Howe Sound Crest Trail

Summer is in full effect here in BC.  Sunny day follows sunny day and unfortunately we are busy with school.  Blagh.  Things are especially hectic with some accelerated summer courses.  The good news is Shannon is wrapping up her degree and I am knocking out all but one of my required courses.  The bad news is all the work translates into long days and late nights. This has thankfully been made possible by several generous neighbors who have been watching Aurora.  THANKS!

This weekend was a forced exception to the madness.  Shannon is in an outdoor education class that required her to spend the weekend camping and kayaking (tough class eh).  So with mom away and the subsequent lack of hope to do any work, Aurora and I, so reluctantly, took the day to hang out OUTSIDE.  

With my other family climbing friends committed to other tasks, we opted for a hike.  After dropping Shannon off at the ferry we were on the North Shore of Vancouver and headed for the Howe Sound Coast Crest Trail.  We had a good time; 6 hours of walking with 21 lbs of live weight and several more  in food, water, diapers, baby-pack, extra clothes for kid, and stuff.  Chalk that up to a committment to outdoor parenting and training.  I'll be psyched for classes to end and get out some more in late July and August!

Finding the Real with Michael Jackson

So I am in a diversity and multiculturalism class, and we had to respond to a blog posting on the sexual and racial identities performed by Michel Jackson.  Here were my thoughts:

Where does one find the "real" with Michael Jackson?  Certainly his music, his dance, and innovation as a performer have literally moved millions of people. Whom among those growing up in the era, or shadow of the era, of “Thriller” or “Beat it” has not spent at least some time trying, unsuccessfully in my case, to appropriate a personal version of the “moon walk”.  Few can contest that the man had moves and he had rhythm.  In these realms I celebrate his life and contributions to the world.    

In relation to the sexual and racial contradictions enacted throughout his life I find it harder to find the “real”. Possibly it is precisely the unknown and fluidity of his sexual and racial positioning which drew increased attention to his passing.  With millions of viewers watching was it all an honoring and paying of respects? Or was there a perverse hope that in his death and the cameras decent into Neverland the chance of revealing some scrap of evidence that might add certainty to an identity that is shrouded in mystery, conjecture, and option. 

What remains certain is the uncertainty.  MJ's personal struggles with identity manifested in personal transformation were played out in the media’s eye, uninhibited by any financial constraint. He could afford to manipulate physically that which others grapple with in quiet and hidden places. Many people conduct identity experiments and alterations.  Usually these are manifested in a new wardrobe, trying a new hair color, a tattoo, or a piercing.  Few carry their experiments to the extent and audience of MJ.  Possibly his vivid and exaggerated uncertain sense of self and subsequent physical manipulation was the hyper version or the supersize of our own questions and experiments with self?

 What is real is the gratitude I have for those who were patient, non-judgmental, and compassionate with me in and through my search for self.  If others struggle as Michael did, and they do, maybe we should supersize our compassion?