WE the NORTH

The Toronto Raptors are in the NBA finals, and it’s generating so much energy and excitement around the City, the Province, even the Country. The catchphrase, "We the North" is on display on shirts, banners and murals all over town. Hopes and dreams have been invested in these player-warrior-mercenaries by its fan base, despite that none of them hail from Canada, let alone Toronto. The fact that the sole Canadian-based team is on the verge of ascending to the championship of the basketball world is a source of great pride. And it’s fascinating what powerful emotions that fandom generates. There’s no doubt that the entire community is enjoying a psychological lift. And I’ve absolutely felt the emotional slump that besets a community when their team loses a huge game or series.

But much of the rise or fall depends on the level of expectation. Toronto’s fan base is ecstatic because of what’s been achieved, but also because it exceeds the expectation. For that same reason, feelings of celebratory joy will absolutely erupt should we win this series, overcoming the juggernaut that is the Golden State Warriors; and disappointment will be tempered if we lose.

It’s kind of interesting that these events virtually coincide with the conclusion of the eight year series that was Game of Thrones. It’s another area – entertainment – where people project their desires and fears, invest their egos and sense of identity, and live vicariously through the exploits of the characters. In GoT, we also got echoes of ‘We the North’, the most loved and relatable characters hailing from the Stark family of Winterfell, which once ruled the northlands and aspires to doing so again.

Personally, I felt that the final season was brilliant if imperfect. But all around the world, hordes of fans were disappointed when the characters they idolized did not behave as was expected, and did not meet the fates it was felt they deserved.

Critically, I can agree that it’s a bit sad that sport and entertainment take so much of our energy and passion that would be much more productively and ethically invested in social and political issues. On the other hand, Art and Sport both are powerful symbols and microcosms of Life. I think that they are worthy of our attention and passion. And they needn’t replace real world concerns. They can even inform and energize them, as we see demonstrations of what skill, commitment, imagination and dreams can produce.

Go Raptors. WE THE NORTH!!!

Shifting Winds

We’re watching “The Handmaid’s Tale” as the entire world seems to be shifting steadily to the right.

At the time I read Margaret Atwood’s book – sometime in the late 1980’s – it struck me as sharp, exaggerated political commentary, but never as prophecy. When Ponczka read it, about fifteen years ago, she did interpret it as prophecy, as she’s annoyed me mightily over the years with her occasional taunts about my homeland, pointing to the idiocy of the gun lobby, or reacting to some random attack on homosexuals, as signs of a brewing right wing takeover. 

Time and time again, I found myself downplaying these symptoms as nothing more than the expressions of an isolated minority, slowly being whittled down by the other America, the progressive country that embraces diversity enough to send a Black American with a Muslim name to the White House, and to almost back that up with a self-confessed Socialist. In truth, I never truly dismissed the far right, and its efforts to drag America backward, but I argued that way, in reaction to Ponczka’s sometimes dismissal of the US as hopelessly backward. 

Well, watching this powerful television adaptation, at the same time as there’s news coverage of credible and potentially successful efforts to re-criminalize abortion, after having already witnessed the rolling back of civil rights, determined attacks on social services and affirmative action, increased funding and privatization of prisons – many of these actions across Canada as well as the US, and more and more countries electing divisive, reactionary and even fascistic leaders, well… Atwood’s speculative novel seems increasingly and horrifyingly real.

What’s most powerful to me in the series are the flashbacks, showing how the reactionary takeover takes hold: progressives choosing to hide, back down or compromise rather than fight; dismissively accepting seemingly small role backs of rights, hoping they don’t become major ones. And it suggests how even reasonable and well-intentioned people can be seduced by power, or by simply being bypassed while others are persecuted. 

Elections all over the world are signaling global shifts to the right, more often than not fueled by fear, of ‘others’, of the loss of economic security or status, loss of identity and culture. Reasonable concerns all – yes, even fear of others is reasonable, if not commendable, when one doesn’t know what otherness seeks or what it brings with it, or what it may change. It’s the reasonableness that makes is so damned dangerous!

The burning question to me remains: how do we communicate in a deep and real way with those who, even if they share many of the same values, prioritize, express and would uphold them differently?