June 14, 2009

Present at Trevor's house were Shirl, Steve, Don, Carol, Jane, and Trevor.

Business

The winner of the J. Stan Rowe award for 2009 was Katherine (Kate) Taylor-Plaskett. Kate's was the only entry from the Lucerne School graduating class, but her work still had to be adjudicated to see if it met SWG standards for an award. Two out of three judges felt the entry did meet standards, while the third was not convinced but decided to go along with the majority view. A last-minute invitation was relayed to Kate to attend the June 14th SWG meeting to read her work and receive her award of $150, but since our meeting was the day after grad ceremonies, it was quite understandable that she did not attend. Carol will deliver the award to her, and will also seek permission to post portions of her entry onto the Guild website.

Topic: Family and family relationships   Mentor: Steve

Don presented a piece about the business (or busyness) of families, looking at how the family influence 'thing' affects whether you become "the inevitable you, the you to be anyway". He explored the push-pull of family life - irksome habits of other family members, along with the desire for some hermit-like time and, on the other hand, experiences of shared passion and joy. Don figures families are here to stay, however complicated they may be.

Shirl read a rather long selection she had carefully composed about water usage in western Canada and the dangers posed by BC government plans for private exploitation of up to 600 rivers and creeks in the province. She also looked at the proposed Jumbo Resort in the Purcell Mountains, possible industrial development on the Flathead River, and finally the Tar Sands mega-project in Alberta. Shirl cautions that even in water-rich western Canada, we are in danger of losing clean water due to rapidly melting glaciers and profligate use of existing water resources to supply international power needs.

Trevor turned the topic in an unexpected direction by introducing us to the 'family' of chemicals termed "phthalates" which are used in many plastic products to soften them and make them flexible. These chemicals are especially dangerous for infants and expectant mothers since they enter the foetus through the mother's blood and can cause malformed or weakened reproductive development. Many countries have banned phtalates in children's toys, but Health Canada is merely in the process of revising its voluntary ban on such products.

Carol read us a short selection that was almost, but possibly not quite, a poem (heaven forbid). After employing 26 words in alphabetic order describing family, she then presented six condensed, meaningful sentences that were an evocative description of family bonds.

Jane told a story about a memorable experience on her 30th birthday when, unexpectedly, her brother arrived at her remote homestead to help celebrate the occasion. However, the appearance was quite melodramatic, for he flew his plane in from a distant part of the province and buzzed the birthday party. Jane and six small children piled into a tiny stationwagon and headed for the nearby airfield to pick up her brother, for she simply knew that it was he who had just circled overhead.

Steve described reaching out to his autistic brother on a recent visit to the San Francisco Bay Area. This meant moving beyond the grip of life-long emotions surrounding having such a disabled only sibling and being fully present for those bright moments of contact that were possible. Even though people may write blood kin off and place them into some locked dusty closet of their mind, who can say when the door may be unexpectedly opened and it becomes time to "deal". Traumatic as it may seem, the moment can present great opportunities.

  Steve