Pacita Abad, Probus, Impossible Creatures
Thursday night, a lovely moment in my home class – Tiggy stretched out full length, belly up, paws splayed, in front of the fire. There’s nothing so relaxed as a sleeping cat; she relaxed us all. Ruth said she looked like a little grey rug.
Hard to relish those moments, with the frantic swirl of chaos in our country as we prepare for the arrival of a venal lunatic and his gang of billionaires and grifters. So many urgent intractable problems in our society, and instead our leaders are trying to figure out how to cope with the unhinged whims of one of the most unpredictable and loathsome human beings on earth. As he himself would say – sad.
Very very busy. Thursday morning, up early to get the bus to the subway, to travel right to the other end of town to be picked up by the very kind Mary and driven to an Etobicoke golf club, to speak to the members of the Probus Club. In fact, to one of them, because there are three Probus Clubs just in Etobicoke, and many more around the province. Who knew? It’s a club for the retired and semi-retired, and I spoke to around 100 of them — an amazingly focussed and cheerful audience. They’d received a recommendation about me from someone at the Markham talk I gave last month. Apparently, I’m now on a list to give talks that tell people how important writing about your life is and urging them to do so.
Speaking of which, Tuesday was the first class of the U of T term, the advanced section — glad to be on the job again. That lunchtime, the Cabbagetown discussion group welcomed David Crombie, the former mayor of Toronto, a red Tory and articulate, fascinating speaker who knows just about everyone in Canadian politics and, at 89, is still at work, had been at a meeting the night before with other former mayors, trying to save the safe injection sites that our current provincial dinosaurs are shutting down. An admirable man.
On Wednesday, my front door lock stopped working, so there was a lot of hoo-ha to get it fixed. I’d paid for two writing webinars on Zoom that day but missed part of both as we fiddled with keys. Gleaned a bit of info, especially from Allison Williams on Organizing Your Writing Life, something I need to do. I was recently looking for an article in the big box of student work in my office, ended up taking it all out and marvelling — a huge pile of articles and books by students since the start of my teaching career in 1994. The trouble is, I took all of it out of the box and have not yet put it back.
Friday, a huge treat — to the AGO to catch the Pacita Abad exhibit before it closes on Sunday. Stunning. What a glorious artist, a Filipina who called herself, and was, an “ambassador for colour,” who made giant tapestry-like artworks with beautiful artisanal fabric she picked up on her extensive travels, but she also used paint, shells, buttons, sequins — riveting. She died far too young at 58, but left a huge gift for us all.
The second work, below, is a graphic portrayal of Ferdinand Marcos and his followers, but could also represent the grotesque incoming American administration as it devours its own.
Just now, Monique drove me to the local LCBO to pick up the case of wine I’d ordered. There’s no GST at the moment so it’s worth buying a bunch, and I did. One less thing to worry about, running out of wine on these wintry days.
What’s on my mind now is the trip to NYC next Friday, what to wear to a fancy event I’ll walk to – how cold? Snow? A family breakfast on Saturday morning on the Upper East Side and lunch with more family way way downtown in SoHo. Plus an exhibition about the art of Siena at the Met uptown and one about Franz Kafka at the Morgan Library midtown. How to squeeze the wealth of NYC into two days?!
Finally, I’ve almost finished reading Impossible Creatures by Katharine Rundell to the boys. We stopped at a dramatic moment, and after hanging up, I had to read to the end to find out what happens. It’s a superb book exactly tailored to my boys — not easy to find something for a pre-teen who pretends to be bored by everything and a nine-year-old exploding with enthusiasm. But this one is it. I recommend it even if you don’t have kids to read to, it’s that good, with a profound message — that the world is full of horror and grief but also beauty and kindness, and that it’s more than worth fighting for. No more important message for our young than that.
So much to do, four library books — all my Holds came in at once — to read,
a doc about Bhutan at the Hot Docs cinema that I will have to miss, a bunch of great plays on, and stew to make for the week. Deeply grateful to live in this flawed, marvellous city and to have a roof. A roof, a warm bed, and a functional front door lock, which unfortunately — in our uncertain, hungry world — is necessary.
The post Pacita Abad, Probus, Impossible Creatures appeared first on Beth Kaplan.
