Honouring humans, because it’s important

Leave it to the Quakers to pen the greatest and most thoughtful letter of all-time on the process and considerations that lay behind their inclusive washroom policies. Read it and especially read the heartfelt ending, that holds so much the higher purpose of the work. It’s beautiful.

The Alberta government has made some decisions about the books to be banned in schools because they contain “sexually explicit” material. A list from the Edmonton School Board was leaked on social media. It’s interesting to me that the vast majority of authors on the list are women. In fact it is one of the few lists of significant books I have ever seen that is dominated by women writers. These works should be read by young people and especially young men. Of note, The Bible is not on the list — in fact it is explicitly ALLOWED to remain on shelves — because the list is not really about sexually explicit material, is it? The promoters of this exercise in authoritarianism, as usual, don’t have the moral courage or honesty to state truthfully what they are bothered by. Cowards who love cruelty, every one of them.

From annals of humanizing things, kudos to Jon van Tetzchner, the CEO of Vivaldi, a browser that refuses to integrate generative AI in its software because it ruins the pleasure of browsing that connects you to human beings who post beautiful things. In a blog post he writes “Browsing should push you to explore, chase ideas, and make your own decisions. It should light up your brain. Vivaldi is taking a stand. We choose humans over hype, and we will not turn the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship.”

At our annual Bowfest parade last weekend the prize for the best float went to a new group of island puppeteers who debuted with a silent beautiful massive heron puppet. The puppet was very powerful. Many people were just astonished as it passed them and it was the talk of the day. The folks behind it include some well known Bowen Islanders (including puppeteer Liz Nankin and renowned clown Paul Hoosen who studied mime with Marcel Marceau) and others. The Undercurrent ran a story this week about the group.

As humans we love form, even if we don’t know it. In this fascinating essay Samuel Jay Keyser discusses the neurology of the appreciation of form in art and how similarities and difference (or same/except, in Keyser’s words) delight us and draw us in.

The delight in these works — from Warhol to Friedlander, Horn to Gigli — comes from the same source. Our eyes trace patterns, spot subtle variations, and construct visual rhymes, taking satisfaction in order amid difference. The satisfaction of solving this visual puzzle is a key part of the pleasure it provides.

I read this essay with my mind also on music and how there are well known techniques in jazz for constructing satisfying improvised solos using principles of form that include repetition and variation.