September 30th was the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, or Orange Shirt Day. This is a new federal holiday that is still not provincially recognized in Ontario, which is dedicated to reflecting on and acknowledging our history with our Indigenous population. Everyone is encouraged to wear an orange shirt, in honour of a story about a young Indigenous girl who was given an orange shirt from her grandmother to wear on her first day at a residential school. The shirt was taken away and she was forced to wear the clothes the residential school gave her. The rest of the story follows her experiences within the system. It's not the most brutal story, but it's used to teach children as kind of a way of showing how it might feel to have something your family gave you taken away from you.
I just so happened to be running a group at the park where a ceremony was held in honour of the day, and my group decided to attend. One of the main speakers was the person who ran what was at the time known as the Aboriginal Services Office at Conestoga College. I used to go there every Wednesday when they'd have a community meal.
Awhile back, my work team did a conflict style training. I'd already done this training four times because it's part of the Summer Program training. Basically, there are five conflict styles: competing, collaborating, compromising, accomodating, and avoiding. Every time I've done it, I've gotten compromising, but Lee-Anne thinks I'm accomodating or avoiding. The problem with these tests are, once you know the definitions, it's hard to answer without knowing what you're going to get. But I tried to answer as best I could without thinking about the results, and I still got compromising!
Since we finished the big sack of rice that I bought while supply shopping during the first wave, we got to buy a new one.
Our last bag was called something like, Y&Y Mili, Ultra Premium Jasmine. All the other brands had been panic bought so it was my only option. This time we had the luxury of choice, and we decided to go with this, 12 Star Basmati Ponia Rice. It just so happens that basmati is both of our preference. We got a 10 pound bad. Looking at Google images of my old brand of rice, looks like I got 8 kg last time, which is like 17 and a half pounds. Well, we're not in lockdown anymore.
Last Christmas I got a cast iron wok, which helped with rice consumption. I had to season it and everything. If you don't know, that's a protective process for cast iron kitchenware where you rub it down with oil and bake at a very high temperature. Never heard of this before I got my wok. You're supposed to do it twice a year, so it's been seasoned twice now.
We live near a trail that bridges Waterloo and Kitchener. If you walk from Kitchener into Waterloo, there's a sign that says "Welcome to Waterloo". If you walk from Waterloo to Kitchener, there's a sign as well, and it would make sense for it to say "Welcome to Kitchener" right? But instead it says "Thank you for visiting Waterloo".
We live on the Kitchener side. The reputation of the two cities is that Waterloo is white collar and Kitchener is blue collar, so it makes sense that Waterloo would be the one to highlight. But even if we don't have signs welcoming people in and out of our city, it's funny because the entirety of the trail is lit with lamp posts right until you hit the "Welcome to Waterloo" sign, and then it's total darkness. Also, there's a much clearer dividing line painted on the Kitchener side. I guess funding is handled differently by the two cities.
Near where we live, there's an apartment building with a very prominent sign displaying its name as "Cripple Creek". Every time I've past it, I've found it startling. That seems like a word that you're not supposed to use. But when I've looked it up online, I can't find much information on it other than rent information. I would have thought that there would be some sign of controversy over the name, some evidence of some kind of motion to get the sign taken down or the building renamed, but nope. Lee-Anne also thought it was really weird, but nobody else that I've talked to has seemed particularly phased about it.
I wonder why apartment buildings and townhouse complexes so often put up signs with names that have nothing to do with their address or any legal relevancy. Brookside Park, Mayfield Meadows, Asgard Green, The Pinedales are examples that come to mind.
I suppose there could be a connection to the song written by The Band - Up On Cripple Creek. They formed in Toronto and that song charted higher in Canada than in the US ... but it was also released over 50 years ago, and I'd think more people would have your reaction to it. (Plus, even if it was named directly for the song, that shouldn't protect it - there are any number of songs with lyrics and/or titles that may not have been questioned at the time as much as they are today.)
ReplyDelete