(Two early significant political influences, musically and otherwise)
I possess, still, the same overall view since retiring–that the world is in other/s’ hands.
My marching and sign-carrying days are certainly o’er. No more will I march on the Leg for teachers, walk picket lines as a letter carrier or for school secretaries, or assemble in Mill Woods park to denounce Kleinian health-care gutting.
Never again will I strap on a guitar and sing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” as I once did with a musical friend in first year u near the Manitoba Leg on Memorial Blvd. at an anti-Vietnam rally.
But I know a fair bit about crap-detecting which leads to too many political posts about the likes of weak, dangerous leaders like Trump, Trudeau, Smith, and even Sohi. Far safer and saner to protest there than taking to the street these days in crowds or with guns and knives. I don’t need that kind of gratuitous conflict to express myself. Peace is preferable to war and violence always.
The pandemic changed lots. Because of my three health conditions, I am mindful with contact outside of home. So I don’t get away from home except for family and appointment trips. Which has led to minimal contact at a time when Sartre’s “Hell is other people” seems to ring true on Tv news and in ubiquitous online trolling.
But I do have my moral positions and do more than ever before for my fellow humans via charitable donations to local (e.g., food bank), provincial, national charities (which may also help in international crises). I am the sort of person who always bought poppies, supported the vets, the homeless, and women in need of shelter. I’m the sort of person who filled up donation jars on check-out counters for years and enrolled in the public school’s charitable donation program. Lately, I have been donating all bottles to WINN House which does good work for women and donating various things to Good Will, which likewise, does good charitable work. If a person has ‘enough’, one should help out one’s fellow creatures and animals, too. “No man is an island.”
As a poet, I have written my share of political poems in addition to my poems about Nature and human relationships (both of which often have political aspects as well).
Ultimately, these days, I live fully and socially engaged in my own personal and family spaces for the most part while maintaining contact with many special friends. These are the people who like or love me and vice-versa; people with whom I can still make a difference, teach, help, or influence.
I also remain very connected with Nature (feeding and observing the backyard squirrel and birds each day).
A lot of my life has, incidentally, been political through 30 years of teaching and 30+ years of entertaining via approach to performing and choice of material presented. If I encountered something to say or support along the way, I did that even if it got me in trouble. One needs the courage of one’s convictions and occasionally one needs to stand up and be counted for. There can be no personal integrity without fearlessness, ever.
