments and one winter, a chalet down by the ocean. I have lived alone, and I have lived with others. I have lived in the hottest places imaginable (can you say India?) ,and now one of the coldest – the arctic. I’ve lived with cats and dogs, and in some of the less refined places, mice! Every house or apartment has a story.

However, I feel I’m not quite done yet. While I still feel young most days, the aches and pains accumulate over time and the synapses aren’t firing quite as quickly as they once did. There’s a pretty good chance that the second last home I’ll occupy will be a nursing home. There was a time that the thought of a nursing home would make me recoil but having seen the care my mother received in her final days and my own experience doing music in a nursing home, I no longer feel this way. I also have dear friends who work in these homes. They are simply among the finest people you can imagine.

In my hometown, the largest nursing home is strategically located between two funeral homes. When my time comes, I won’t have to go far to reach my last stop of the journey.

At least I won’t have to pack!

Have a great weekend.

P.S. By the time some of you late risers read this, I will be “out on the land”. A few classes in the school, including mine, are going out on a seal hunt today. My next Monday Morning Musings could prove to be interesting. I hope it will get your seal of approval.

Posted on January 30, 2020 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

According to some of my students, it was a warm day in Kangiqsujuaq

 

I caved.

I resisted the temptation as long as I could. It is a vice that I have struggled with for a long time. Sometimes it lifts my spirits, but it also depresses the hell out of me. It helps me pass the time when I feel lonely. I’ll admit that it’s a crutch for me and probably for many of you.
I bet some of you thought that I was referring to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs or sweets. Wrong.

It’s television.

I must admit that I have been finding the evenings long here in the north. When it’s dark at 3:00 p.m. you feel like you should be going to bed around 7:00. I manage to fill the hours reading, writing, watching Netflix and making puzzles. Of course, there are any number of ways to get updates on news and sports on my electronic devices.

Last Saturday, I hosted a jam session at my apartment. One of my colleagues happened to mention in passing that he had a television to give away. It’s not one of the fancy flat screen varieties with high definition. It’s an old RCA. With the Super Bowl on this weekend, I decided to take up his offer.

Besides satellite television, the only other service provider for cable T.V. is the local Co-op store so I meandered over there on Monday. School was closed due to furnace failure, so I had time to set up an account. Danny, the technician, came to my apartment in the afternoon and just like that, I was connected to the world. I had just made a batch of oatmeal cookies and gave a bag of them to Danny and his sidekick, Andy.

The best news in all of this is that once again, the circle has come full and I am now officially a member of the Kangiqsujuaq Co-op as a result of signing up for cable. I grew up in a community that has its roots deeply imbedded in the Co-op movement. I was a member of our local Co-op grocery store decades ago and my father was one of the first managers of a credit union in our hometown, another important cog in the cooperative movement.

It only took an hour before my well-known ineptness with electronic devices reared its ugly head. I wrote a piece about this several years ago. I feel the same now as I felt back then. https://www.week45.com/out-of-control-remote/

After watching endless interviews about the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, I made the fatal mistake of turning the television off. Danny had given me a new, fancy remote control. When I decided to watch some news, I hit the power button and all that I got was a screen full of snow. I tried every possible combination but couldn’t get the television to work.

I bundled up and headed across the field to the Co-op. Luckily Danny was still at work and he agreed to come over on his way home from work. It took him less than three seconds to get the T.V. to work. I discovered that you had to hit the “cable” button BEFORE hitting the power button. I always thought that turning on a television started with the power button.

I still long for a one channel universe along with a television with rabbit ears!

Many of you have messaged me wondering how I am getting along. As far as I can discern, the three keys to my survival are getting to school very early in the morning to plan my day; My sense of humor – there are times when I don’t find anything humorous, but in a weird way find it amusing; Music – Yes, I play and sing for the children quite regularly but during those early mornings before school starts, I often pull out the guitar and sing something at the top of my lungs.

I have established a routine for my students upon their arrival in class. They complete some paperwork which asks them some basic questions: “How are you feeling today?” “What time did you go to bed last night? “What is today’s weather?” If they are tired, sad, or happy, I know right away. It was with some bemusement that several students commented on the weather last week. Weather choices are cold, warm, hot, windy, rainy, cloudy and sunny. On this particular day, a handful circled “warm”. It was -25 at the time. I guess everything is relative to one’s own reality.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. I’m not big on hero worship, especially when it comes to celebrities and athletes. I watched the outpouring of grief for Kobe Bryant. No one can deny that he was a superlative athlete. But Kobe was far from perfect.

My heroes continue to be single mothers.