Green Wizardries with Maxine Rogers

September 7, 2023

Green Wizardries, The Fall Fair by Maxine Rogers

I love both our Fall Fairs and have judged for years on Hornby. You guys put on an exceptionally good Fall Fair. We have just had ours, the Blackberry Fair, on Denman and I want to thank everyone who helped organize the Fair and everyone who came to celebrate.

I will have to miss Hornby’s Fall Fair this year as I am off for a vacation with my niece who is going on a trip to celebrate graduating from University. This will be the first time in years I have not helped out at your fair. I hope everything goes well for you.

Here on Denman, the Garden Club, in the person of Susan Tait, stepped up and ran the produce competition. Thank you Susan for a job well done! I asked some of my friends if they were entering things and they said, “No, I am not competitive.” Competition is not what it is all about. I enter heaps of produce and baking in the Fair because a full produce competition is a beautiful thing and inspires people to grow, bake and sew more things themselves.

Fall Fairs are the soul of country living. I encourage everyone to find something in their garden to take to the Hornby Fair on Sunday September 17. Winning is not as important as participating in these lovely community events. Both our Fairs are open to the populations of both islands so if you missed entering in the Blackberry Fair, give yourself a treat and enter in the Hornby Fair.

Some people do take it too seriously and focus too much on taking firsts. Produce competitions are more about creating an ample display of our achievements to inspire other people to give it a try.

That said, I do follow Genghis Khan in his advice on showing dahlias. He said, “Crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women.”

I came to the Fair hoping to do just that and then I saw the excellent level and sheer number of very good entries of dahlias shown this year and my heart sank a bit. I was down at the Hall early to help set up and to steward. As the dahlias came in, I could see my hopes of a crushing victory slipping away.

I had been up early to cut my flowers and one thing the judges look for is any crumpled or wilted petals on the underside of the blooms. They are also looking for size, uniformity, good colour and three blooms that match in size. When I was looking my flowers over, I found a copper and green tree frog clinging to the underside of one of my huge red blooms. I plucked him off and escorted him back to the garden. If I had known how desperate the situation was going to be, I might have left him on the flower for added cuteness and as a testament to how fresh the flowers were.

I left the hall when the judges arrived but I was back at 1 pm to view the results and I think the judging was very fair. Roger and Holly Smith won for largest pumpkin. They brought their entry in a wheelbarrow and it was a very fine pumpkin! Phyllis Brewer, still competing at 96, won a first for her Bosc pears and laughed heartily when she heard she had won.

Faye Chung, only 18, won the Jimmy Tait Memorial Trophy for best flowers in show for her huge, elaborate and beautiful display. Faye is studying Fine Arts and shows a lot of artistic talent. Jimmy would have been delighted to see this young woman making such a good start in the Fall Fair. We had some very fun kid’s entries of best-dressed vegetables. Everyone who saw them while I was there made those funny crooning sounds because the entries were so charming.

My loaf of organic white bread was beat out by Oluna’s sourdough loaf for first and there were a number of lovely cakes entered which makes judging the baking such a delightful job. The judges seemed to have had a hard time making their minds up about the chocolate cake as there was a very large wedge of cake missing. They must have had to have two slices each to really cogitate and evaluate.

David Scruton and his loyal crew drew a huge crowd for the zucchini racing. Everyone seemed very happy and cheered hugely for their favourite racing zucchinis. It was nice to see everyone back to normal. I didn’t see a single face mask in the whole crowd. People seemed relaxed and friendly. They were not treating other people as if they were a deadly pathogen. It made me very happy to be gathered with my community again and for everyone to be friendly. It was a lovely event. Well done to everyone who contributed.

FurBay

September 7, 2023

March 25th, 2007

FurBay

Sean ‘Furry’ Miller, the Big Dawg, is busy pawning away all of his prisonly possessions as he is due to be discharged on Tuesday. ‘FurBay,’ the moniker he’s given to his popup marketplace. Prior to declaring his fire sale, he approached me about a battery charger he had on the block. He was looking to conjure up some cigarettes. Typically when an inmate gets released they’ll give away most of their effects that, while coveted within these walls, are more flotsam and jetsam to a life unrestricted. This isn’t Sean’s style, however. ‘Trade’ is his preferred approach yet, interestingly, the concept of barter appears foreign to him. He entered my room, sat next to me on my bed and opened the bidding with, “What’s it worth to you?”

A battery charger is of use to me as I’d inherited a CD player with a couple of rechargeable batteries from Al upon his departure. I opened with a bid of six tailor made cigarettes, half expecting the Big Dawg to laugh at the suggestion that roughly $2.50 in tobacco would approach the value of what he had on offer. At the very least I’d see a counteroffer in assuming position for negotiation.

His response? “Well jerk me off and call me Sally!”

Until he took the smokes I wasn’t sure what to think. And now, as my batteries charge while writing, I’m still not exactly sure what that quip even means!

With so many aliases, I needn’t begin calling him Sally! Sean, Fur-dog, Furry, Big Dawg or my personal fave, Meathead (though I only use that one in select circles), are enough AKA’s for one man-child. I suspect were I to actually call him Sally he’d forget it was at his own behest and I’d find myself in his ‘doghouse’ again, like the time not long upon his arrival.

Anyways Sally, er.. Furry, is now cruising the range offering any and all things ‘Furry,’ for payment in smokes, pop, chocolate bars, sugar!

A wooden cross, worn by Furry. One pop! “One pop for a beautiful wooden cross!”

Amidst his playful calls I threw out to him, “would that increase its value or decrease it?” drawing laughter from the guys milling about the smoking pit where we were gathered. Furry’s pillow. His empty tobacco pouch. All things touched and used by Furry must go! He offered to being open to a case lot deal for a couple of pops. Again I piped up, “I can just see you there passed out naked on the cell floor when they come for you I the morning… laying amongst a bunch of empty pop cans and crumpled candy bar wrappers!” Again, laughter. Even from the Big Dawg himself. Clearly his imminent release has him in unshakeably good spirits.

Stepping out for a late evening cigarette and the creaking and croaking down at the lakeside is the only thing cutting into the otherwise silent spring night. Nature’s symphony knows little of captive ears here at Brannen Lake Correctional Center. Blessedly, the steel bars, concrete walls and razor wire topped fencing can’t completely isolate us from evidence of life on the outside. It still beats on out there. As if to prove the point, today the weather well and truly broke. Through pursed eyes I was witness to a massive orb up in the sky pulsing a blue tinged golden glow across our mid-Coast region. Crisp, defined shadows dancing underfoot everywhere I trod in the course of my day’s work alongside the highway. Almost vertigo inducing! Spring has sprung, affirming time’s passage.

I must grant the drone of a life incarcerated may have helped numb me to the relentless overcast conditions of the past five weeks because sudden, full sun played like a sobering slap to the face. What a different atmosphere its light proffers this dreary place. If not for the chain link fence marring my view of the great outdoors I could almost feel transported to my tree-planting days of yore. The smell of the air. The angle of the sun’s early spring rays. The promise of a full working season ahead and the drab grey of a winter tailing off in the rearview. Oh yeah, good times!

Ah, but let’s not get too carried away in reverie, Mike. After all, there’s still the spectre of the razor wire fence.

Shucking Oysters: Butt Out

September 7, 2023

Shucking Oysters: Butt Out

Alex Allen

Returning home from Campbell River the other week, we stopped at that last rest area on the beach to chill for a bit. Instead of noticing the lack of snow on the mountains on the mainland, my gaze stared with sadness at all these cigarette butts tossed at the edge of the parking lot. There must have been over 200. What are people thinking … or not thinking?

Depending which article you read, cigarette butts can take up to 10 years, 14 years, 720 days, or 18 months to decompose. The point is that they are not biodegradable. They are made of cellulose acetate, a man-made plastic material, containing hundreds of toxic chemicals. The filters will eventually breakdown into smaller pieces, but the toxics (arsenic, lead, nicotine…) never disappear. It is no surprise, that cigarette butts are the No. 1 most littered item in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting the environment. Trillions.

A 2011 study by San Diego State University suggested that the chemicals leached from one smoked cigarette butt were capable of killing half of the fish present in a one-litre bucket of water, while researchers at the UK’s Anglia Ruskin University found cigarette butts significantly compromised the growth of terrestrial plants.

Others have delved into the long-term effects of the chemicals in cigarette butts, finding that after 28 days of exposure freshwater rainbow trout ended up weighing less while Mediterranean mussels absorbed 22 compounds, including some classified as potentially toxic to both humans and wildlife.

So, what’s the answer? Some say that tobacco companies need to stop putting single-use plastic filters on the trillions of cigarettes they produce. A ban on cigarette filters would be a logical first step. Studies have linked filters to inhaling deeper, potentially increasing the risk of an aggressive form of cancer known as lung adenocarcinoma.

France is set to charge tobacco manufacturers €80million francs annually to clean up the estimated 23 billion cigarette butts littered each year across the country, while governments in Gambia, Chad and Benin have imposed environmental taxes of up to 4% on packs of cigarettes. In Spain, 550 of the country’s more than 3,000 beaches have banned smoking.

A Swedish start-up company, Corvid (crow-like birds) Cleaning, is at the pilot stage, training wild crows to pick up cigarette butts on the street, and deposit them in a machine. Christian Günther-Hanssen, the founder of the company, said the method relies on positive reinforcement and that the birds would receive a little food each time they deposit a butt in the machine. Bird experts have expressed deep concerns. Yet Günther-Hanssen claims that “These are wild birds taking part voluntarily.”

Another start-up, in the Netherlands, called Crowded Cities, was also working on training crows to drop cigarette butts in a ‘Crowbar,’ which scans the item to confirm it’s a cigarette butt, and then gives the crow a food reward. Unfortunately, after a year of research and development, the team ended the project due to lack of money, and the unintended and unknown impact that cigarette butts might have on unsuspecting crows. Once again we are dealing with the symptoms and not the cause. As someone wrote, we are good at doing things; we’re not so great at stopping things.

A few weeks ago, a driver in Victoria flicked a lit cigarette out of their window onto a grass median and another in Saanich threw a cigarette butt off the Pat Bay Highway. Both were each ticketed $575 under the Wildfire Act “for dropping, releasing or mishandling a burning substance.” Police Chief Del Manak tweeted that the Victoria driver’s explanation was they had no ashtray in their car and they were planning on getting out of the vehicle to put out the lit smoke, after they got off the phone. That same week, the Central Saanich Fire Department was called out to a major brush fire. The cause was a discarded butt and ended up scorching a 20-metre-square area. A few days later, Central Saanich firefighters were called to a residence where bark mulch caught fire. The cause? A burning cigarette.

Despite a record-breaking wildfire season that’s scorched more than 10,600 sq. km. of woodland across British Columbia, some smokers just don’t get it. A BC Wildfire Service spokesperson said if your discarded smoke causes or contributes to a wildfire, you may be ordered to pay all firefighting and associated costs. Butt heads could also be held responsible for damages to Crown land (the value of the forests…lumber) which could be significant.

Back in 2017, a truck driver in Langford, was charged $575 for tossing the remnants of his cigarette out the window — a fine that the driver called “insane,” according to the officer on the scene. The driver then shared with the officer that it was the second time he’s been charged for tossing a cigarette butt. What pray tell, can you do to fix stupidity?

On Hornby, a group introduced pocket ashtrays a few years ago to combat butt littering. Simply open the flap, and put the butt in the pocket and shut tightly. Sure it will smell after a while, but better that than festering on the ground somewhere or worse starting a wildfire. Will we take responsibility for our habits? If I may paraphrase, Grant Lawrence, take a long drag on that and butt out … with mindfulness.

Caitlin Johnstone – Notes from the edge of the narrative matrix

September 3, 2023

The More Inner Work You Do, The More You See How Humanity Is Dominated By Narrative

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

SEP 3, 2023

The more inner work you do and the more awareness you bring to your own inner processes, the more you understand how thoroughly human consciousness is dominated by mental narrative. And the more you understand how thoroughly human consciousness is dominated by mental narrative, the more acutely aware you become of how much power someone could gain over other humans by controlling those narratives.

Those who haven’t done a lot of inner work tend to hold the assumption that everyone is basically perceiving reality as it actually is, and is then either forming good worldviews or bad worldviews about reality based on how good or bad they are as human beings — with “good” of course defined as “closely aligned with my own worldview” and “bad” defined as “distant from my own worldview”.

But the more inner work you do the more untenable you find this position. After a while you start to understand that nobody is seeing reality as it actually is — including you. Instead, what we’re actually perceiving is a bunch of mental stories we’ve formed about the world based on information we’ve taken in through highly distorted perceptual filters based on our conditioning, biases and cognitive habits. Psychonauts Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson called these filters “reality tunnels”, the theory being that nobody is ever experiencing objective reality, they’re only ever experiencing the inside of their own highly conditioned and totally unique tunnel through which whatever reality might happen to be is perceived.

What eventually becomes clear from examining your own internal processes is that humans are very far from the rational actors we take ourselves to be. We’re not logical creatures taking logical actions of our own free will in response to logical understandings of our world, we’re confused little primates with a bunch of fairy tales about reality rattling around inside our skulls which were whispered to us by our own highly conditioned interpretations of information taken in by our own highly conditioned perceptual habits, to which we react based on highly conditioned subconscious driving forces within ourselves that we do not understand.

Once this is clearly seen and understood, it’s also clearly seen and understood how easy it would be to manipulate these confused little primates to your advantage. All you’d have to do is exert some influence over the stories in their heads which rule their consciousness.

And of course that’s exactly what happens. Some humans who are a little bit more clever and a little bit less empathetic than the rest understand that they can use psychological manipulation to tilt the stories in people’s heads to their advantage, either to get money or sex or loyalty or obedience from them.

The most powerful humans in the world are those who’ve come to understand that real power lies not with whoever has the most votes or money or troops or weapons, but with whoever controls the narrative. They understand that power is controlling what happens, but absolute power is controlling what people think about what happens.

Once you control the stories in people’s heads, you can control where the votes go. You can control where the money goes. You can control where the troops and the weapons go. Because humans are story-dominated creatures, if you can dominate the stories, you can dominate the humans.

So these clever dominators set about dominating the stories by shoring up narrative control at every opportunity. Buying up media. Manipulating the news. Funding corrupt think tanks. Manipulating algorithms. Classifying inconvenient information. Imprisoning inconvenient journalists. Whatever they can do to control what the dominant stories are about what’s happening in the world, in order to control how the humans think, speak, work, act, and vote in their day to day lives.

And the more inner work you do the more sense it makes that everyone is so effectively influenced by these manipulations, and the more sense it makes that the world is in the mess it’s in. Because you understand that while these dominators are a little more clever than the other humans, they’re no less confused. They themselves are still dominated by mental stories, and they themselves are interacting with the world in a highly unconscious way driven by internal forces that they do not understand.

The dominators are still just small confused primates stumbling blindly through life like the rest of the humans, and they’re just as frightened and miserable as anyone else. The problem is that they’re also controlling the world, and they’re driving it toward annihilation via nuclear war and environmental collapse.

And the more inner work you do the clearer it becomes that that doesn’t need to happen, because you come to see in your own experience that humans have the potential to become a conscious species that is no longer dominated by mental narrative. It becomes clear as day that we do have the ability to bring the subconscious forces within us into consciousness for healing and integration. It becomes plainly obvious that we have the ability to change our relationship with mental narrative from one in which thoughts dominate our experience to one in which thought is just a tool that can be picked up when useful and set back down when you’re through with it. It becomes self-evident that the egocentric experience through which most humans interact with life is based entirely on a psychological illusion which can be seen through and set aside.

And what’s cool is that ordinary people who’ve done a lot of inner work can see all this for themselves, while the dominators whose whole lives are wrapped up in ego and mental narrative cannot see it. There’s an unfolding happening behind the scenes, in the quietest spaces of our species, which the dominators know nothing about and couldn’t understand if they did. And it poses a direct threat to their entire system of control.

If humanity can cease being dominated by mental narrative, then the psychological strings the dominators pull on to manipulate us will evaporate. They will no longer be able to dominate the way people think, speak, work, act and vote, because the entire framework they’ve been using to do so will cease to exist.

I don’t know if our species will snap out of its trance in time to make the adapt-or-perish jump that is clearly being asked of us at this crucial point in history, but I haven’t the slightest doubt that we do have the potential within us to make it. With enough inner work, anyone can recognize this for themselves as well.

My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

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Dead Sea

August 31, 2023

Threats, Lies, Misuse of Public Funds, and the Non-Apology – Team TIG

August 31, 2023

Threats, Lies, Misuse of Public Funds, and the Non-Apology / by Team TIG

Team TIG’s Aug.10 article, Threats, Lies, and the Misuse of Public Funds, was about a written threat by the publicly funded employee of the non-profit Denman Island Bus Service (DIBS), Bronwyn Schuster, to withdraw publicly funded advertising from The Islands Grapevine (TIG) if its Publisher/Editor Mike Van Santvoord did not change its editorial policy.

The issue at hand is the misuse of public funds by Schuster and their breach of public trust. While there is no obligation to buy advertising from any publication, there IS an obligation for the publicly funded employee of DIBS, not to covertly attempt to extort changes to TIG’s policies using public funds. Failure to see this simple fact is evidence of a wilful bias, and the absence of an ethical compass.

Editor Mike immediately responded to Schuster, saying no changes to TIG’s editorial policy would be forthcoming, but offered an opportunity for them to contribute a letter to the editor for publication, as long as it followed TIG’s editorial guidelines. Schuster did not respond to TIG’s invitation. Until Schuster’s response to TIG appeared on Denman social media, TIG did not know that Schuster had not shared their threatening email with their colleagues, DIBS Coordinator Sam Borthwick, and DenmanWorks Chair Tony Gregson.

Last week, Team TIG reached out to Schuster and their spouse Sam Borthwick in the “collegial” manner Borthwick claimed they desired, and we came to an agreement that an apology from Bronwyn Schuster would appear in the Aug.24 issue of TIG, and subsequently be published by Schuster on Denman social media, where they had previously posted slanderous libel about TIG and its contributors. Schuster and Borthwick did not keep their promise.

When contacted about breaking our agreement, Borthwick’s reply was, “I said “for sure”, in an exchange between you and I. To me, that was an acknowledgement of your request, not a promise. Bronwyn, for a variety of reasons, did not want to make the post, and I can and will not force her.” As DIBS Coordinator, and Schuster’s immediate supervisor. Borthwick has every right to “force” an online apology, or fire them.

In their threatening email to TIG, Schuster erroneously claimed that a letter in TIG suggested that Drag performers were “child molesters.” This never happened. TIG did however publish a letter that defended Drag performers, making the point that Drag performers pose no threat to children (April 13, issue #1579). This is what Team TIG previously described as Schuster’s “distorted grasp of the facts.” Smearing someone with unfounded claims of bigotry is a form of violence against that person and their livelihood.

TIG has never published hate-speech in any of its vile forms, and will not compromise when it comes to its editorial policy. Evidence of hate-speech should be reported to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, but instead Schuster chose to attempt to extort TIG, and then publicly smeared its contributors on Denman social media, causing untold harm. Currently, Schuster’s proxies have been active on Denman social media, with wild threats to damage TIG’s business, amplifying TIG’s claim of damages caused by the slanderous libel.

In their online “open” response to TIG’s article, Bronwyn Schuster admits they were wrong for making the threat, and misusing their position, but continued to erroneously and publicly claim that Phoenix’s article in TIG presented a transphobic perspective. In the article TIG published, Phoenix made the case that transgender people are not to be blamed for anything, and holds the entire LGBTQ+ community with respect. Phoenix is being falsely framed with the accusation of hate-speech, and Bronwyn Schuster has “jumped the shark.”

Phoenix was challenging a change in Canadian law that makes it possible for convicted cis-male rapists to manipulate this new law in order to falsely identify as women for the purposes of creating opportunities to continue sex offending inside prisons. It would seem that no matter how clearly this distinction is made, it has triggered an unfounded claim of transphobia. TIG has never published transphobic content.

Phoenix provided reference to a study by Correctional Service Canada, on the Government of Canada’s website, which supports Phoenix’s claim and provides the statistics. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Phoenix or the Government of Canada, Phoenix’s article wasn’t transphobic; it was an expression of concern for the safety of both cis and transgender inmates from convicted cis-male rapists.

TIG has received an immense amount of private support from residents who are afraid to speak out publicly for fear of impact to their livelihood and social standing. Publicly funded employees must demonstrate integrity in performing their responsibilities. Bronwyn Schuster and Sam Borthwick are disingenuous in attempting to excuse their ill conceived words and actions.

Sam Borthwick claims it is he who does the marketing and publicity, but that he’s fallen behind in his work. If so, Borthwick should explain what paid marketing and publicity duties Schuster performs. As the paid DIBS Coordinator, Borthwick will now share responsibility for Schuster’s malfeasances, unless he requires Schuster to step down from their position managing the publicly funded DIBS advertising budget.

Engage BC Ferries community engagement division with letters – Sharon Small

August 31, 2023

“Carrie Mcintosh of BCF’s community engagement division is asking for feedback on the “success” of the improved summer service. Send feedback to engagement@bcf.com and to boost credibility, you could add your expertise/group affiliation in the conclusion, as I did. Feel free to cut and paste sections from my letter.”

Dear Carrie,

I speak for many Denman residents in thanking BCF for responding to our necessity for better ferry service this summer. Service has improved. Of course, we maintain that the cable ferry needs to be replaced, However, you and Commissioner Hage have made it clear that there will be no replacement in the near term.

Regrettably, the service improvement during the week does not mitigate Denman’s main concern (see our BCF Community page) – the safety and quality of life issues caused by tens of thousands of Hornby tourist and tourist related vehicles racing back and forth between terminals. On weekends and when there are service interruptions, traffic is often backed up at the two terminals and there continues to be competition for limited deck space at Buckley Bay.

We urge BCF to replace the Baynes Sound Connector in the next term and conduct a feasibility study for a direct ferry to Hornby Island. Given the dire effect of Hornby Island’s under regulated tourist policy and the Hornby Economic Enhancement group’s resolve to increase tourist numbers, a direct ferry to Hornby is the only option for Denman. Because of the threat of forest Hires in the interior of BC, more and more tourists will choose Vancouver Island destinations in the coming years. BCF needs to be prepared for this increase in traffic.

In the short term, the back-up of weekend traffic at both Denman terminals must be mitigated. This traffic can be held on Hornby and at Buckley Bay, as discussed at the May 26 roundtable meeting. We have seen some improvement in traffic flow but it is not consistent. On weekends, this traffic frequently blocks major intersections, creating peril for drivers, walkers, cyclists, and horseback riders, our environment and service vehicles. Despite a fine of over $500 for tossing cigarettes butts, many backed up folks toss theirs, and many run engines for air conditioning and charging devices while they wait. This creates great fear amongst Denman islanders.

See my complaint to information@bcf.com that described what I witnessed for three hours on a Sunday at the Denman- Northwest intersection. Hornby traffic was backed up beyond the Guest House and frequently vehicles and massive RVs gridlocked the intersection. Also, when traffic was flowing, drivers exceeded the 40 mph speed limit. At the very least, there needs to be flaggers directing backed up traffic off of Denman Road. As one of our FAC members commented on a Fb site, we now have a backed-up traffic problem creating peril at both Denman terminals.

The effects of this tourist traffic on safety and quality of life on Denman dominated the roundtable meeting and was listed as the main concern of the 170 Denman residents who attended. Our collective message was that the traffic issue is creating a crisis for Denman residents who filled the hall to share their experiences and strong feelings of anguish, frustration, anger, and despair. Once the full summary of the round table meeting, with verbatim comments is posted, you have all the evidence needed to conclude that Denman is suffering.

Denman continues to compete not only for road access, but limited ferry deck space due to an unsustainable number of tourist vehicles often taking up to 3 and 4 vehicle spaces. Once I overheard ferry staff complain that one tourist rig was 50 feet long. The length of tourist vehicles is not addressed in the 19,000 vehicles travelling one way in two months statistic provided by BCF in a 2022 report. As an essential service for residents, can’t BCF consider limiting tourist RV length given the competition for deck space and terminal road access?

I strongly suggest also that Hornby’s assured first come/first served loading lane at Buckley Bay be reconsidered. It should be reserved without cost for Hornby and Denman essential travellers such as MDs and other physical and mental health practitioners, off island workers, full-time residents with important appointments off island, parents with children going to school and engaged in activities off island, etc. One BCF manager at the roundtable proposed a free reservation service for full time residents to replace the current first policy.

I strongly urge BC Ferries set up a public meeting on Denman to address the above problems that continue to create an enormous strain on Denman and on BCF’s heroic ferry staff. While Hornby wants more traffic, Denman desperately needs a lot less. Our needs are opposite.

Respectfully, Sharon Small,

Retired University Professor and Denman Island Resident

Forgiveness

August 31, 2023

FORGIVENESS Sally Campbell

It’s not helpful to have an automatic expectation of forgiveness just because we’ve apologized. As I’ve written earlier, apology is just the beginning of a process of restoring/repairing relationship, it’s not the end point. In restorative processes, we’re working with the energy that the conflict generates. That energy is unique to each conflict, has its own rhythms. Some people stay engaged in low (or high) level conflict with another for years, despite the toll this takes on our psyches, on our peace of mind. Some stay in ongoing conflict because at least it’s a relationship, negative or not. They fear that closure might mean the end of the relationship. In fact, often the very opposite is true. When we address our conflicts in a humble and honest way, the relationship has chance to blossom and grow. It doesn’t mean there won’t be more conflict, but rather that there is enough safety in the relationship for it to continue. There is trust that difficult matters can be addressed, even when it takes time and may involve the assistance of others.

My grandmother gave me wise counsel when she said: “Darling, we each have to learn our own lessons in our own way”. Those words have echoed in me for over ½ a century now and are a continual reminder of acceptance. Conflicts within family seem the hardest places to apply that lesson, because we want so badly for that other person to be different, to treat us differently, to be more like we wish them to be. Alas, life’s not like that. We can’t really change anyone else, only ourselves and our own perspective. Sometimes a person simply does not want to be in a relationship with us any longer, period, and the hurt is deep. We may try to appease, accommodate, bargain – a whole panoply of approaches – and still end up feeling rejected, angry, resentful at the other’s intractability. I learned through hard experience that sometimes we need to just let go. But what to do about all those negative feelings? Here’s where forgiveness comes in. I learned that we can do the work of forgiveness on/within ourselves; it doesn’t have to be a mutual thing.

Unlike apology which needs to be communicated, we can forgive unilaterally through an internal process, and release ourselves from the burdens of a relationship defined by tension, competition and conflict. We can release ourselves from the guilt of being unable to “fix” a broken relationship. We can let go of the need to have the appearance of a healthy relationship, and simply forgive the other and ourselves, and get on with the process of living. Sometimes this means no contact. We form an intent to forgive and to be in a forgiving space vis-à-vis that other person. We then begin the work of doing just that.

Forgiving doesn’t mean we go back to the earlier status quo. In fact, sometimes changing the troubled, turbulent status quo is so disturbing to the other – interrupting the dance of conflict – that it signals the end of the relationship as we know it. This doesn’t mean that it’s all done with for good, especially when the troubled relationship is with a relative. To me, it just means we are letting it rest rather than letting it rule us. It may restore itself or it may not. It is important to keep our hearts open in situations like this and that’s where forgiveness comes in. We need to come to terms with the fact that no one is without frailties and flaws, including ourselves. Most of us do the very best we can with the resources we have – emotional, mental, spiritual. Sometimes, by reason of unhealed trauma, various kinds of abuse, neglect, lack of unconditional love, cultural conditioning, you name it, those resources are more limited. Why do we think life will be fair? It isn’t. Still we don’t need to perceive the world as victims. We have power and choice, in even the most difficult situations. Victor Frankl, surely one who endured enormous pain and loss, speaks to this idea in his fine book, Man’s Search for Meaning: “Everything can be taken…but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances”.

(next week: Part 2)

Currents

August 31, 2023

Currents

by Mr. Unknown

If you’ve been to a river

To go or to stay

Then you may find

A piece of nature’s dismay.

They stir and they whirr

With large frothing circles

Just don’t go close

To those deep dark whorls.

Some may be weak

And some may be strong

But currents

Oh currents

Keep the rivers at large.

Phoenix Riting! – August 31st, 2023

August 31, 2023

373174-phoenix-wallpaper-1920x1080-for-macbook — Phoenix Riting!

I gleaned from last week’s letters to the editor that my own column on a certain subject (July 6th, you can find the back issues in the files section of the Hornby Word of Mouth Facebook page if you haven’t read it) is the most likely cause of the current tempest on these pages. Surely that cannot be, as I myself received not a single word of response or commentary from any direction, in person or in writing. This led me to presume that all who read it must have nodded their heads in benevolent agreement (no, I knew better). Otherwise, surely, they would give me feedback. Isn’t that what humans do?

Are we humans anymore? It seems more and more that those in power, the lawmakers, are falling into lockstep with a kind of sloganeering, black-and-white thinking which the vast majority assumes must have a solid basis, so are comfortable leaving it to the experts. I cannot think that way. Who are these experts? What is this basis? What has changed? If there is a solid basis, I will agree. My brain requires it. I cannot agree because I am told to, based on slogans, opinion or hearsay. This is why I shy away from conspiracy theories.

Normally I’m all about dancing with shifts in culture as it evolves along with human consciousness. The current shift however alarms me deeply. “Silence is violence” was the rallying cry of the feminist revolution back in the day. Now, suddenly speech is violence. This is a dangerous twist, as it leads to quashing all opinions that counter the established narrative. In a repressive society, truth is not trusted to stand for itself; it must be proclaimed with slogans and enforced with rigid laws. This is called ‘propaganda’ and ‘marketing.’ Can it really be truth?

Humans as a rule value nuanced discourse. The thoughtful weighing of ideas, opinions and known facts, the open-ended querying, all serve our collective quest for understanding. This is essential to any free society. Now, apparently, we have reached the end of that quest. The final answer has been found! Now, any drive to discuss certain issues that affect us all is no longer a democratic value upheld by law, but a selfish and bigoted mindset, that by speaking, endangers vulnerable people – no matter what is being said. The only acceptable modalities are silence or compliance.

I ask again: how are the vulnerable endangered by my extremely moderate and centrist opinion on the subject, rooted as it is in love, support and admiration of the humans involved? My concerns are with changes in law, passed without discussion, and their unintended consequences to other vulnerable humans who should also matter. I see no care or concern evidenced for the people of #MeToo. Remember?

Piecing the story together – please correct me if I am wrong, Mike – I gather there was an attempt to pull advertising from TIG by an individual working for a tax-funded group because of the Grapevine’s editorial policy ‘harming vulnerable people.’ The publisher objected publicly, resulting in a public apology from the individual. The publisher was then, I gather, fired without cause from a job he held in the community, and removed from a position of responsibility as well. I don’t know the full story behind these reactions but it is not looking good from here.

Threatening someone with loss of income, firing them from their job, and removing them from positions they hold are extreme responses that ought to be reserved for extreme offenses. What was the offense?

I will fight to defend my trans friends, who are valuable, valid humans who have nothing to do with this issue. I am speaking of restoring the free public discussion of the rule of law mandated by a democracy. The alternative is tyranny. Something we all, I hope, dearly hope to avoid.

I am alarmed daily by the ever-increasing gap in the collective and our communal discourse. ‘Ever-increasing’ cannot be sustainable. Something must break, and I hope it won’t be us. Let us strive to find balance between opposing viewpoints for the good of all instead of this current mania for winning over, silencing or vanquishing the other. I see a widening gap between ‘sides’ of this issue.

Yet it seems to me we all agree on certain core values: human rights are universal, vulnerable people should be protected and the ability to live freely as one’s authentic self should be defended. I see a crying need to get together and talk out exactly what that means with each other, not pounding, cancelling, punishing or rallying our troops to war. We aren’t enemies, my friends. We need to find the brakes on this train before it goes off the cliff.

That’s what I think. What do you think? Email me at phoenixonhornby@gmail.com