September 2010 Issue 102

Here in the heart of Toronto, the skyscrapers are crowding the skyline, jostling with each other for space, and imprisoning the earth within layers of concrete. People who live and work in these towers can walk for blocks, and not feel the mush of soft grass beneath their feet. Of course, there are green parks [...]

“Lots of policemen on our street today. Is another soldier’s body coming in?” “No. These guys are up to no good. They look tough. See their helmets? And their battle gear? Something is definitely happening.” “They’re unloading steel fence from that truck. What are they going to do with it? Build a cage on the [...]

Some people you meet in the past are like raindrops falling into the river of your life, disappearing into its current, but enriching its flow. They may never reappear, but when the odd one does, the experience triggers a series of eddies and whirlpools that could be quite transforming, even causing you to change course [...]

Valerie Yule’s article on “War is Waste” and the many comments it generated in last month’s issue, triggered much thinking for me. It took me back to the essay I wrote for the Senior Cambridge Matriculation when I was a teenager. Having to choose my topic under pressure, I opted for what I thought was [...]

I sat in the funeral chapel and watched people come in. Slowly, reverently, quietly. Their black formal outfits contrasted sharply with the brilliant blue sky looking through the wide open windows, the shimmering sea just beyond the cliffs of the shoreline, and the noisy drone of Saturday morning traffic on the steep road twisting its [...]