{"id":627,"date":"2004-09-19T10:49:21","date_gmt":"2004-09-19T10:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=627"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:56","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:56","slug":"a-pocketful-of-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/a-pocketful-of-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"A Pocketful of Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or Roots With A View<\/h4>\n

I always have leaves in my pockets. They are of the kind that never reach the ground when they fall, since they fall into the past. (They also resist absent-mindedness and the laundry, unlike the essential phone numbers scribbled on scraps of newsprint, or the important appointments carefully noted in margins of something else, which all suffer the same fate: the 60\u00b0C pre-wash into oblivion.)
\nI should say that these are not just any old leaves, drained of chlorophyll, weaned of sap, severed at the stem. These are leaves from the metaphorical world tree that upholds the roof of my nebulous Canadian pantheon and universe, like some lofty Yggdrasil poised just beyond 49\u00b040 North. (It\u2019s tempting here to attribute an identity to Nidhoggr, greedily gnawing and worrying at its cultural and economic roots, but that\u2019s another story\u2026)<\/p>\n

But speaking of roots\u2026<\/p>\n

I pulled mine up, shook off the clods of sandy Okanangan Valley earth and packed them away in a knapsack many years ago.<\/p>\n

There was a leaf sewn to that backpack too. Canadians never seem to be far from some reminder, some link to Canada\u2019s vastness and youth as a nation. Because we have no Kalevala or Edda, no Don Quixote or Once and Future King, we must turn to those stronger, older symbols we can never truly own.
\nThis lack of a national epic or a golden age (generally dedicated to busy martyrdom of far-flung lands) makes for an understated and introspective nationalism. (Of course, Qu\u00e9bec is different, English Canadians have always mistreated their French-speaking relatives. When will my home and native land learn that a second culture is a supplement of wealth, not just a lot of extra words you can\u2019t read anyway on Special K packages?. But that too, is another long story.) Canadians turn to their wide horizons and say \u201cThis is good.\u201d, in contrast to our southern neighbours who say \u201cThis is mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, I trundled my roots across Europe, and since they have no earth of their own to anchor in, they have taken root in the air.<\/p>\n

The air above the ground where I walk is filled with roots – and drifting leaves.<\/p>\n

(So what\u2019s all this got to do with being Canadian – or from anywhere, for that matter? Beats me. That something I hold so dear should so completely eludes my attempts to define it is more or less normal for me. Another one of those mercifully brief fits of inchoate percipience that punctuate my existence\u2026 People frequently ask if I miss Canada. No, I reply, Canadians are like trees – they thrive wherever the wind takes them and have long roots. Canada is a fabulous place to be from, and living there doesn\u2019t necessarily mean living within its borders.)<\/p>\n

The clues I find are those falling leaves.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I always have a pocketful.
\nOne day, if I learn to read carefuly enough in their finely veined palms, they will tell me who I am.<\/p>\n

LIFE AS I KNOW IT<\/p>\n

This is where I\u2019ve been spending (far too much) time recently, tethered to the computer on a short lead. Putting a book together used to involve piles of colour slides (remember those?) but nowadays it\u2019s all digital\u2026
\nFrom left to right:
\nNice portrait, eh? I swiped it from the Fellowship Festival. (I also got Karl Urban\u2019s portrait, so I figure if I do them up with straps, me in front, Karl in the back, I can wear them like these walking billboards, which will finally get me a bit of attention especially given that when I have walked past, people will go \u201cWow, that was Karl Urban, what\u2019s he doing in Neuch\u00e2tel!?\u201d)
\nMoria orc helmet.
\nPrinter (eats paper and ink cartridges).
\nScreen. Decorated with watemelon sponge (don\u2019t ask why) and the little aliens from Toy Story (go figure).
\nYes, that\u2019s Gandalf as wallpaper – principally because when that little timepiece briefly replaces the mouse arrow while the Mac boots up, I can place it on his wrist and it makes it look like he\u2019s wearing a Swatch. Right. Small pleasures for small minds, but right now I need all the help I can get.)
\nEmpty cups, once containing industrial quantities of caffeine.
\nPiles of CDs
\nScanner, portable hard drive.
\nThat thing in the corner that eventually stops ringing if I don\u2019t answer it.
\nIn the background: millions of pictures of the world outside I don\u2019t see any more\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

LORD OF THE STINGS<\/p>\n

Quite a while ago, I was contacted by some event organisers for an event in Washington state. How very nice, thought I, and not far from Vancouver, where I was planning to be around the same time. I tentatively agreed to go.
\nA little later I was obliged to cancel, but agreed to a video appearance. The organisers promised they would sort out a team for an interview. Shortly after that, I received an e-mail (which probably wasn\u2019t really destined for me) which began: \u201cHey! Live near Geneva and wanna meet John Howe?\u201d and was basically urging any eager fan with a camera to turn up on my doorstep. Hmmm, thought I, this is perhaps not such a good plan after all, and said I was a little too busy to tape an interview after all.
\nThen I forgot about the whole thing.
\nBut, it appears the saga is now a book with the fetching title of \u201cWhen A Fan Hits the Sh(torch or small pig in front)t\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

There\u2019s more info here<\/a>
\nSPARE TIME<\/p>\n

Obviously, some people do make use if it, and here\u2019s the proof:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/center><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Someone sent me these recently, I have NO idea where they are from. I do recognize that castle<\/a>, but who put the fire out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or Roots With A View I always have leaves in my pockets. They are of the kind that never reach the ground when they fall, since they fall into the past. (They also resist absent-mindedness and the laundry, unlike the essential phone numbers scribbled on scraps of newsprint, or the important appointments carefully noted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[115],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-canadian-pantheon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-a7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}