Finger food…
Okay,
so if I was Claude Lemieux being interviewed by Mr. I Have The Same Plastic Surgeon As Michael Jackson And He Made Me Look Like Cher’s Twin Brother,
I would have finished my check into the boards by minute 1:29…
It should be clear why…
by minute 4:03 Claude looks like he could lose it on Landsberg,
but he lets it go…
He’s 44 now and he’s learned from the wrong turn he took defacing Draper …
If I were his teacher I’d give him an A+ for reflection,
and maturation…
When I was growing up I was the one who soaked up,
contained,
and expressed anger for everyone in the house…
Even the dog…
I could Fight Night at the Joe without lifting a finger…
And because I expressed,
without hitting or calling anyone names,
I was the one with an intense personality,
and ‘anger issues’…
Interesting how those who bottle get to name those who don’t…
My sister said that the year I went traveling around the world was the hardest year of her life at home,
because there was no one there to take in all the heat…
And in all those tough countries I wandered through,
I never once had to resort to verbal fisticuffs…
Twenty years later I’ve learned how to feel anger and hold it in my body,
and then release it,
without raising my voice to high decibels…
One day I cleared my neighbourhood park of off-leash dogs and their owners,
without saying a thing,
after a pit-bull charged a tiny little boy playing beside me,
through an invisible transmission of the message This is not okay…
I remember two boys in my class once saying to each other,
You know when she looks at you like,
that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing…
In my classroom I always held the space for my young students to feel,
express,
and name their own emotions…
lLike nobody had emotional intelligence before he figured it out and wrote a bestseller,
this was way before Daniel Goleman and HIS “Emotional Intelligence” was made popular by business…
We always look to the academy and ‘science’ to categorize and legitimize what we already know,
and then we need to develop another program for implementation into an already overloaded school day,
instead of using our common sense,
because we’ve been conditioned out of seeing the world as the only real classroom…
But standard operating procedure is at a tipping point…
A letter bomb is on its way…
Even though I haven’t always been able to do the same for myself,
my students and my own children have had the permission and safety of my presence,
to develop their intra- and interpersonal awareness…
I’ve often had calls from the neighbours wondering if everything’s okay over there as Little Gem moves through an emotion,
climbing up and back down anger mountain…
I’ve heard people call her Little Miss Drama…
In my book that kind of name calling is unacceptable…
We have rules in our house around expressing anger,
and most of the time we all can follow them…
Little Gem’s only seven and she’s learning,
very well…
I don’t isolate her,
and I don’t punish her…
I usually give myself a time out when I’m about to snap…
But there are times when I really don’t know what to do,
and I wish there was someone around with more experience…
Someone who has already been there…
In the meantime I try to find a spot of humour in the eye of the storm…
What we find funny is personal and something one can’t always account for…
The other night I split a side over Danny Bhoy and his evening with a gecko,
and a motel hair dryer…
Little Gem and Starshine were laughing harder watching me than watching Danny Bhoy…
Tonight I rolled off the couch…
Over this…
and this…
Don’t ask me why,
tomorrow I might find it ridiculous…
Prudence does not find Rick Mercer funny…
And I need her to mediate my way through Zoolander…
These are the kinds of things that happen in the house of Virgo,
with patience,
understanding,
curiosity
and no absolutely no judgement…
1,000 pelts…
Just in case you’re still coming down off that Battle of the Blades high we’ve all been on for the last two months,
and you’re wallowing in a my hockey team has never brought home the Stanley Cup Schmanley Cup,
please know that this is a city of champions…
The last time I heard this band play was in September 2007 at my convocation ceremony up on the hill…
I’m not Scottish,
as far as I can tell,
but the bagpipes are generous in their appeal…
They speak to the bones…
I don’t give a rat’s ass what Danny Bhoy says about them,
when played along with side,
tenor,
and bass drums,
by men in kilts,
a Hendrick’s and tonic is in order…
Apparently the Okanagan Valley is a hot spot for pipebands…
Book your summer holidays for 2010 at Silver Star Mountain,
for the two week long,
Piping Hot Summer Drummer Scottish arts summer school…
And book this Saturday for the 4th Annual Louis Riel celebration at the Roundhouse…
Louis Riel is a complex individual in the history of this homeland we call Canada…
And he has been VERY clear in his communication with me…
He told me to tell you,
Beware of gurus…
AND
Do your own research…
To sleep with Pocahontas and find out how she felt...
Brick house…
Frank says that he loves friends to drop by,
and that I still sound hesitant when I call to invite myself over…
He said,
It’s like you don’t know that you’re cemented in yet…
Please go into our fridge and help yourself,
that would make me feel good…
I decided to put our friendship to the ultimate test,
and showed up at Prudence and Frank’s door with Little Gem and Starshine,
at 7:55 pm Pacific Daylight Time,
and went straight for the GD clicker box,
just in time to see the season finale of Battle of the Blades,
and make them watch it against their will…
All in the name of pouring foundation…
I’d been going on to Frank and Pru about the competition,
the athletic integrity,
the heat,
the commitment to self-development,
the love child of hockey and figure skating…
But last night’s show went right off the rails…
How could I have predicted that spandex acid wash,
Christian family values,
and warming up the hockey wives were the cards that would be dealt in this full house???
Just when you think you’ve got Canadian television down,
it makes a radical shift…
Prudence would swear that she saw it all coming,
that I must have had blinders on my peripheral vision…
I’m willing to swallow that…
Last week while Little Gem and I were watching Claude and Shae-Lynn ice-dance a Hallelujah,
she remarked with seven year old insight,
If Claude’s wife is watching this I think she’s going to be VERY jealous…
Little Gem’s transpersonal knowing is rock solid across space and time…
You can always count on children to illuminate the invisible…
There have been many an occasion when I’ve wondered what’s going on here around married men,
and sure enough if I listen to their kids,
the answer gets thrown right on the sand,
with bull’s eye accuracy…
My neighbour’s son told me several years ago,
when he was six,
We call you Dad’s Second Wife at home…
And a little girl at the playground chirped,
while she was swinging on the monkey bars,
Are you Daddy’s girlfriend???
FYI: There is no getting out of jail for free card…
And my minimum requirements include a growth chart that is bigger than Luongo…
Growth that can’t be purchased at your neighbourhoood 7-11…
If you haven’t been out the door for at least seven years,
don’t have a clear and amicable relationship with your first wife,
and haven’t done your paper work,
then you should stay home,
and put all of that energy you’ve been misdirecting into fantasy,
towards figuring yourself out…
Grounding in the here and now…
The same goes for women…
If you’re looking to someone else to get you out of your conjugal hell,
then you’re only walking from one door of fire straight into another…
I see people doing it all the time,
and the effect on their children warrants a criminal sentence…
In my book anyone entering into a partnership should be prepared to be an equal provider…
But whether one meets the minimum requirements,
to be invited to parent someone else’s children is another matter…
This takes the capacity and experience of the tried and true,
and children are pretty clear,
about a pass or fail,
even from a distance…
Calling another man,
or woman,
Partner,
on national television,
with more than 2 million Canadians watching,
including your spouse,
is a show of honesty,
since we could all see it anyway,
but it is also risky business…
Marie-France fell in love with her husband on the ice,
and then clearly fell in love with someone else’s husband in a bigger arena,
during this seven week odyssey of complexity theory…
And the Double Richer did not mince words when he promised his ninety-second lover a Christmas call…
Some connections,
for good reason,
are so strong they can’t be forgotten,
or erased with time….
For the men and women who brought the Gardens back to life,
you all took a great big bite out of a Honeycrisp apple,
and for better or for worse embodied the French disco hit,
Born to be Alive…
And despite Ron MacLean’s gaff that Kurt Browning wears the pants in their partnership,
this Maple Leaf moment generated a great cross-country surge…
There's history on your face...
Canuck'd 