Dickens, Dancing and Development

As January ends, it is already too late for discussion of new year’s resolutions.

For many of us, the quickly laid plans for health and financial prudence have already slipped away. But a recent collection of disparate events, which reminded me how fortunate I am to be doing this job, also left me with a thought I will try to recall at least once a month for the rest of this year (I figure that makes it a Smart objective).

Event 1 | Dickens’ Women

My wife Juliette and I were invited by British actress Miriam Margolyes to see her show. I was so inspired by her performance that I returned to reading Dickens, in particular A Tale of Two Cities. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”.

Among his many talents as a storyteller lies the ability to portray the suffering and injustice of the 19th century, and to do so with such vividness it makes the reader want to scream with rage.

Event 2 | The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society

Burns Night – cause for yelps of delight instead. Here I ate Haggis (which I genuinely love), joined and watched dances choreographed both centuries ago and within the last few decades, and listened to some of Burns poetry. Although I was English and in black tie, I was hosted with warmth and generosity by a bevy of Scots and Canadians in kilts. Here was tradition and change, difference and unity.

Event 3 | The Prince George Resources Conference

Two days spent in engaging discussions and meeting a range of business people involved in resource development in British Columbia.

There is clearly tremendous opportunity here. But the energy was not un-trammelled. A constant thread of discussion was the necessity of working closely with local communities, including First Nations, and of environmental impact and sustainability. And during a brief pause, I decided to take a short stroll through the streets of Prince George, where…

Event 4 | …

I saw a man on a street corner playing Que Sera Sera on a saxophone. A fatalistic choice I thought, for someone who was probably homeless and sitting outside in -20 degrees C. But looking closer I noticed he wore a thick new-ish coat, a decent hat, and did not seem to have an air of want about him. I presumed he had actually chosen to be doing this.

So what connects these random events?

In Canada and the UK, a fundamental and often forgotten measure of our progress has been the advance in our values. Certainly developments in technology and medicine have greatly improved our quality of life and saved millions. And our countries are still not absent from injustice, malice, racism, and inequality. But our societies are thankfully much more humane than those of 1813, or 1913, or even 1963.

So each month I will try to appreciate the tolerance and diversity in our communities, the evidential requirement in our justice systems, the opportunities in our places of education and work. And if I think ‘well that’s all a bit philosophical’ – I will try to remember that ‘what will be will be’, only if we make it that way.