This is our 1001st post on the Wellness Almanac!
The Winds of Change started as a social policy initiative 10 years ago, to bring these communities together over drug and alcohol issues.
But how do we talk meaningfully about alcohol and addiction in our communities, without alienating people?
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Many of the Pemberton whatever you want to call it are hopelessly slow and culturally retarded, e.g.; the last time I went to one of the get togethers, I noticed the extremely dumb questions they ask us, as if we natives came from a different planet. Asking us “,…is it a different culture, is it a different culture?” I heard the same dumb question when Joseph Boyden came to whistler, he was asked that dumb question too? I was embarrassed for him to be answering that dimwitted question, possibly from same idiot that keeps asking it. One of the reasons that I enjoy telling stories to children at Signal Hill was that children are better at listening and learning than some of the grown ups from Pemberton.
Kid wisdom, for sure, is that ability to listen with an open heart. I think as adults, we start to lose that, because we get confused/clouded by some overwhelming messages that the dominant culture/mainstream media perpetuates. And we also feel like we need to act like we know everything. ie we are really afraid of looking dumb/ignorant/out of control. I think, what this blog is trying to do, is create a space where commonalities become clear, differences are honoured, and “dumb” questions are okay to ask. I’d venture to say that ignorant opinions are something else altogether… but if we can give each other permission to ask a dumb question here and there, especially when in it’s in the interest of growing a deeper sense of connection with place and community, we can move towards a greater understanding. Thanks for taking the time to comment, Marie. I am as intimidated as I ever was back when I interviewed you about your storytelling, about you thinking me an ignorant fool, but the only way I’m going to learn is to take the risk of seeming like a dimwit. xoxo