Queer Granddad

I bobbed up and down on the yellow vinyl seat as the 820 John Deere tractor labored across the summer fallow field pulling the cultivator with field harrows dragging behind.  The musty smell of freshly turned earth combined with crushed weeds filled the air.  Gulls squawked as they followed along overhead watching for mice.  Going up the next hill the tractor began to lose power and even as I shifted the gears down I had to push the hydraulic lever up to raise the cultivator shovels, easing the load on the tractor to be able to make it up the hill.  The loss of power was a slipping clutch.  It was a hot July day in 1971.  I was fourteen years old - a skinny farm kid with nerdy glasses.  Always curious about how things worked I often watched as Dad fixed the machinery on the family farm.  I remembered him describing a time before when the clutch was slipping on the tractor and he did what he called "setting the clutch" to fix it.  I knew I couldn't finish cultivat

What I'm grateful for, what I want more of in life, and what I'm willing to release and let go of... that is what one of my friends shared with me today in connection with the fall equinox. One of her practices is to make a list of these three areas at the time of the equinox.  What I heard was it is an opportunity to hit life's reset button.  The equinox is when the sun is lined up with the equator and is a metaphor for balance.  Pause for a moment, take a breath, take inventory, see what it is that I have to be grateful for, look at what would make a difference if it were present in my life, and look at what would make a difference if it weren't present in my life. I'm grateful for my beautiful children and grandson.  I'm grateful for loving friends.  I'm grateful to be living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world - and we're going to have a full moon tonight, the first time on the equinox since 1991.  It's a beautiful clear day so I&

Adversity = Opportunity.  Pffft!  Really?  I don't know if my grandmother would have used those words.  She was though a very clever woman whose resourcefulness as a single mother provided for a big family during the great depression.  She once told me the story of chasing down a rooster in the farm yard to catch and cook because two strangers walked in from the road who hadn't eaten for a few days.  In her later years she lived in a small cottage in our home town.  It was a very old building, poorly insulated and drafty in the winter.  She was very proud of her quaint little place and took care in making it warm and inviting.  Her unique style of decorating included painting over the old linoleum floor with a solid color and then painting a repeating pattern over it using a potato that she had cut into a star shape.  Grandma loved having her grand kids stay over night.  She delighted in serving us treats and one of her specials was a dish of ice cream with a fig newton coo

Have you ever heard the Canadian Tenors?  Last week I found out they were performing at UBC's Chan Centre in Vancouver and I went with my friend Michelle last night to hear them.  I have one word to describe the evening "moving".  What is it about this kind of music that moves me so much?  Perhaps it is a combination of the orchestra, band, and the voices of four good looking guys in suits who can sing.  Ha!  Really, though I think the aspect that moves me most is the harmony.  In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches (tones, notes), or chords [wikipedia].  I have always had a love for harmony in music and this quartet is expert in bringing harmony to life.  The concert gave us a taste of children singing and dancing in Africa as it was a benefit for the village of Bulembu in Africa.  The audience at the Chan Centre was exposed to the work of the Bulembu project through video of the Canadian Tenors visiting there recently and hearing them share about the

Sometimes in life an incredible experience opens up unexpectedly.  Today was one of those days.  How often does one get to meet a man who has known all of the Chinese leaders since Mao, was accused of being a spy, led a political rebel group in China, been in solitary confinement in a Chinese prison for sixteen years and turned all of this into a successful consulting business?  I was honored to visit with Yulin and Sidney Rittenberg in their home near Seattle along with friends from Vancouver and Victoria.  This couple inspire through sharing their stories and experiences from China.  Sidney moved to China as a young man in 1944, met and married Yulin while there and then returned to live in the United States in 1979.  Sidney was put in prison on two occasions while living in China, first for six years and then for ten years, both in solitary confinement.  He had originally moved to China working as a linguist and made acquaintance with leaders of the communist party.  He and Yulin

Early evening pedestrians drifted by the windows on Robson Street.  Music from the movie "Nine" wafted from the small black cube speakers high on the wall.  The sign in the window of the Japanese diner style restaurant said "Gyu Don Ya".  At the window counter a young man pushed the last grains of rice awkwardly around his bowl with a pair of chopsticks.  Seeming oblivious that anyone was watching he dropped the chopsticks on the counter, picking the bowl up in both hands.  Leaning forward he began licking the inside of the bowl, turning it carefully until he had every last grain of rice and sauce that had eluded the chopsticks. I watched silently from the bar counter, at first a bit shocked.  This was clearly the actions of a five year old and this man was clearly in his twenties.  Then, as I began to think about what I had just seen a new thought began to develop.  Even though this man's mother may have swatted him on the back of the head for such behaviour,