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Showing posts from June 9, 2024

When memories can be marked, they should be: The impact of remembrance

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Last week on Thursday, June 6, I woke up spontaneously at 3:15am my time and I got up and stayed up when I realized that I could watch the events marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day as they were happening on the coast of Normandy and being streamed live by CBC. This is not the first time I have gotten up early to watch something happening in a European time zone in real time — the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the coronation of King Charles being the two most recent. I like seeing the event unfold in real time (and then seeing what is captured by the media as 'news').  I found the coverage of Operation Overlord unexpectedly moving, especially the first-hand stories told by the handful of Canadian veterans attending the events. Old men now, their emotions remain vivid of that day and the weeks and months that followed; their commitment to attend the commemoration, to be present and to remember the experience and their comrades who died moved me deeply. Tears fell into my t...

Help us build the Valiant Theatre: Fundraiser June 14, 2024

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Collage by Amanda Le Rougetel I believe in The Valiant Theatre project because I believe in the power of creative energy to feed our souls,  to tell important stories, and to build community.  Read about this community-based creative project  here . I agree with Ethan Hawke :  "Human creativity is nature manifest in us."     "...do you think human creativity matters? Well, hmm, most people don’t spend a lot of time thinking about poetry, right? They have a life to live and they’re not really that concerned with Allen Ginsberg’s poems or anybody’s poems until their father dies. They go to a funeral, you lose a child, somebody breaks your heart. They don’t love you anymore. And all of a sudden you’re desperate for making sense out of this life. And has anybody ever felt this bad before? How did they come out of this cloud? Or the inverse; something great. You meet somebody and your heart explodes. You love them so much you can’t even see straight. You know, y...