The finish line...

Some journeys have well-defined beginning and end points; The Bruce Trail, for example, with its cairn in Queenston and 885 km. later, this northern terminus in Tobermory. Other journeys like, oh let's just say, a global pandemic, do not. On the wire anchored between these extremes lie numerous events, like the impromptu concerts of children and multi-generation zoom calls, where a decision to say “over” is less clear-cut and requires discernment. Consider two television shows. Happy Days  had eleven seasons, including seven excruciating years after the episode in which the antics of The Fonz birthed the idiom “jump the shark." This is the moment when a series becomes increasingly outlandish in its attempt to maintain ratings. Schitt's Creek, in spite of a devoted audience, pulled together the story lines and wrapped up at the end of season 6 with elegance, warmth and clever wit. Our loss.

Blogs, and book promotion too, have a shelf life. In January 2020, when I was planning the book launch, I looked for advice from Friesen Press. Elevator pitches, cold-calling, and author events were new to me, but I was eager to learn, and spent the year helping the book find new readers; readers who, with chapped hands and masked-covered faces, took my book into their hearts and homes. 

And now? It's time. If you are new to the book and the blog, please scroll down to older posts and feel free to contact me at margheid@gmail.com. If you’ve been reading and cheering me on from the start, thank you.

As events and circumstances require it, I will update information in the column on the right.

Keep well. Stay safe.

New Year's Eve

Venn diagrams. I'm a huge fan. As an ESL instructor, I used them to prepare my students for midterm speaking exams. A hot-air popper, kernels, salt, butter and a bowl were unpacked in the classroom. A bag of Smartfood too. We made fresh popcorn before sampling its factory-made counterpart; then, the template with its overlapping circles helped us do a detailed comparison. The students proceeded to abstract, complex topics while I swept white reminders of the lesson off the floor.

In XII – Within, there’s a another one. "Sketch a Venn diagram (of Pam and me) and the mutual attributes would enlarge the overlapping circles until only slim crescents of divergence remained, but that divergence was formidable and impacted the way we walked on the earth before we walked together on the trail. Me? A hand-wringer. Pam? She pulled up her socks.”

Today as we get ready to say good-bye (good riddance, WTF...) to 2020, I’m once again drawn to, well, drawing a Venn diagram. Hand-wringing vs. pulling up socks. 2019 vs 2020. Pfizer vs Moderna. Citizens vs. finance ministers. There are countless options; enough to keep me pondering well into January, possibly beyond.

"Next comes a discussion of books, movies, and eventually podcasts, the contemporary disruption to traditional radio, both of which enamour me." p.8

This week? Radio and a podcast are very welcome as the Hammer enters lockdown grey. Jason Allen (The Environmental Urbanist) and I taped a zoom conversation about In the Shade; you can hear it live on 93.3 CFMU radio, Tuesday, December 22nd at 1 p.m. by clicking here. Or, later this week, click here for a podcast that will be available until the end of February 2021. There's a musical intro before the interview begins.