I admit it: I love Christmas. Despite being a horrible crafter, I make holiday cards for family and friends. (See the feature image for proof.) I also have a stack of books I read during the holidays, including Connie Willis’ story collection A Lot Like Christmas and Christmas with Anne, which contains holiday-themed excerpts from L.M. Montgomery’s work. Many of the stories bear a message we oft hear at this time of year: It is the action of giving that is significant rather … [Read more...]
Forgiving as harm reduction
“You have to eat and keep going. Eating is a small, good thing in a time like this.” (Raymond Carver, A Small, Good Thing) Maybe reading is also a small, good thing? I am finally back in the swing of reading for pleasure and, as a treat to myself, I re-read for the umpteenth time Raymond Carver’s short story, “A Small, Good Thing.” The story appears to be about a couple as they try to deal with the aftermath of their son being hit by a car. But I think the story is really about the human … [Read more...]
Goodbye, with gratitude
This post is a goodbye and a statement of gratitude for my friend Jesse Lambert, who died on December 22. Gratitude at year's end I took a break from blogging about philosophy last New Year's to say goodbye to my rat Gabrielle, who passed away in December 2017. Though the post was mostly a collection of happy memories about Gabi, it also was an expression of a philosophical tension I have been trying to work through: how to acknowledge my gratitude for the emotional labour companion animals … [Read more...]
Welcome to the man cave?
I am puzzled and fascinated by the gendering of inanimate objects, such as when "lady" cars have eyelashes stuck over the headlights. More recently, I have been both puzzled and irritated by the gendering of a space: a "man cave"-decorated medical clinic that I visited. The DriverCheck man cave Immigration paperwork sent me deep into industrial Kitchener. The closest service provider was DriverCheck, a company that specializes in occupational medical assessments. They formed specifically to … [Read more...]