Digressions by D’reen

—by Doreen Uren Simmons

Hi Guys. Wet enough for you? This morning, July 16th, at 10 am it was pitch black and our street was a river. An hour later all is calm and the next few days are predicted to be sunny with moderate temperatures. Funny thing this climate, but not really, eh? Are our governments doing enough to mitigate future disasters? Don’t answer that…just vote sensibly!

Because this is a personal column I want to say a few things about the recent Alice Munro revelations. My family knew her a long time ago, briefly but intimately, and I have always adored her work. As a girlfriend said at the time of her death: “She wrote about and for us and will always be with us.” Indeed. So the news about her estrangement from her youngest daughter and the reasons for that came as a shock. It took me a week and finally the essay by her other daughter Jenny in the Toronto Star to reach acceptance and peace. Alice was a great writer and a flawed human being. Her family have honoured her with their ultimate bravery. May we all be so lucky.  

The garden is out of control. Tomato plants have collapsed from either the heat of June or a fungus and everything else is enormous and almost solidly green. I long for some colour but a recent visitor who lives in an apartment adored all the greenery. Perspective.  

I did get to Orillia and Algonquin in June courtesy of your splendid editor. The Algonquin occasion was the 100th anniversary of ‘my’ camp where I was the pianist and ultimately the programme director. I was last there sixty years ago (!) and of course there are changes but they are physical not spiritual, and the piano welcomed me, which was a great comfort.  

My partner has dual American/Canadian citizenship, so these are trying days for us. Anger and frustration have become vicious and that is hard to see, let alone accept. I guess we just have to hope and pray that man’s better nature will triumph eventually. Believe. Love, D’reen.