Back in Montréal

After 20 years, I am back in Montréal...and it feels good.

Despite the awful idea that my colleagues are currently grooving to some pretty mediocre 1980s disco; despite not enough time to explore, to absorb all that this wonderful city has to offer...it still fits. It still feels good.

The daughter of a colleague was beaten within an inch of her life just blocks away from where I am staying only a couple years ago. Yet, on the corner of Sherbrooke and Aylmer, the vibe still feels safe to me, a gawky skinny kid in an old guy's body who cannot help trusting everyone unless proven wrong. And the knowledge that I might be wrong and it could cost me dearly only adds to the spice as I saunter along with a short Cuban cigar (a dangerous past-time in itself) clenched between my teeth late in the evening.

The linguistic tensions that felt so urgent two decades ago are largely gone. Perhaps it's part of a post-modern "reality" that makes our Trudeau-era politicians seem so out of touch with my children's lives and experience. Or, more likely (to my mind), it was a mid-twentieth century construct to keep the votes coming. Today, the languages I hear on the street--equal amounts of Creole, Chinese,  Korean, Japanese, French and English (to name the few I recognize) are just remnants of who each of us was; not who we can or will be. And this city oozes with possibilities; just screams the potential of the future.

I met an eighty-something year old in the elevator tonight. He was holding pamphlets published by school boards from across Canada in his hands. He asked "are you attending this conference?"

"The one with education communicators from across the country?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "I'm a literacy volunteer from the US, in a neighbourhood with close to 70 percent adult illiteracy...this stuff is wonderful." It was an accidental encounter that perhaps will make a bigger difference to some unknown person's life than a whole career of intentional acts.

If you believe in accidents rather than the old-fashioned idea of destiny, it was a life-affirming encounter.

Personally, I think too much evil has been done in the name of destiny. I believe our children have it right when they live each day as if there was just now, as if each minute was only a gift that should not be wasted.

And Montréal, despite the recent brutal economic conditions, despite whatever harsh realities, still emits a joie de vivre that is there for anyone who has the time to stop, take it in and breathe deeply. Old guy, breathe as deeply as you as you can.