Benjamin Franklin said that the working man is happy and the idle man is not. Tomorrow we will get back to our happiness! It has been nice to be idle for the last two weeks, but I do wonder what I would feel like if I never had to go back. My sister (with whom I spent four great days in Ottawa) is retired from her day-to-day work, but she is a writer and so now she has time to do what she sees as her life's work, without the distraction of making money to pay the bills. For me, I really do love my work, so I think I would really miss it if I retired. As I get older, lots more people ask me when I will retire (maybe urging me to make that decision!) but I am not sure I am ready for that yet.
We had a great time in Ottawa although the weather was quite uncooperative. We had two days of bitter cold (with bright sunshine) and on our last day, there was a record-breaking snow storm! There is nothing worse (well, I'm sure there is, but nevertheless . . . ) than cold wet feet. But there were many high points of our trip. The Canadian War Museum is terrific. It traces Canada's role in wars from First Nations battles to the present day. It is not just "rah! rah!" war; it tries to show the history but also to pose questions about what we are doing when we enter into these violent conflagrations. There is a lot of terrific art -- like Frederick Varley's (the Group of Seven) "For What?" which is a painting of soldiers' bodies thrown into a cart on a muddy mess of a battlefield. But there are also lots of weapons on display, chances for you to hear personal stories from soldiers or from witnesses, interactive displays, a haunting exploration of the Vimy Ridge memorial in France -- just great.
The National Gallery is also a wonderful spot. The building itself -- a glass rendition of the Parliament Buildings across the river -- is a work of art and we didn't have enough time to explore even half of what we wanted to see. I spend a lot of time in the Inuit Art section and I really enjoyed the whimsical pieces using stone and bone and different materials. There were a couple of Brian Jungen "lawn chair" whales and a room of huge furry camels with a background video of a herd of camels -- really terrific. And then glorious examples of Van Gogh -- the irises and a beautiful little portrait of an old woman -- and many other great artists from around the world.
One of the biggest highlights was our chance to see Question Period in the House of Commons. Our MP, Fin Donnelly, arranged for us to attend the sitting of the House of Commons and I confess I was so exited to walk into that hallowed place and see the MPs engaged in the nation's business. Question period was really lively -- the Liberals had introduced the budget the day before and there were a lot of things to discuss. I was disappointed that Justin Trudeau was not present, but it was still really lively -- people made passionate speeches and jokes and mocked each other and banged their desks in approvals and shouted their disapproval of their colleagues' remarks. Then Fin took us on a tour of Centre Block (the parliamentary library is magnificent) and we met the Sergeant at Arms who told us about the terrible attack on the Parliament that happened last year in a very compelling way.
Last night, I went to "Brave New Play Rites" on Granville Island. One of our great SLSS theatre alumni, Alyssa Hirose, had her play chosen for a professional production as part of the festival. "Bait" is a lovely piece of theatre about two men who meet to fish together. It is a funny play that explores ideas of acceptance and choice and how we build relationships and connection between people. There is one last chance to see a performance at 2 p.m. this afternoon.
Enjoy your Sunday! Back at it tomorrow!
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