DC Over the past months, since moving south of the border, I have been surprised at how much of a cultural experience living in America has been. Every Canadian, myself included, will emphasize the great differences between our two countries and culture, but lurking somewhere underneath is the assumption that it's not really that different. I mean, we are so deeply interconnected, the flow of ideas and people and even policy between our two countries is so strong, and we share a lot of common history. As near anyone who has lived in a different culture would say (and I bet everyone who deigns to read my blog posts fits in that category!), the experience of immersion in a different country is fraught with an almost bipolar alternation between condemning judgments and Panglossian awe.

However, a couple of recent trips to Washington DC have been a wonderful salve to an at times wounded relationship with America. Basically, DC is awesome. It's grandeur is far greater than I expected, the neighbourhoods far more livable and beautiful, and the meaning woven throughout the city far more profound. Granted, it has its issues, as the 'taxation without representation' on every license plate shows, but I wish that all Americans, and all those who have struggled to reconcile their respect for America's achievements with their concern for some of its manifestations could see the America that DC speaks to, through the eyes that showed it to me.

The stunning scale of the monuments and the capitol building is reminiscent of the grandeur of a London or Moscow. The neighbourhoods - Eastern Market, Georgetown - are filled with absolutely gorgeous rows of narrow, three or four story houses with creative gardens, bright colours, and the feeling of walking through a transplanted Amsterdam or Bruges, with an American twist. The Potomac, and the constant flow of joggers on its banks injects vitality and a feeling of space into the middle of the city. And institutions such as the Smithsonian museums, thinktanks, and universities add to this physical vitality an intellectual one.

But most meaningful were the testaments to America's ideals. The reflective journey through history of the portrait gallery. Jefferson's visionary statements about freedom of the mind along the ceiling of his memorial. Quotes from JFK in his memorial at Arlington cemetery, a quiet and stately refuge on a hill overlooking the city. Roosevelt's confrontations with poverty and visions of freedom looking out over the water, surrounded by cherry trees. And of course, the Lincoln Memorial. Surrounded by excerpts from the speeches that shaped his country, Lincoln is sitting not in the usual grandiose posture of a celebrated leader, but almost slouched, one foot in front of the other, the weight on his shoulders obvious, but still strong. He looks gently but intensely forward, his gaze directed down the long mall, past the museums of American and natural history and the national art gallery, towards the Capitol Building. As Amira said, with the principles for which America has often stood literally carved in stone just on their doorsteps, it might be of some use for the current occupants of that building to return his gaze every now and then. For, as Lincoln said, "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."

Thanks to Jesse and Amira for hosting!  ¶ 5:08 PM 0 Comments

  Home sweet home

"FOR decades, they have stood in stark juxtaposition: the manicured landscapes and tranquil grounds, the Van Goghs and Monets displayed in cavernous marble halls; and the abject poverty, crime and joblessness just outside. University Circle is home to Cleveland’s most cherished cultural and public-service gems, institutions built with the wealth of Ohio’s long-gone industrial era of steel and manufacturing: the Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance Hall, Case Western Reserve University and the city’s famous hospital district, centred on the Cleveland Clinic. But encircling this oasis of gentility, the six surrounding neighbourhoods languish, home to 43,000 mostly black residents living in households where the median income is $18,500."

Full article in the Economist here. I live in what's actually a gorgeous neighborhood full of big old houses and apartments, towering trees of all kinds, nice little parks and gardens, just a 15 minute walk the hill from University Circle, and also a 15 minute walk from East Cleveland, one of the tougher areas the Economist is referring to. But the article is really about what Cleveland is doing to transform itself, and it is quite exciting. A recent summit hosted by the Mayor and facilitated by one of my profs, David Cooperrider has started a ten-year process to turn Cleveland into a 'green city on a blue lake.' It actually is a very interesting place to be at this point in history. It's a city that led in the golden age of American industrial prosperity trying to lead again.  ¶ 8:05 PM 1 Comments

  Human self-loathing Avatar is the second movie I've seen this year (District 9 being the other) in which humans are the bad-guys and aliens the good-guys. Self-loathing much?

Now, I understand that we're destroying the planet on which we live, are continually embroiled in war, and seem to be generally messing a lot of things up. But when I'm in a movie theatre full of people who are happy when a large rhino looking thing tramples a bunch of humans, I can't help but feel that we need to work on our self-esteem. Homo sapiens is a species in the thrall of an almost adolescent transition, struggling to make sense of our growing power and enter into a mature relationship with our environment. We're able to survive in various different climates, have virtually no natural predators anymore, and so - like any species would if the constraints on their growth were removed - continue to expand. We then run up against one another, and in a space and resource constrained world end up fighting. But we're also a species that came up with peace movements and an international declaration of human rights. We ask fundamental questions about subatomic particles and look up into the stars with wonder. We've learned the impact we're having on the climate and, however haltingly, are trying to fix it. We open doors for strangers.

Yes, we have a long way to go. But the very fact that when watching Avatar or District 9 we would naturally take the side of ecologically in tune and persectued aliens against our own species is a testament to what we are, and what we can be.  ¶ 10:54 AM 0 Comments

  Green cities The creative transmutation of our post-industrial spaces into parks and play spaces has got to be one of the more exciting things happening in the world of urban design. The effect that such a change would have on the city of Cleveland, for example, would be incredible. Factories becoming playgrounds, unused rail lines becoming community gardens, old quarries turning into community centers. Our industrial spaces will the the castles of the future; beautiful relics of days past. Very exciting...
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  Murder in war A Canadian soldier is being charged with murder of an enemy combatant. From the Globe and Mail:

He is alleged to have killed a severely wounded Taliban insurgent after a firefight Oct. 19, 2008 in Helmand where he was commanding a small team of Canadian soldiers who were mentoring Afghan forces. They became embroiled in a three-day firefight after a Taliban ambush.

When the firefight was over, only one enemy combatant was found alive. He was so severely injured that it was determined his wounds couldn't be treated on the battlefield.

Military prosecutors say they believe he was quickly disarmed and that two shots from a Canadian weapon killed him. They say they have a witness.

I understand that this is a violation of the Geneva Convetion's protection of combatants who are 'hors de combat,' and certainly agree it should be dealt with seriously. It does, however, call out the ridiculousness of the whole enterprise of war when someone who has been in three days of armed combat trying desperately to kill as many enemy combatants as possible is charged with murder for shooting a seriously injured one just after that immediate fight's cessation. This trial is one of those instances that makes clear the absurdity of war, as the Christmas truces of World War I in which people who had been dying at each others hands for months took a couple days to exchange gifts, share drinks, and play football. Both are attempts to retain or reclaim our basic humanity in the midst of such depravity. The Geneva Convention is crucial, adherence to it should be taken very seriously, and it is a testament to Canada and the Canadian Forces that rules of this nature would be so strictly and voluntarily enforced. And there certainly are wars that, despite their horror, are engaged for truly defensive or even noble reasons. But these attempts at dignity should not equivocate - war is murder.  ¶ 11:51 AM 0 Comments

  Sorry Earth Back at home in our ostrich of a Prime Minister's own riding, in a city of mountain air and big parks, in a province of the Rockies and the prairies, ashamed. More than ever over the past years I've come to love and be proud of my country, which is why Canada's most recent international award makes me want to click my heels and wake up in the late 60s.

Canada has received the 'Fossil of the Year Award' for the third year in a row

How did we go from a global reputation as a multicultural, progressive, environmental, peaceful nation to this? As the US elected a Nobel Peace prize winner, we elected a Prime Minister who would have invaded Iraq, dropped out of Kyoto, and is trying to put a stick in the gears of any international climate treaty, while keeping his fingers crossed behind his back to exempt his funders in the oil sands from sticking to whatever treaty he does deign to sign. Thanks Mr. Harper, for vomiting dirty oil all over a reputation that took a century to build, for compromising our economic future by betting the house on a resource whose days are numbered, and for selling out the world's ecological future for your own political gain. I promise, on behalf of my generation, we'll remember you as such.  ¶ 3:19 PM 1 Comments

  Nature and attention I've been spending the past weeks trying to focus on studying attention, so this excellent post in Cognitive Daily was particularly well-timed. It suggests that Nature acts as a more effective location for a study break (i.e., a time to renew attention) than human-made environments. While, as the post mentions, this is hardly new to those who have spent any real time with Nature, it's a welcome, scientifically justified reminder. For a society that moves further and further from the deep harmony that is woven through the sounds, sights, and smells of Nature and replaces them with the blackberry-buzzing, horn-honking, straight lines of the city is a distracted society in more than one sense.

No piece on attention would be complete without a William James quote:

"And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgement, character, and will. No one is compos sui if he have it not."

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