works of wanderlust

Tag: the socials

  • pihêsiwin ᐱᐦᐁᓯᐏᐣ

    I need to get serious for a post.

    I had a tough conversation at work yesterday about racism.

    One of my coworkers had been slurred while out walking in our otherwise beautiful trails… because of his visible ancestry.

    Really. I mean… *ugh*

    I have a lot of conversations like this recently. Simultaneously not enough talk but sadly too many instances. I guess I should feel good that a work friend feels he can confide, and give me an honest ask of “as a white guy… what the heck is up?”

    (Not that I have an answer.)

    I try to use this blog to write about positive things. After all, like me, I’m sure you have all had enough of folks veering ever-more divisively on political topics throughout your social feeds. But here’s the thing: I go for many walks in the woods, through the trails, around my city, and rarely do I feel fearful. Learning that anyone, but maybe today and particularly a guy who I work with, who is essentially my professional contemporary in position, age, and education, feels threatened walking through those same spaces… that sucks. It compounds the negative and works against the vibe I’m trying to create here.

    This morning yet again I was reminded of this.

    In a meeting someone suggested, as a election approaches in the fall, that we learn to pronounce our ward names. Over the last couple years, Indigenous Elders and urban Indigenous community members worked to tie some historical indigenous naming to what was previously a numbered collection of electoral districts.

    I now live in a ward named pihêsiwin.

    Pee - HEY - sa - win

    The name pihêsiwin means Land of the Thunderbirds and was given to this ward because from an aerial view it is shaped like a pihêsiw (thunderbird).

    These trails I explore, that weave through and between and among the places I work and play and live, they have a long history. My ancestors may have come to live here many, many years ago but on cultural timescales it has been such a short time that I’ve been a part of this space. I share this Cree word, pihêsiwin, because it reminds me of a bigger story hidden among the poplar trees, swimming through the river, and swooping through the skies above me.

    I may spend my entire life here. I may live here and call it home. I may hope to shape it and build in it, and enjoy it, but like everyone before me and everyone after me, I’m just passing through. I hope I can leave something of a mark upon this space, but only if that mark builds upon all the great stories that preceded it and made this space what it is today.

    More importantly that story takes everyone to write no matter your history, shape, colour, or philosophy, all of us shaping it together. And I like it that way.

  • Edmowood

    Community spirit comes in many different shapes and sizes.

    Sometimes it comes in the shape and size of a larger-than-life travelling sign that shows up mysteriously in parks around the city.

    ED - mō - wo͝od

    A nonsense name and (I assume) a portmanteau of the name of our city “Edmonton” and the name of a much more famous city “Hollywood” erected as an homage to the famous landmark of the latter. Mystery. Puzzle. Social media treasure hunt. Spirit-boosting community game. Who knows which for sure.

    I was driving my daughter to school this morning and looking off to the side of the freeway into a familiar park through which I’ve run and hiked countless times, the increasingly-famous rogue art display stood tall in the brown spring grass.

    On my way back home I made a point of pulling off the road, driving down the access road, parking, and walking the hundred meters into the empty park to snap a couple photos.

    On this wordy Wednesday, someone else had done my work for me and provided a word they thought could brighten a gloomy day and bring a little joy to a city in pandemic lockdown.

    I’d say they succeeded.

    That’s one powerful random nonsense word I’d never heard of until about 730 this morning.

  • Why do I need to put so much work into my cast iron?

    Can’t I just beat it up and use it how I feel like?

    I was reading a r/castiron post over on Reddit recently and someone asked this simple question. It was along the lines of why y’all putting in so much work to your frying pans? I don’t and it still mostly works. Who cares!

    I have so many questions myself.

    First and foremost, whose wasting the most time? Someone looking after their possessions to get the most from them, or someone reading a forum about something they obviously don’t care about?

    I didn’t reply.

    Instead, I made a note to myself to add this terrific question and answer to my website because it’s a complex question with a simple answer.

    Do you need to put in a lot of work to your cast iron pans?

    No, of course not.

    Just like you don’t need to change the oil in your car. It just helps your engine run better and longer.

    You don’t need to clean your bathroom, but people might avoid your house if you stop.

    And bathing and brushing your teeth is completely optional, but when you start to smell, get sick and lose your teeth it’s your own fault.

    So, no, you don’t need to put in any work to your cast iron cookware. But if you do it helps it cook better, last longer, and make delicious, healthy food for you and your friends for a long, long time.

  • Hello World

    This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!

    Ok.

    It’s the first day of 2021. New Year. New hope. New blog.

    I went looking for something fun and positive to add to my daily reading list and wow are we ever dropping the ball guys!

    You’ve all been feeding your socials and mining the gold for twitter and facebook, it seems. Gah!

    I present this as your alternative. This is my new daily blog. Nothing complex. Nothing deep. Nothing newsworthy. Just words about a good life, well lived, and enjoyed aloud.

    You may want to bookmark it.