“What is democracy but a way of caring for each other at a high level?” That's a question posed by Adrienne Maree Brown, author of a fantasy trilogy about Detroit coming back to civilization after devastation that teases out the building blocks of successful governance. 

In Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens dissected in detail the way in which 'the law is an ass' (i.e. stupid and stubborn) by insisting that the black/white scalpel of the law can carve out truth in the grey of human life. We consider recent examples of apparent lawful assininity and consider an alternative. 

When dementia moves in, the reciprocity of marriage gives way, gradually and clumsily, to the hierarchy of caregiving. I read the prologue to my forthcoming memoir, Dementia Widow. 

There's a discernible click in the wheel of life as wife becomes widow. The loons that surveil a dawn swim on Day 1 of real widowhood evoke ruminations. I read the opening of the final section of Dementia Widow. 

If, as seems the norm these days, the right to invent truth is inalienable, i suggest we use that freedom to accentuate the positive, starting with the belief that goodness begets goodness. 

If we properly researched how the brain functions over its life span, we would better understand where normality ends and pathology -- whether dementia or mental illness or addiction -- begins. And accommodate it more humanely.

I suggest the next wave of feminism might be a variation on an old theme, basing my thoughts on Pat Barker's trilogy about the women of Troy, and how war dehumanizes men in particular. 

I bounce off a consideration of the Hockey Rape trial to suggest female Bonobo apes may be the role model we need for dealing with male misbehaviour.

I wade into the dangerous world of opining about the Middle East situation and take refuge in Khalil Gibran's idea that the lust for goodness is in all of us, tucked into our 'giant self', and should be unleashed.

The importance of genealogy in discovering who we are, but also the two-edged sword of owning identity when your history is tainted, for example, by genocide past or present. 

Everyone knows someone with dementia, but no one wants to be that person and we as a culture are not very good at caring for that person. This unpacks an alternative and more humanistic approach, the Green Care Homes in the Netherlands.

Considers what our aging demography might learn from the experience of a group of strangers who in 1986 came together in an ad hoc community to allow a woman without family, dying of pancreatic cancer, to live the last three months of her life in her own home. 

In the light of recent comments about 'childless cat ladies' being responsible for the woes of the world, an exploration of why women are embracing the single life. 

Canadians like to think we're nice, but we practice Tall Poppy Syndrome with the best of them. That's lopping off the head of anyone who rises above the crowd. Every One has power, and how we use it determines who our leaders are and how they lead.

Robert Sapolsky, an academic who looks like Moses and sounds like 'a hugely knowledgeable yet stoned west coast slacker' (I'm quoting not judging), makes the case that science has progressed to the point where it has swallowed free will, which puts an interesting spin on the concept of accountability.

Boundaries are in the Zeitgeist at the moment - I summon the Stoic philosophers and the game of chess to help us figure out how to change what we can, live with what we cannot, and summon the courage and humility to figure out the difference.

I review Ken McGoogan's recently published Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship, which draws a chilling parallel between pre-World War II circumstances and our present geopolitical situation.

Murray Sinclair died in November '24, shortly after his memoir came out. I muse on his teachings about what constitutes Elders, as opposed to people who just get old. 

The concept of trauma has become mainstream in our lives, which is a relatively new way of considering how challenges impact character. I prefer the perspective, exemplified by Vera Britten's experience in WW2 and in peace negotiations following, And the suggestion of a New Yorker writer that not everything needs to be explained, not in life, not, for sure, in writing.

Nipon was, maybe still is, a Thai monk; he shared his world view during a week-long billet long ago. Three steps to changing the world he said: articulate intent, imagine the solution, protect progress.