You mightn’t have missed it
but it is already well-past dawn.
Full Moons don’t wait around
for something better to come along.
Sometimes it is luck, other times
clouds are mostly responsible.
In thinking thoughts out loud, can you
believe in something you don’t see?
06/05/2026 j.g.l.
Inspiration is all around you.
In life we chose mentors, idols and personalities that can help form, or influence, our personal trajectory.
We often look up, knowing that is the true intended direction we wish to proceed. In doing so, we look past what may be some of the best influences available.
In daily life, or in the workplace, we need to take a closer look at those people functioning on the same level we are. It may be the person across from you on the streetcar or sitting at the next desk.
You may find the needed inspiration is much closer than you realize.
Chloe Brown is one of 102 candidates running in the upcoming by-election for Mayor of Toronto. She placed third in last fall’s race, a respectful finish from a political neophyte battling it out with a popular incumbent mayor running for a third term in office.
Brown’s presence in the debates leading up to election day was noticeable as she expressed detailed platforms and presented policies that went past the promises and sloganeering proffered by other candidates. She won the hearts and votes of thousands of city residents (including mine).
When the eventual winner of the election, John Tory, announced his resignation earlier this year after news of his inter-office extramarital affair with a staffer half his age, current and former city councilors began lining up to replace the fallen man.
Brown is also running for the office again, bringing with her a platform that is so progressive it sets a new standard and raises the bar for municipal politics.
Brown is tenacious, yet balanced, neither left not right: but not what you would call a centralist. She doesn’t have political party ties or a well-funded campaign machine behind her, but continues to present a platform with greater width and depth than any of her fellow contenders.
She is an intelligent voice amidst the bullshit and bafflegab of the seasoned politicians. With genuine opinions and possibilities, Brown talks directly to the people and on a level, it seems, the front-runners aren’t able to even comprehend. Largely ignored in the daily mass media, Brown’s campaign is more grassroots in nature, but deserves to be heard.
Brown offers well-researched solutions and a bold stance at a time when Toronto needs a mayor more than a mascot. She is a voice that needs to be listened to.
Chloe Brown is an inspiration.
Let’s hope, on June 26, that enough people are moved by a candidate that is at their level and has the potential to raise us up.
06/04/2023 j.g.l.
sit
just for a moment
wherever you are
listen
look around
be present
take the time
a moment or two
don’t think
(or overthink)
simply be
you should do this more often
06/02/2021 j.g.l.
It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the light of the Sun to reach the Earth 93 million miles away.
I know it takes about six days for a letter from Canada to arrive in the United Kingdom, but a few days more for correspondence to travel from Winnipeg to Toronto in the same country.
Four minutes are required for a soft-boiled egg, but 14 minutes are needed for the water to reach a running boil.
It takes roughly 14 minutes for me to walk to work or 17 minutes by streetcar (with, at least, a six-minute wait). I don’t drive because finding a parking spot downtown can, at times, take forever.
It can take minutes or months for the answer to any question (depending on the circumstance), but even longer to muster the courage to ask.
Politicians can make a promise in mere seconds, yet years to take action or hide from the obligation.
Poems can generally be read in under a minute, but may take the entire day to be fully absorbed.
A good novel may take a writer a decade to write, but it will be consumed over a weekend.
Actual time is precise, but situations are variable. The importance of it all is subjective.
Time equals duration or distance. Is it as relevant now as it was then?
Time is time.
How long does it take for my light to find its way to you?
05/29/2023 j.g.l.
News this week of the passing of Tina Turner was an unexpected shock to many of us, particularly those who had performed with her through the decades.
Social media was flooded with quotes, heartfelt remembrances and tributes from those she inspired.
Many of us were.
The words that particularly grabbed me were those of The Who’s Pete Townshend, who openly expressed grief and regret. Tina was the voice of the Acid Queen when his classic rock opera Tommy was transformed onto the silver screen in 1975.
I, as a big fan of The Who, was infatuated by the original Tommy album and, admittedly, any of the music issued by the English rockers. Of course, I couldn’t wait to see the movie.
The Ken Russell project was, in many ways, precursor to the music videos that flooded our screens at the end of that decade and well into the ‘80s. The movie was true to the storyline and, with a whose-who cast from the music industry, adequately told the tale of the deaf, dumb and blind boy.
But one performance in the film affected me like no other and it was Tina’s seductive portrayal of the character. Sure, I had seen pictures of her in early issues of Rolling Stone magazine but the Ike and Tina Turner Review, like many of the stalwarts of early rock and roll, predated my intense interest in popular music.
Tina came alive for me on the screen with her pure sex appeal: those lips, those legs, her entire presence was more than arousing for a young teenaged boy.
And that voice; there was nothing like it. Ever.
I didn’t hear anything new from Tina for years, but gained respect for the classic songs that would find there way onto the radio. Apparently there were a series of solo albums, but nothing charted.
In 1982, while working at my first stint at a daily newspaper, I received a review copy of the soundtrack to the film Summer Lovers. This was at the beginning of the era where there was almost as much attention focused on the soundtrack as there was on the film itself.
The Summer Lovers LP was, essentially, hit and miss (much like the movie) but among the artists of the day were two tracks by Tina, including a stunning cover of Robert Palmer’s Johnny and Mary.
Aside those two tracks, I heard nothing else from Tina in those years, until I was driving to work in 1984 and What’s Love Got To Do With It? came on the radio. Her voice was unmistakable and I, like millions of others, rushed out to buy the vinyl.
The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
Tina became a major, empowering force in the industry and took her talents to stratospheric heights.
Thankfully, her music will long live on.
We all have Tina Turner moments now. As I read the tributes, the words of Townsend struck a chord. “I truly thought she would live forever,” he wrote on Facebook.
His words about “meaning to track her down” hit me hard and should serve as a reminder.
We all have people in our lives that were meaningful at one time or another, but we have lost track over the years. We think of them, sometimes at the strangest moments, and wonder where they are, what they are now doing, or if they even remember our presence.
Perhaps now is a good time to find them and find out? Wouldn’t we be better off if we took the time, now, to make contact or at least try before we no longer have that chance?
R.I.P. Tina Turner