- _
- Jan 12, 2016
CAMBRIDGE BAY NEWSLETTER # 1
"THE SEARCH FOR..."
NOVEMBER 2012
Whether it is the search for the Northwest Passage, or the search for truth; whether it is the search for a life partner, or the search for a purpose in life, there arrives that moment of awareness when we come face to face with the man or woman in the mirror and we ask these questions:
Who am I?
What am I doing with my life?
Where am I headed? When will I get there?
Why am I here?
I turned 60 this year; sixty, a huge milestone in any person’s life, a time for major reflection.
Reflection # 1: Who am I?
Both my parents passed away from cancer. A sad and daunting fact I face every day of my life. I think of their happy faces, the lives they led, their legacy, and wonder what their search was. I asked my Mom, before she died, what was the most important value a person could possess. Without hesitation, from her deathbed, she said, “The way we treat others.” When I look back at my Mother’s life, I truly see the way she treated others was her mission. Her search was to find ways to help others on their journey in life. From her open door policy to her unmatched willingness to listen to others; from her AA commitment to her personalized cards, my Mother’s search was altruistic and humanistic in her nature --- and in her deeds.
Her face to me is the face of an angel and will be etched in my memory for eternity.
Last week, the CBC did a tribute to Raylene Rankin, a famous singer from the east coast. She also recently died of cancer. One of her songs was played during the program, and as I listened, I thought of my Father and my Mother:
“We rise again in the faces of our children,” she sang..... “We look to our sons and daughters to explain our lives...”
Cancer can take our loved ones away like a thief in the night...but it cannot take away their legacies. Who am I? I am my Mother and Father’s daughter; I am the Mother of my children and the grandmother of their children. I am a child of God. We each have a legacy, a spiralling circle of the many faces of our ancestors past and present and on into eternity through God’s immeasurable love for us and our unconditional love for each other.
Reflection #2: What am I doing with my life? At what point in our lives do we stop seeing the world through innocent eyes and seek the complications of fame and fortune, of wealth and status? When exactly do we start losing the values taught in kindergarten?
Values like: “Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.”
These words are some of the literary gems found in Robert Fulghum’s poem called, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten . http://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/842/36.html
How simple! How true! I reflect on the lives of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe...and the lives of Gandhi and Terry Fox. What did they do with their lives? How did they touch the lives of others? What was the final act on the stage of their lives? I recently watched the biography of Howard Hughes, “The Aviator”, and pondered this question. As a teenager, Howard Robard Hughes declared that his goals in life were to become the world's best golfer, the world's best pilot and the world's best movie producer. He, in fact, accomplished much of what he set out to do, becoming “a brave experimental pilot (he broke many modern aviation records of the time), an ingenious inventor, a shrewd and cunning businessman, a Hollywood film producer and director, the owner of several airlines, and the creator of several distinct airplanes.” http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/aviator.htm
However, he also descended into a sad reclusive existence. Locked in darkened rooms and terrified of germs, he became a nomad, moving from hotel to hotel, addicted to codeine and other painkillers, was extremely frail, wore tissue boxes as shoes, and stored his urine in jars. “As time passed and he became even more of a crazy neurotic, he died alone in 1976 and left an estate worth over a billion dollars. All in all, Hughes was a sad man with moments of genius and glory.” http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/aviator.html
What happened to this man whose dreams were huge and fulfilled, but whose soul was tormented and finally destroyed?
This is a question that Susan Whitbourne, Ph.D., asks in her book The Search for Fulfillment. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201002/famous-people-bad-decisions-when-celebrities-falter She asks: “Why do people who have everything going for them commit such huge blunders, ruining not only their public images but also their family lives, career, and ultimately, the way in which history remembers them?” Ah, yes, the search for fulfillment. How can we stay on the right path that leads to fulfillment at any age? How can we avoid that “downward slope” that she says leads to tragedy; how can we avoid what Shakespeare describes as “a sound and fury that signifies nothing”? Robert Fulghum, the author of the kindergarten poem, believes he has an answer. He writes that everything we need to know is in “the sand pile at Sunday School”: “The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation... Ecology and politics and equality and sane living... Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.” http://www.kalimunro.com/learned_in_kindergarten.html
Is the search for “what am I doing with my life?” really that simple; is the search for fulfillment really that straightforward? Fame and fortune, genius and glory, sound and fury; or the Golden Rule and love and sane living. Whew....what a choice... Of course it’s not that simple. We all live in shades of grey. Take Michael Jackson for example. Another man who “had it all”, he too ended up with a tragic final act to his life. His choices led him, not to a concluding moment in time surrounded by loved ones, but a body riddled with drugs and insanity... despite the words to his song “The Man in the Mirror” that say:
I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change
Did he “change his ways”? I’m reminded of another who has “everything going for him”. Think of Bill Gates. He may be a rare exception to that rule of a “downward slope”. Just recently The Octopus, a ship he owns with his partner, Paul Allen, arrived up here in Cambridge Bay. They were taking people on a trip from the east coast of Canada to the west coast, following in the footsteps of Franklin in his search for the Northwest Passage. Although his own personal search has earned him millions of dollars, he is not one to keep it to himself. As Erichammer wrote of Bill: “He is also an incredibly smart guy who built a business from nothing into one of the largest companies in the world and who today spends his billions of dollars to try to do some good in the world.” http:/www.quantumseolabs.com/blog/rambling/7-lessons-bill-gates-teach/
When asked what one of his goals in life was, he said, “Know where you can do the most good.” What did he do? “He decided to follow his passion and go where he could do the most good… He had a vision …that money is no good unless you spread it around quite a little bit…Today, Gates is no longer known for being a shrewd business man. Instead, Gates is today known for being one of the world’s greatest philanthropists with a special interest in education. He has decided that he can do the most good in this new role of his and indeed, he has helped to transform education in many ways.”
The article on Bill Gates ends with these words: “Bill Gates is one remarkable man. He is one of the wealthiest men alive and today he spends his time giving money away. However, he also has an awful lot to teach every one of us about how to be successful in life. He’s a great role model to follow even if you’re not a particularly big fan of Windows and Microsoft Office and as such, it’s worthwhile to pay attention when this man speaks and offers up his pearls of wisdom.” http://www.quantumseolabs.com/blog/rambling/7-lessons-bill-gates-teach/
I’m listening Bill Gates!
So, the question remains...“What am I doing with my life?” I, again, am reminded of my dear Mother. She wasn’t perfect, but she was precious, and so was her mission. Others, like Bill Gates, inspire me, but my Mother inspires me the most. My mission? To follow in her footsteps, treat others the way I want to be treated, the Golden Rule, and “pay it forward”. Not always easy, but actually possible.
- _
- Jan 12, 2016
CLYDE RIVER NEWSLETTER # 11
"YOUNG WARRIORS"
NOVEMBER 14 2007
Warning: this newsletter contains words and phrases that may offend some...please read at your own discretion. This is an eye-opener to real life in the north.
Imagine this:
On your shoulders there sits a good wolf and a bad wolf...
"Which one is the strongest?" a young boy once asked his grandfather.
"The one you feed," the wise old man answered...."the one you feed."
I also heard that "temptation is the opportunity to do good"...
When is it in our young lives that we begin to feed the bad wolf, when we choose to do bad over good, when we give in to temptation?
I ask myself that question many times while living here in Clyde River.
Young warriors...choosing bad or choosing good...feeding the bad wolf or feeding the good.
It's a spiritual warfare out there.
Take for example the young RCMP constable who was recently shot in the little hamlet of Kimmirut on Baffin Island, not far from Clyde River. Responding to a call about a drunk driver, he went out alone to do his duty and "paid the ultimate price in service of self-sacrifice, selflessness and an act of duty to Nunavut, our communities and our country", said the mayor of Iqaluit.
Constable Douglas Scott chose the good side.
The drunk driver chose the bad.
It's as simple as that.
When I walked into my classroom the day after the incident and opened up a chance for my students to discuss the shooting, asking them for their opinion, one of the boys blurted out, "good"...
then opps...he quickly corrected himself and said, "he was in the wrong job"...
Was this the bad wolf being fed, then the good wolf? Or just a very messed up young warrior?
The fact is, the police are not well liked here by several of our young warriors. I'm not saying all our young people here dislike the police...there's only a handful.
But it only takes one to use a gun.
When I arrived back in Clyde in August, the latest news was that a group of these young warriors had gone down to the RCMP detachment the week before and had thrown rocks at the windows. After breaking glass, they then proceeded to surround the police residence and stood outside waiting for some action. Christopher, one of the two constables on duty here in Clyde, described the scene as bizarre and scary. He could only guess why they were there...they were angry and out for revenge, he told us at our Thanksgiving supper.
The day before he had received an anonymous phone call from someone informing him that a small shipment of marijuana was being brought into the community via a passenger on the plane. Going to the airport, Constable Christopher accosted the woman and confiscated the stash.
The young warriors who were supposed to be the recipients of the drugs, ranging in age from 12 to 22, were mad.
So, choosing to feed the bad wolf, they went together down to the RCMP headquarters and residence looking for revenge.
The two officers drew their guns, although, thankfully, they never had to use them. They tried to call in back up...but we're too isolated up here to have extra help right away.
By the next day, things had calmed down...although, the premier of Nunavut was notified and showed up in Clyde within days...
I actually got to shake the premier's hand...he came to our school and talked to the kids about having positive goals and going after your dreams. It was a speech all about feeding the good wolf.
An interesting slice of humanity about our premier...he was recently censured in Nunavut's government assembly for his own warrior mentality, a side of himself he publicaly admitted he is not proud of.. As was stated in the Globe and Mail:
"Nunavut's legislative assembly officially reprimanded Premier Paul Okalik yesterday for publicly insulting an Iqaluit woman in June. A special sitting of the legislature was convened to deal with the censure motion, which passed unanimously. A censure is a formal rebuke of an elected member, but it does not require the member to resign.
"I apologize without reservation and I am humbled by this house," Mr. Okalik told the house... The controversy erupted last June... when the Premier was heard referring to Lynda Gunn... as a "fucking bitch."
This incident caused quite a stir in Nunavut and was on the news for weeks. In one of the news casts, he spoke quite candidly and shamedly about his childhood and how he grew up having very little respect for women. Hence, the bad wolf comment.
As he stood in front of my students, I couldn't help but think of the writing on the outside wall of our school that appeared the week of the attack on the RCMP headquarters.
(Warning: This graffit is not for sensitive eyes and ears.)
The kids wrote: "fuck the police" in big bold letters.
I also wondered about our premier's public confession using those very same words to a woman...
I SO wanted to ask him about it as he talked to my students...but I held my tongue!
As Jesus teaches us in the Bible, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."
Aren't we all sinners? Haven't we all been there? Haven't we all been tempted? Don't all of us, daily, deal with the good and the bad wolf?
The premier's confession made me see him as a human being, with strengths and weaknesses. In his parliament address, he admitted that the problem of abuse extends well beyond his office, and even mentioned his own mother as he spoke about domestic abuse and violence against women.
In the Globe and Mail article, he then explained that the remark was the result of a tiring and frustrating week in which he "lost his patience and better judgement".
A female member of parliament spoke up and said: "It starts with verbal abuse," and then asked, "How do we break this cycle? And how do we convince people we mean what we say in this house when it comes to verbal abuse, violence, and violence against women?"
Her question wasn't answered.
The Globe and Mail article concluded with the fact that "Aglukkaq was one of only three members who spoke against the premier’s
actions and of the need to send a strong message to Nunavut residents that no abuse of women should be tolerated.
Aglukkaq has also been personally touched by domestic violence.
“I’ve lost my own staff to violence,” she said, referring to the death of
Sylvia Lyall-Ritchie in June 2004. Lyall-Ritchie was working as a
secretary at the legislature when she was found dead in her home. Her
former common-law spouse is now on trial for second-degree murder."
It begins with verbal abuse...and escalates into physical violence.
Remember Take Back the Night, which began over a hundred years ago in Britain? A walk to end violence? Igah, an Inuit teacher, and I did our Take Back the Night "Circle of Hope" walk a few weeks ago, like we did last year. About 60 people showed up, of all ages, and after saying a prayer in honour of the people who have died from violent acts, we walked with candles down to the docks, around the RCMP headquarters and back up to the church again.
It's a spiritual warfare out there...
Last week, a drunk young warrior woke up his neighbors in the wee hours of the morning here in Clyde River when he picked up a shovel and smashed it against the bedroom window of one of the houses. A baby happened to be sleeping in a crib right under the window and it is a miracle that the shards of glass did not kill her.
Our principal, Jukeepa Hainnu, told me that Clyde River is the only community in the north that has no curfew. It would be a good thing if it did.
Night after night I hear these young warriors out on their ski-doos racing back and forth playing chicken...sometimes until 3 in the morning. I finally called the police about it. Constable Christopher was out on leave so I spoke with Constable Blake who told me there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. There is not only no curfew, there is no working bylaw officer, no bylaw on noise, no bylaw on ski-doo licences. These kids have the run of the place! And I'm supposed to teach them English!!!!!!!!!
They come to school tired, hungry, angry and lost. (In Al-anon it's called HALT) Talk about feeding the bad wolf...
Well, you know, I too have a choice. I can ignore it, which I do often. I can complain about it, which I do often. Or I can try to find solutions.
So I started a Bible study...yes, a Bible study...because, believe it or not, a group of girls asked me if I would.
The first week I had only 2 present...and this week I had 7...
What I heard I cannot share. But I can say that these young warriors are dealing with more than their share of demons. They confess they like doing bad things; but don't want to. They continually feed the bad wolf, while wanting to feed the good.
It reminded me of one of the prayers in the Common Book of Prayers that says:
"We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. And there is no health in us. Oh Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders."
Of course, not all the kids feed the bad wolves. There are some good news stories. I have many who want to do the right thing and DO do it. Like the Quliiq brothers. Trevor, age 12, and his brother, Kevin, age 15, are two brave polar bear hunters who last month each shot their own polar bears. They are two very brave and very proud hunters. This is their culture, this is what their Dad taught them. Each day their mother goes outside and counts the claws on each of her sons' polar bear skins drying on frames in the sun and wind. She wants to make sure they haven't been stolen. They are symbols of her sons' hunting skills.
And then there are the young warriors who graduated this year from grade 12. These are the ones who set a new path for the ones following them. They fed their good wolves profusely the night of graduation; fed them pride and honour, hope and dreams.
Their celebration theme was "new beginnings". New chapters in their lives; the authors of their own books; heroes and heroines. And celebrating with them was their new principal, Jukeepa Hainnu, born and raised in Clyde River, educated with an MA in Ed. at the University of PEI, and ready to return to her community to help the young warriors fulfill their own dreams and goals. She is an example to young Inuit of what happens when a person feeds the good wolf.
And another "good wolf" event in Clyde River...the Prom after the Grad. The kids asked me if I would chaperone their dance, and I said yes. It was a fabulous night of watching "wanna-be kings and queens" dancing and parading around the c-hall as hormones flew through the air and cameras clicked and the music blarred. It was a night of fun and feeding the good wolves...thank goodness!
.
.
.
One day has elapsed since I wrote the above entry...
I was writing of good wolves at the end of my newsletter, wasn't I?
I am again sitting at my computer writing...
And I feel like an eon of emotions has swept through me since yesterday.
Outside my window I see the students of Clyde River walking in a parade heading down to the RCMP headquarters. The administration has asked them to form a human chain around the residence and headquarters, to symbolically say they are sorry for what happened to Constable Douglas Scott.
And why am I not out there joining the students and staff in this act of support? Oh my, the ironies of life...
I am at home now on a work day afternoon because of verbal abuse. Some of my grade 8 boys verbally and emotionally abused me so violently this morning, that, after class, I went to the principal and told her their behaviour was unacceptable and that I was so stressed, I was taking the afternoon off...so here I am, therapeutically getting rid of some stress as I continue to write this newsletter.
Time out...as I watch the whole school parade past my home.
Jukeepa was wonderful when I went to her with my complaint this morning.. She understood and actually gave me a big hug.
She actually confessed something to me: when she was a teacher, she wouldn't teach the older kids, grade 8 and up, because she felt "intimidated" by them.
Ahhhh, now I see why she became a principal!!!
Truthfully, they were awful...I honestly felt like I was being kicked in the gut. And this...after the graduation, after the prom, after the chaperoning... I can't take it personally...
It made me wonder where these young warriors hear these words, where they learn such negative behaviour, who teaches them to insult and attack and be cruel. I had already sent two students to the office, and was ready to send another one when anarchy reared its ugly head and the whole class jumped in and began verbally attacking me, ignoring my instructions and just plain went wild.
That's when I lost it...and feeding the bad wolf, I screamed "shut up"...I have never done that in a classroom in my life...
You know, I put on my whiteboard every day: GDSL...to remind me to always, always, put God first, then me, then the students, then the lesson. I used to always put the almighty lesson first, and would get myself into trouble with wrong priorities. It's been pretty good so far, as I try to remember I need to put the gas mask on myself first, and then on others...
But today...today was different somehow...spiritual warfare...there was anger, hate, cruelty and just plain meanness in the air.
There seems to be a pattern: when the kids have had more than 2 days at home, they come to school with bad wolf attitudes that are scary. Well, this weekend was a 4 day stay-at-home...
I should have been more prepared...hindsight is 20/20.
I phoned the grade 8 teacher when I got home and he told me he and his brother (another teacher) are talking of quitting. They too had sent three students to the office this morning. Maybe that's one of the reasons why they are now parading down to the RCMP headquarters. Enough with abuse and violence....of any kind.
Well, I am glad to see so many good wolves being fed right now, as they parade past my house on the way to the RCMP headquarters, this time to offer support not stones.
It gives me hope for these young warriors.
Love and peace to all....Dawn
If you would like to see some photos click on... www.flickr.com/photos/dawned
Then you can either click on "slideshow" and a girl behind bars will show up...click on her nose that shows a ? ...this gives you text with the photo...or
you can click on "details" and you can brouse the photos with text...
- _
- Jan 12, 2016
CHECK OUT ALL MY QIKIQTARJUAQ NEWSLETTERS on the following website:
Meanwhile, you can read two of them here in my BLOG
QIKIQTARJUAQ NEWSLETTER # 1
"YOU HATE OR YOU LOVE IT"
October 22, 2011
Hello everyone! I am back up in the Arctic teaching again. It was a quick decision that happened over a 2 week period --- and with support and blessings from family and friends, here I am... Are you ready for some more glimpses into life in the Arctic?! ... I have to tell you, life up here is not for the faint of heart. You either love it or you hate it. As the 18 seater plane flew over Baffin Island, I wondered how and why in the world did people settle here? What made them come to a place of ice and snow and rock?
It reminded me of the time an Inuit woman took my students and I winter camping. When we got to her tiny one-room cabin, she looked out the window and said, “Everything I could need is out there.” After a three hour bumpy ride in a komatik sled over uneven snow, my only concern when we got there was: where am I going to go to the bathroom. She eventually showed me a hole in the snow about a hundred feet from the cabin and said, “this is where we go”. I guess her observation was right.
Headed towards my next home in the North, I wondered what Qikiqtarjuaq would look like. I knew it was smaller than Clyde River, which boasted a population of 850 people. Perched on Broughton Island off the east coast of Baffin Island, Qikiqtarjuaq has only 520 people. Broughton Island is only 16 km long and 14 km wide, so there’s not much room to roam. If you want to go anywhere, you have to travel by plane; or wait until the Arctic Ocean freezes and then you can get across to Baffin Island by ski-doo.
Qik (short for Qikiqtarjuaq) sits next to one of the most awesome national parks in the world: Auyuittuq Park, which means “Land That Never Melts”. It boasts sweeping glaciers and polar ice and the highest peaks of the Canadian Shield, one of which is called the Penny Ice Cap.
Once on Baffin Island, the Inuit from Qik travel through the Akshayuk Pass in the park to get to the next hamlet of Pangnirtung. My students tell me the trip takes them about 3 hours in good weather ---and invited me to join them over the Christmas break. Remembering the scenes from the airplane, I wonder if I have the courage to try it?! Again...I ask myself: what’s out there? No bus stops that’s for sure!
I was met at the airport by the principal of Inuksuit School; Juanita happens to hail from Peterborough Ontario. Two teachers were there as well; Cheryl from Bracebridge in Muskoka, and Josip from Croatia. Three of my students were there to welcome me too, so it was quite a warm welcome, despite the -10 degree temperature. We all hopped onto 4 wheelers, ski-doos and trucks and within 5 minutes I was at my new home, a 2 bedroom dwelling sitting at the base of a huge mountain.
Christine, my roommate who comes from Newfoundland, met me at the door with hugs and a delicious dinner of chicken waiting on the table. Christine teaches grade 5 and is a somewhat seasoned Arctic dweller, having taught in the North for several years. But, she admits, she is getting burned out; this is her last year of teaching, period. Her vision of life in the Arctic has already turned sour---unruly students, lack of respect for the Qadlunat (white people), the feelings of “them vs us” that permeate many communities --- all of this has cemented her decision that this is it, her last year up here. To be honest, it gets challenging sometimes to come home to her complaints --- and I’ve been here only a week! But I try to stay positive and share the good side of life up here with her. Besides ---she brought a scrabble game!
Gracie, too, has her challenges. She loves going for walks, but as soon as we head out the door, a horde of dogs of different sizes and breeds, swarm around her. Even though the by-law states all dogs must be on a leash or tied up, you would never know it by the pack that appears as soon as we step outside. I do know I have to keep her with me at all times. No one’s going to hurt, hunt or trap my little furry one!
With that condition in place, Gracie told me she’s going to like her new home, no problem.
The first day I walked to work, I saw a polar bear skin stretched out on a frame. It had been caught the week before. Every day a helicopter canvases the hamlet on the look-out for bears. (Interested in a future job here, Joe?!) Just this week, three bears made their way onto the island and everyone was warned to be cautious. (Don’t worry, I am!!!)
Further down the road, I saw one of the reasons why the people had settled here. The harbour is huge and deep, and surrounded on three sides by high land and mountains. Only one area remains unprotected ---the open waterway to the Arctic Ocean. Through this gap, an iceberg had made its way up the harbour and sat like a grand ship waiting to be boarded.
Once at the school, I stood outside the building and looked out over the grand scene. Yes, I thought, like Gracie, I’m going to like it here!
_JPG.jpg)
