Really interesting article here from a couple of perspectives. First, it is a reminder that slavery is present in the world and it isn’t a far off problem. Much of what we take for granted is made by slaves,

Furthermore, the article points to an interesting app that will help you to see the connection between your life and the life of exploited, enslaved workers elsewhere in the world. The app doesn’t just give you the bad news, it takes a complexity approach to the problem, and it holds promise.

And third, and this is a kind of strange take perhaps, this app is good news for reminding us both of the interconnection we have between human beings on earth, and for reminding us that we are all indeed part of the problem of slavery. And, as I have been recently quoting Einstein via Adam Kahane “if you are not part of the problem, you cannot be part of the solution.” thins like this are useful for taking an honest reckoning with the ways in which we are connected to the problems we despise. That is the first step to becoming a part of the solution.

We have had a strange summer on the coast. People have complained that it hasn’t really felt like summer at all weather wise, and while it has been cooler, it has not been overly unpleasant. Mostly what is striking has been the quality of the air, which has never seemed to get warm enough to hold heat in the evenings. As we sleep outside in the summer time, this is not at all a problem, and the sleeping weather has been divine.

But it has been a strange summer for me on other scores as well. I have been working more than usual this summer, although not traveling, and while I appreciate the chance do some great work, I have missed my routine of long warm days at the beach, diving into a book, snorkeling in the coves and weed beds of Bowen Island and watching the berries ripen.

So this week we are on holiday, spending a few days at Harrison Hot Springs Resort with family for a birthday which is a lovely throwback in many ways (some of which require you to endure the resort’s traditions of diminishing quality – the Jones Boys and Red Rose Tea come immediately to mind) and from here we will head up to Princeton for BCs only real folk festival, the Princeton Traditional Music Festival.. Come there if you are nearby this weekend. It’s free and a phenomenal experience of traditional music in its proper setting – sung and shared by people. There is only an arbitrary line between performer and audience, and it’s wicked fun to erase it from time to time.

So it’s nice to have some time off. Apologies if you have been trying to reach me.

Location:Esplanade Ave,Harrison Hot Springs,Canada

A nice quote from the website of an organization I am working with these days:

Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.

— Lin Yutang, Chinese author, inventor, and translator who was once detained at Ellis Island

“Do you remember what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries when the world was in its childhood.”

— Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet