[Our daughter] is taking piano this year, ... and when Bruce was playing the flute, she basically didn't even breathe. Just stared and took it all in. I thank you for this, as we are really trying to nurture her love of music. – Winnipeg concert-goer, 2008
Mother's Day is a challenge! It has become a great marketing opportunity, another reason to spend money while we miss the original purpose of the occasion.
And so in honour of Mother's Day and the ongoing fight to end sexism, we invite you to take a moment on May 9 and offer thanks, for the strong gift of women throughout the world, and for our mother earth, the nurturer of all that lives and breathes.
This might sound strange coming from someone who depends on selling people CDs of his music for part of his living, but have you seen The Story of Stuff?
A great video critique of our main obsession in contemporary Western society: consumerism. We're as guilty as everyone else of wanting the newest gadgets, etc., but we recognize the compulsion and want to make a difference. This is why we started to move a few years ago to delivering our music online as downloadable mp3 and pdf files, and we'll continue to move in that direction to minimize the amount of stuff we're producing ourselves!
We watched Naomi Klein's lecture on climate debt in Toronto last night over a live internet feed, the inaugural David Lewis Lecture sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Many thanks as always to www.rabble.ca for streaming the event, and for their support of this kind of activism! There are a couple of clips from the lecture available on Youtube.
Naomi speaks eloquently on the notion of climate debt, a concept developed by majority-world nations, and she also reminded us of a campaign building against some of the biggest supporters of the Alberta Tar Sands developments, in particular RBC, the largest financial backer of the project, and PetroCanada/Suncor, one of the largest oil companies involved. If you've been watching coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, you will also know these companies are deeply involved in sponsorship of the games! The Rainforest Action Network, in partnership with the First Nations communities downstream from the tar sands, is promoting the campaign against RBC. Please visit their site and get involved!
Merry Christmas, everyone! For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the celebration of the coming of the light during one of the longest nights of the year takes on a particularly poignant meaning. Regardless of your faith background, spiritual path, or even your geographical location, Cheryl and I wish you the blessings of the season, and we offer a prayer of hope for our wounded world. May generosity overcome vacuity and consumer culture, may our thirst for justice truly be a quest for fairness and equality, and may we humbly come to appreciate our place on this fragile planet we call home. We wish you hope, peace, joy and love, at this time and for the year to come.
