When I started this blog and named it Maybe There’s More because of my growing belief that our experiences only give us each a small slice of knowledge, I had no idea about the range of topics to which that belief would apply. It’s unlikely to surprise any of you who have survived a terminal illness or accident — …
It’s all well and good to have the theoretical understanding that systemic racism exists, and to be enthusiastic about reading How to Be an Antiracist with your office book club. But actually dealing with race-related feedback might be a whole other thing. As a part-time university instructor, I recently received feedback from the winter semester (don’t get …
It’s quite something, isn’t it? To think that just recently, I was procrastinating the writing of a blog about inflation because it seemed too grim. And now. What to say about now? Let’s start with the big picture. In and beyond my circles, a great many people celebrate their good fortune to live in a democracy. …
I’ve always loved words: learning them, reading them, writing them. I’m fascinated by how cultures are partially created by words, and by a realization that we can’t always understand each other because someone else may – literally – have no words to describe a particular feeling or experience. Part of the reason I started a …
I’m preparing to teach my last class of the semester tomorrow, and watching (for about the eighth time) Vanessa Reid’s talk on “conscious closure.” I find myself sitting with a familiar mix of emotions for this time of year. As recently as yesterday, I felt an urgency for the semester to be over, wondering why I …
When covid and I reached our first anniversary, I toasted the achievement – not covid’s achievement, but yours, mine, everyone’s. Prosecco in hand, I was prepared for covid and I to part ways in coming months. As usual, covid had other plans. Sigh. I’ve never been good at making a clean break. Some of my …
After my last blog post, I received feedback from a few people: my point wasn’t clear; the writing was rushed; my references were too vague; I was over-simplifying complex problems; I wasn’t being considerate enough of people born into different circumstances. I agreed. Even as I was writing, I had a gut feeling it wasn’t …
It’s been 10 days and I was hoping I could let this one go. Alas, here we are. I was getting ready for work (a much easier process since giving up on makeup and fancy clothes somewhere around March 16, 2020) and listening to the morning news. The radio broadcast and one of the pop-ups …
A few weeks ago, I was leaving an appointment and noticed it had started snowing. By the time I merged onto a busy road (“the Deerfoot” for those who know Calgary), the wind was blowing and it had become difficult to see the separation between lanes. Minutes later, a car beside me started to move …
I do not like donating blood. I would even go so far as to say I strongly dislike donating blood. And guess what? I do not have a good reason. As a kid, I didn’t know that a person’s body made blood regularly; I thought we just had the one supply our whole lives. I was amazed …
Maybe There's More 