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The progression goes: Most folks talk about people, fewer talk about things, fewer still talk about ideas.
People
David Gazard
I see have some blog hits from Australia. In my late middle age, I am remembering: That’s where my university student newspaper editor, David Gazard, went to live. Turns out the “journalism ecology” there, as he told his sister Wendy, did not require journalism school to get a job. After he and I were separated by a few years, and a few thousand kilometres, Wendy came by the Women’s Collective and Resource Centre, on campus, where I was hanging out. She had a stack of student newspapers she was sending him.
One paper included a column by me that mentioned him being a summer reporter at a protest march. We had walked together with the march along the sidewalk. Every time a fellow journalist with a TV camera turned around to film the stroll, David had to step off the sidewalk to be out of the way: Ethical journalists only report the news; they don’t “make” it. In Wendy’s stack was a column by me referencing that day, explaining activism, and telling my journalist friend why he noticed the same people at different events.
I should have pulled out my pen and wrote, “Hello David!” But I was being too creative, thinking it would be so nice for David to come upon the column out of the blue. A missed opportunity.
Gazard said he was a fan of the idealistic Australian band Midnight Oil. One year the band played on campus—hey, probably David interviewed them!—the very next year they played at the huge dome downtown: They had really “made it.” Down the years I heard that David had run for the Australian parliament, and narrowly lost. This year the bald lead singer from Midnight Oil was being interviewed on CBC radio: Turns out he had been in parliament, and had been some sort of environment minister. I wonder if, over in Australia, he and David ever met?
Things
To Do Lists
Here in North America, we all want to be a success, we want to do better, grow more, get more. In our malls we consume more, and then show the Joneses.
Meanwhile, in other times and places, people were resigned because they didn’t know any better. The village priest would intone on Sundays, “Bless the squire and his relations, and keep us in our proper stations.” Today, of course, we believe in upward mobility and, I guess, “the personal American dream” however one defines one’s dream.
So even in our schools for sports and leisure there will be not merely “lets do it” but a goal, and the goal will usually be for the self improvement for each student. Not, says my Physical Education friend from Europe, like how we taught back in the old country.
“Many a” success book will recommend a “To Do List” as a prime tool. Makes sense. The opposite is just to be a slug, a lotus eater, a non-winner, a person who is not living but existing, in a dreamless existence. Yes, but… my dog and cat are perfectly happy existing. Then again, we live in a complex society with complicated demands. Right today I could be attending to eaves troughs, grass cutting, balcony washing, car detailing, tax organizing, budgeting—not to mention a slurry of inner detailing for my health. If I did half an hour a day towards all sorts of exercises and food preparation and meditation and music practise and, and… I would have no time to watch an hour of Star Trek Voyager before bed.
At least I’m not an English major who “really should” read a little Shakespeare every day. No, but as a “popular culture major” I should watch Star Trek, Star Trek the Next Generation, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Enterprise, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Picard. How am I to get it all done? Don’t say a To Do list, as I say “Don’t do.” Some tools have a limited use. Like the dribble in basketball.
What would make me “go mad” is to have a Day Timer (book or device) with every quarter hour marked off. Even a successful President of the United Staes is not that scheduled. And if he is, then, when does he have time to reflect and think?
My non-work To Do list, then, is never by time, never on lined paper, but only on blank paper, and not too many things. Many a successful executive has found that half the working day ends up devoted to unexpected non-routine things—such as people coming to the office to talk.
A To Do list is a tool, not a tyranny. I used to be idealistic, now I’m real.
Ideas
Life’s Greatest Tragedy
Life has lots of tragedies: here’s just one: Now, we have all heard of people saying “After I finally X then I will Y.” But here’s another: “I don’t deserve to Y until I do X, but doing X is so hard, so very hard, but I’ll keep trying and then one day, maybe soon, I will finally get to do Y.” You can plug in the variables with all sorts of things. For those who like to do lists, X can be “when I finally get everything done,” like I am “supposed to.”
A lot of tragedies are tied up with “supposed to.” For important stuff in life, better to scrap the To Do list. Pick at most three things, or just pick one thing at a time. A big project of ONE. That way you can get a wee dopamine rush and go on to the next number TWO. “Too many projects” is the cousin to Sisyphus. At the end of the day, it just doesn’t satisfy. And you don’t get to your more important thing. And that’s an all too common tragedy.
…
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Sean Crawford
Calgary
July 2022
Afterword
I remember David’s older brother Ian got a student’s dream job with Loyd’s or something, right after graduation: To read all sorts of business magazines and newspapers on various nations and provinces, to determine what a state’s credit rating would be.
Well, I was googling how to spell “Gazard” and there he was. No, not Ian. David, now looking well, amongst a distinguished financial consulting firm. That he founded. Turns out David’s first journalism job in Australia had been finance related. I’ll call them the finance siblings.
Memory notes:
Of course I don’t remember from long ago the crowded mass of students “living lives of quiet desperation;” (Thoreau) I only remember stuff if I mentally hit the button that says “file.” Then it’s merely a case of “reviews it or lose it.”
