The Seated View

I used to live out by the Toronto Zoo — well, not around the corner, but a fairly short drive away. We’d go a fair bit and I was even a member for a few years. Then I moved downtown and my focus changed. It would be a long drive out there, anyway, and there were so many interesting things to discover in the urban part of the city. As I’ve started to get stronger again after last year’s hospitalization, we’ve been looking to range further afield. And I started having a hankering to explore the Zoo again. So we went. This was fully knowing that it would flatten me for several days, but it’s probably not a surprise if I say that it was absolutely worth it. Toronto’s had pandas for a visit for the last few years and they had cubs. By now indistinguishable from the adults, but four pandas is quite something. They moved to Calgary next year, and then I assume back to China. What I need to know is that as the cubs were born in Canada, doesn’t that make them Canadian citizens?...

Photo by David Govoni It was Scatterlings that hooked me. I was in first year university at the U of T Scarborough campus, moving from one class to another, when I first heard the unmistakable joyful beat of a Johnny Clegg song, this one from his first group Juluka. Fairly soon after that, I bought the album. Campus radio was a great place to get exposed to all kinds of different music and it introduced me to what became known as World Music, one of my favourite genres. It tapped me into a music scene I’d otherwise not be aware of and I’m pretty sure this was also where I heard about Juluka coming to Toronto. I promptly got tickets to that concert at Massey Hall. It was also the first time I asked a boy out. The date part was decidedly uninspired, but the music lit a fire in me. That evening in 1983 was the start of a (so far) 34 year love affair with Johnny Clegg’s music. It started with Juluka — I have all their albums, even the very early ones that a...

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. -           From Invictus by William Ernest Henley There is something uniquely moving about watching your country play for gold in a sports event. I was privileged to do so a couple of years ago at the ParaPan Am Games when Canada won gold in wheelchair rugby . And recently, I saw Denmark play the finals in wheelchair rugby at the Invictus Games. I’m lucky that I belong in two different countries. The Invictus Games were started in 2014 by Prince Harry as an international version of the US-based Warrior Games. In both, men and women who have been wounded, fallen ill, or been injured during service to their country have the opportunity to meet and go up against each other in a variety of sports. This year, over 500 competitors from 17 countries participated and Toronto had the privil...