On Vulnerability and Strength

Another great TED lecture.

I played this in the background as I puttered about the cottage, sweeping up dead insects in corners, hauling old books into the basement and repairing our broken wind chime. She makes some great points and her self-deprecating humour makes this a lot of fun to listen to. I especially appreciate her comments near the end on how some raise their children to believe they're perfect, rather than teaching them that they are imperfect but valuable and worthy of love, and also how debates on religion (and politics, for that matter) have become so toxic. What has happened to civilized discourse? How did it become so personal?

Have a listen and tell me what you think.

UPDATE: If you have problems seeing the video, you can go to the site HERE and watch it on YouTube, or if that doesn't work, you can cut and paste the URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X4Qm9cGRub0

Where's Waldo?

And is he, perhaps, with the Novel Woman?

I'm currently  on haitis hiatis taking a bit of a break from blogging and life in general to spend some downtime at the cottage. Youngest is with me, and it's a real treat to be able to spend some time with her before she heads off to her final year of university. And when I say "downtime" I mean stain decks, clear out the basement, repaint some patio furniture and the like.

We had a Big Move this summer, packing up and leaving our West Island home of the past 24 years to move to a sprawling old apartment in downtown Montreal. It's too early to tell if I'll like city living, but all indications point to a big YES.People have been remarkably friendly when I've been out walking the Budster, except for the car full of young hooligans who waited until they were alongside me and screamed out the windows like banshees to see if I'd jump. And yes, yes I did. Nice one, boys. Your parents would be so proud.

But my subsequent heart-pounding recovery was made easier by a woman who stopped her ancient Mercedes to lean out the window to fawn over Buddy. She then offered to babysit him, even going so far as to scrawl her name and phone number on a piece of scrap paper. Who says city people are standoffish?

Later, y'all.