The joy and ubiquity of Zoom
Busy times; can hardly catch my breath sometimes. But better too much to do than too little.
First, welcome news: my cat has learned to purr! Suddenly, a few days ago as I was stroking her, a tentative rumble sputtered and started up, and there it is: purring. Two years without that comforting noise, but now she has turned it on. I wish human beings could purr. (Actually, with good chocolate or peanut butter toast, I sort of do.)
All kinds of interesting clients are coming for coaching or editing, including two in their late nineties publishing memoirs. Recently, something new: a young writer on the spectrum whose mother brought him to the house. I’m not sure I can help with what he wants to write, but I’m going to try.
I welcomed Tara Henley for apéritif last week; she’s a former CBC journalist, now a well-known podcaster who interviews on Zoom the brilliant, powerful, and important, and also, for some reason, me. (I’m honoured she liked Loose Woman so much. Hear her stellar interviewing on the home page of this website.) We had a great deal to talk about, as left-wing women impatient with the mea culpa excesses of the left. She wrote recently about the Vancouver Parks Board apologizing to LGBTQ people for the harm caused by a Harry Potter-themed children’s event; they disavowed J. K. Rowling, the writer whose books about a brave and clever underdog have introduced countless young people to the joy of reading and imagination, and who has opinions some disagree with.
Having opinions some disagree with was, once upon a time, expected and normal. Sigh. Check out Tara’s podcast. Fascinating, even if she does sometimes talk to obscure writers. https://tarahenley.substack.com
My Saturday Zoom event for an Etobicoke library went well; attendees sat at a table in front of a monitor, I talked and gave writing prompts, and then we had questions. As I may have said before, I love Zoom and what it has made possible.
On Sunday I baked a chocolate cake for Sam’s birthday and decided to make a peanut butter icing for the first time. The recipe called for smooth and I only had crunchy, so I went with that. The result was truly hideous; I told the kids it looked like someone had vomited on a cake.
But it tasted great, as did our huge Thanksgiving/birthday meal. Happy Birthday, Sam, one of the good men of our world. Here’s the fam in descending order. I used to be tall!
On Wednesday, it was my turn to be interviewer; I Zoomed with Merilyn Simonds about her new book, Walking with Beth, which instantly hit the Canadian bestseller lists. It’s a wonderful, thoughtful book about her friendship with Beth, who’s going strong at 105. Merilyn feels intergenerational friendships are important these days, so her book came out at just the right time. It’s wide-ranging and meditative; I told her it goes at a walking pace, forcing us to slow down and savour as we read. I’ll write a Substack about our talk.
I watched a terrific two-part drama, Brian and Maggie, in which Margaret Thatcher is played by my friend Harriet Walter in a tour de force performance. She’s unrecognizable, and somehow conveys Maggie’s stubborn, self-destructive ferocity and at the same time her vulnerability. I wrote to congratulate her, and she wrote back that the show was ignored by the British film awards. Fuck awards! I replied. How could they not have nominated her for this work? Inconceivable.
Yesterday, rehearsals began for So True, which is next Sunday; all the writers have to read their pieces to me in person or on Zoom, so I can check pace and pronunciation and make sure every word is heard. As ever, eight powerful stories, and then moi.
There’s a cat on my lap, and the furnace too is rumbling; the mornings are cold though the days are still sunny. It’s closing in. But not yet. Not yet.
I know what the whole country will be doing tonight. Go Jays go!
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