As a traditional musician schooled primarily in the Celtic tradition, I am fond of traditional themes and devices for communicating messages. On our home island right now there is a sometimes fierce debate occurring about the future of the Crown lands, that involves the possibility of creating a national park. Today I was thinking about the complexities of the debate, and how it has seemed to me that those leading the opposition to the park are speaking on the one hand out of a concern for protecting something dear about our Island, but it has felt a little off to …
Last week I was in a number of conversations about the role of governments and their relationships to citizens. I heard a common metaphor in these conversations, one which sounded familiar to me from my days working in the federal public service: people were speaking of citizens as customers. In their desire to provide good services and meet community needs, governments often consider citizens as customers. Big consulting firms, perhaps re-purposing their commercial processes, sell this idea. Conservative commentators and those who import business ideas into the realm of public administration are enamoured by the simplicity of the metaphor. The …
Monet Refuses the Operation Doctor, you say that there are no haloes around the streetlights in Paris and what I see is an aberration caused by old age, an affliction. I tell you it has taken me all my life to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels, to soften and blur and finally banish the edges you regret I don’t see, to learn that the line I called the horizon does not exist and sky and water, so long apart, are the same state of being. Fifty-four years before I could see Rouen cathedral is built of …
Wrapped in birdsong this morning. Sent in my way with the thin light of fog filtered sun. # Fiddleheads and blackberry leaves for tea http://post.ly/1vlxb # One way to get off the ferry http://post.ly/1vlxg # “@thichnhathanh: Understanding Our Mind: No Mud, No Lotus http://t.co/oRRekXv” westcoast spring version: no swamp, no skunk cabbage. # When I need to come back to the centre of practice, I love to revisit this video of some of my best friends from 2008: http://t.co/ErLftO8 # Sunshine. Warmth. Football! WHITE! CAPS! #WhitecapsFC # Teutur just tweeted ad so am I. Go #WhitecapsFC # Ooo eee Hassli! …
Cold air, sea fog and rain. And the faintest scent of flowers on the wind. # http://yfrog.com/h2f33doj sunrise over the Inner Harbour in Victoria. Off to Royal Roads Uni to work with health system leaders today # http://t.co/oLVuklz # “@ChairFNHC: Our time is short; make it count… You have a purpose in life, so achieve it.”. Doing my best, Doug! # When the wind dies down the sea becomes glassy and everything is reflected in it. Same with the thinking mind. # My ears are woken up. I am pulled from complacency. A loon calls out on Mannion Bay this …
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