Wasting and Wanting

Recently, my darling dear had occasion to comment on my habit of reheating day-old coffee in the microwave while brewing a fresh pot. She asked if it's because I like the stuff. No, not really. She asked whether I do it to save money. Well no, I responded, I'm making a fresh pot after all. Ahhh, she said. So it's because you don't want to waste anything, waste not want not, hey?

Yes. She got me dead to rights. I can't bear to throw out anything that might still be used or consumed. I suppose I live up to the frugal Mennonite stereotype, even though I'm long past identifying as a Mennonite. But the term 'waste not, want not' got me thinking. I'm willing to bet that many people don't actually know what that phrase means. I've no doubt my darling, an expert grammarian and adroit user of the English language, has a clear understanding of the verb 'to want' and its etymology, but I clearly remember a time when I did not - and it wasn't so long ago.

I imagine when Poor Richard spit the little aphorism out, folks who read it - and enshrined it in our vernacular - understood it clearly. If you don't waste, you won't want. That is, you won't lack, or go without. A good Puritan sentiment, that. Be frugal, save and recycle and reuse and you'll never starve or suffer wanting of life's needs. Somewhere along the line, though, those needs became desires. I imagine that happened when North Americans conceptually lost the definition of the word 'need' and it's closely related pal, 'lack'.

Let's face it (another fun term, perhaps for another time). Those of us reading and writing these blogs don't know a thing about need. We didn't settle the savage land and we're not the people displaced by those setters. We didn't make it through world wars and great depressions - though some of us may have seen our nest egg get devalued during the last recession and have decided to work a few more years to ensure we get to keep that cozy retirement villa in Arizona or Nelson or wherever. We truthfully want nothing to ensure our continued survival.

Yet we keep using that term - waste not, want not - as though it still has relevance. Ask people what their wants are and you'll doubtless get an exhaustive litany of items and ideas, because we want lots of stuff. The word no longer means lack, though that's rather invisibly implied, but rather it means desire. I may not need that bag of chips or that deep tissue massage or that 1982 Porsche 911 (Targa, of course, with the off-white paint) but I sure want them.

So what do we mean when we use the phrase? I can't reasonably say that since I failed to waste a Porsche, I must not want one. That makes no sense whatsoever. Or, if we play with the negative form of the phrase, my wasting of food means I actually want that kind of food. While there may be some truth to that, that I fail to use what I desire implies that I'm wasteful and can afford to be, because I want not - I'll drink a cup of the fresh coffee too. Truthfully, I really have no needs that can't be easily met and I'm happy as long as I continue to consume, whether I need to or not. There's a lot of slippage in a term like this, a phrase we've used so long that even when its key words change meaning and its context becomes irrelevant, we continue using it.

My previous understanding of the phrase - one that a cursory search of its use online confirms as fairly prevalent, at least among the internet blogging and tweeting crowd - was simply, that if I waste it, I don't want it. Usually, the term comes flying out when the 'it', whatever it is, should, in fact, be wanted or desired. The term has evolved from its original context as an aphoristic truism, a cause and effect bit of wisdom that we can adopt to better manage our lives, to a sardonic prediction of future dissatisfaction; a snide statement that someday the waster will desire the wasted stuff and there won't be any left around.

I suppose that's ironic. Once more our language proves we've devolved into facile whiners regulated by our desires rather than any legitimate needs. We envy each other and curse people for throwing away that which we didn't actually want, ourselves, anyway - blighting those wasters with a future of unsatisfied cravings that we hope they yearn for so greatly that they read those aches as needs. This, of course, is how we form fetishes and let's face it: fetishes fuel North America in ways we can no longer wean ourselves from.

This saddens me, while at the same time, leaving me with a sense of personal gratitude. I'm saddened because I'm clearly entrenched in a society that suffers a significant psychological illness - one that no longer even understands the words it utters and uses that misunderstanding to lash out at its own members while it consumes at a rate it understands to be unsustainable. I'm grateful because, when I drink that bitter cup of day-old coffee while the fresh pot brews, I do so knowing that my darling understands that my frugal soul just wants to ensure I get an extra cup of coffee in the morning.

Child bride dies of internal bleeding in Yemen

Child bride dies of internal bleeding in Yemen

Aren't we glad we no longer need feminism?

loss

sometimes i think
of loss. not lost opportunity,
no - my faith precludes that
sort of thing. i never lose cuff-
links, wallets, travel mugs, passports.
can't lose what i don't have anyway.
i thought i lost a car once - my first porsche -
but i found i just lost the car.

a couple of times i lost races but
won them later so that's okay. a person
told me i lost my mind but that never happened.
i frequently lose my cool, having never had it.

sometimes, in the spring, the muck,
i think about loss. another, a love, a life
less loss, though i also miss Johnny Cash.
i lose friends all the time. hope, they call
that. a friend lost her mom.
and i cant find the
words for that.
sometimes i
don't think
about
loss

Free Exchange Fundraiser!

Join us for a FREE PARTY in support of the UofC English grad. students'
Free Exchange Conference!

Live Music by the Ogden Owls
DJs Chris B & Arlen

Saturday February 13th @ 8pm
Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre
1320 5th Avenue NW
Walking distance from Sunnyside Train Station

$4.00 Beer & Wine
donations welcome at the door

Join the Facebook event & help us spread the word:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281549791777&ref=ts

Free Exchange is an annual graduate student conference organized entirely
by graduate students at the University of Calgary Department of English.
Founded more than fifteen years ago, it has grown to attract participants
from across Canada, the United States, and elsewhere in the world. Due to
the current economic climate, it has become the responsibility of students
to raise much of the funds necessary for hosting Free Exchange. If you are
interested in supporting this conference, but are unable to attend our
fundraiser party, please feel free to contact conference organizers Carmen
Derkson and Colin Martin at freeex@ucalgary.ca. Visit
http://english.ucalgary.ca/FreeExchange for more details.

Harper's Penis Tastes Salty

As many of you know, I'm the president of filling Station magazine. Over the last 15 years we've published - often for the first time - pretty much every major poet working in Canada today and a damn good selection of the prose writers and visual artists.

We don't meet these criteria. And we apparently don't publish enough work about beef insemination. Too bad for us. Follow the link, read the article, shit on your Conservative MP's porch.

call for work

NōD Magazine [Poetry – Prose – Visual Art]

Call for open submissions

Issue 11 / Fall 2009

Deadline: Oct 31

E-mail: nodmagazine@gmail.com

mail: NōD Magazine
c/o Dep’t of English
University of Calgary
2500 University Dr NW, T2T 1N4

NōD, creative writing publication of the University of Calgary undergraduates, is looking for innovative works of poetry prose or visual art for its eleventh issue. Works from undergraduate students and also the community are eligible for publication.

New this year: NōD magazine is looking for submissions of 50-100 words for a feature on NUTV (UofC's on campus television). Eligible entries are selected monthly from the open submissions and will show regularly during the chosen month. Eligible entries are also featured in the Magazine.

fS Call!

Call to Artists – filling Station Magazine

filling Station Magazine, now in its 14th year of publishing, is a Calgary-based, nationally-distributed literary and arts magazine. A non-profit, it is completely run by volunteers from the community invested in bringing great writing and art from Calgary and area into the national spotlight.

Both emerging and established artists are invited to submit images of their art, or articles, statements, rants and manifestos about art accompanied by images, to our Fine Arts Editor for consideration in upcoming issues of filling Station. Submissions can include visual art, photography, documentation of artworks and events, photo essays about arts events, happenings and more.

Successful contributors receive:
1) a one year (3 issue) subscription to filling Station Magazine
2) two complimentary copies of the issue in which you submission appears
3) exposure to readers across Canada
4) a new line on your CV
5) our everlasting good will

filling Station receives First North American Serial Rights, meaning it appears in our magazine before any other publication. The artist retains all other rights.

How to Submit:

Images may be sent in low (email-able) resolution to Debbie.lee Miszaniec at finearts.fs@gmail.com If selected for publication, the editor will arrange with you to receive high resolution files of images in 300 dpi or higher. Images appearing within filling Station’s pages would be black and white, but colour versions can be made available on our new website at www.fillingstation.ca Also, images selected to appear on covers would be published in colour.

Please include with your submission a short bio or artist’s statement, your mailing address, and your email address in the body of your email.

filling Station publishes 3 issues per year; therefore, please allow up 0-4 months for reply.

About the Fine Arts Editor:
Debbie.lee Miszaniec is an artist living and working in Calgary, Alberta Canada. In 2008 she completed her BFA in painting with distinction at the Alberta College of Art + Design. Further information about her work can be found at www.debbieleemiszaniec.com

Student Unemployment

The hole is getting deeper and deeper. When will our elected representatives start addressing the problem of class education barriers with a productive response?

Never, under the current administration.

For Roy Everett Martin

i wrote this poem for my grandfather during the spring. he died today. i hope, for his sake, that he sees grandma in heaven. i don't believe he will but she was always worth seeing.

there are two versions...

1

my grandpa’s watch stopped years ago

new batteries startled it into motion

but when it recalled the time it said nono

that’s all wrong

the watch changed dates

accorded a martial keeping,

awakened me at strange moments,

bit the hairs from my arm

with jumpy little twitchings

we synchronized our complaints

and proceeded

with our mission

2

my Grandfather’s watch

stopped years ago

new batteries startled

into motion but when it

recollected the time said

nono. that’s all wrong

the time is wrong

the watch changes dates

reminisces about the war

and awakens me at

strange moments to insist

something

its bracelet pinches and bites

the hairs from my arms

makes its complaints

my own, over time

i always vow to wear the watch

when i visit

so sometimes i just wear it

around the house and stuff

god bless you, grandpa. rest in peace.

Amber Bowerman

One of the lead stories on the CBC this morning is about the scholarships created in memory of Amber Bowerman. I only met her once, as a moderator for a session she gave at an AMPA conference a couple of years back, but she struck me that morning as being a wonderful, compassionate person who had made all the choices necessary to pursue a life of publishing and writing that truly fulfilled her. Not all of us have the strength of character to do what she did. It is wonderful to see that her life is not a total waste, that a legacy of helping other developing writers do what she did continues for students across Alberta.

stolen from bp (martyrology book 1)

we have moved beyond belief
into a moon that is no longer there

i used to love you (i think)
used to believe in the things i do
now all is useless repetition
my arms ache from not holding you

the winds blow unfeelingly across your face
& the space between us
is as long as my arm is not

the language i write is no longer spoken

my hands turn the words
clumsily

*****

my lady my lady

this is the day i want to cry for you
but my eyes are dry

somewhere i'm happy

not like the sky
outside this window
gone grey

*****
*****

this is the line between reality
when i hold your body
enter the only way i am

saint orm
keep her from harm

this ship journey safely

quick as it can

*****

no movement in the sky
from the corner where the four winds lie

& the colour of her eyes too
did i tell you how my lady moves?

holds me to her tight
she can

love to feel her
moving with me

into that sweet togetherness presses us thru

My Kind

The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets

I just want to thank Jon Ball for leading me to this glorious treasure on UbuWeb. Man, it really does hitcha where you live. Which, thankfully, isn't Winnipeg (a wonderful place to be from).

Colin's Last Montreal Performance (for now)

Quebec Playwrights Deliver

presents

a full-cast reading of Seymour Blicker’s crime drama FOUND MONEY,

a tale of greed and revenge.

Funded by FRED, the Foundation for the Recognition of Excellence in Drama

Seymour Blicker is a Quebec-based playwright. His work has been produced in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Never Judge a Book by Its Cover, translated into Dutch and German, toured fifty cities in Holland and Belgium, had an extended run in Vienna, and, in 1996, was given its Canadian premiere, directed by Emma Stevens, at Theatre Lac Brome. In 1997, Blicker received the British Council International New Playwriting Award for his play Pals, which was produced by Theatre 1774--Infinitheatre of Montreal at "La Cabane" in 2000, directed by Guy Sprung, who also directed staged readings of Blicker’s Home Free (1998) and Pipe Dreams (2000).

With Colin Martin, Karen Kaderavek, Stephen Orlov, Shayne Devouges, and Chris Nachaj.

Monday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m., PWM Studio, 5337 St. Laurent near Fairmount, Suite 214, Door code 930. (Go through door at top of stairs; turn right)

Produced by Quebec Playwrights Deliver (514-842-3208)

Refreshments. Free Admission.

The Scott Rises to the Top

The word is out - to be considered a knowlegable, tasteful reader, one must emulate the people of London, ON...

William Neil Scott's Wonderfull has been named the winner of the 2008-09 London Reads competition. The announcement comes in celebration of international World Book and Copyright Day on Thursday, April 23.

Scott was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but has spent the majority of his life in Calgary, Alberta.

Wonderfull, Scott’s first novel, tells the stories of Garfax, a place which has become the stuff of legend to outsiders, and reveals how this village’s unlikely past catches up to its inevitable future.

“Winning London Reads means a lot more than I expected it to, to be honest, because throughout the length of the contest I thought my prospects looked very slim,” says Scott. “I’m absolutely floored by the response that this novel has received, and I feel very lucky and grateful for all the people who have taken the time to read it and pass it along.”

Speaking of his winning novel, published by Edmonton-based NeWest Press, Scott says, “I've had people come up and tell me that certain parts of the book, the deaths that occurred, the difficulties of being in a family, really resonated with them and reminded them of their own upbringing.

“Despite its weirdness, I think there’s something honest, gentle and maybe even a little bit sad about Garfax that attracts people. We’ve all been there, after all. Garfax is the place in our lives we had to leave.”

The reading list for the 2008-09 competition also included The Lost Highway by David Adams Richards, Gratitude by Joseph Kertes, The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill and Exit Lines by Joan Barfoot.

As it was the all-star edition of London Reads, Alumni Western has invited all five authors to a gala event on Nov. 12, 2009 at the Great Hall for a dinner, public readings and discussion. The selections for the 2010 London Reads competition will also be revealed at that time.

Presented by Alumni Western, London Reads was originally launched as Western Reads as part of The University of Western Ontario’s 125th anniversary celebrations in 2003.

The competition promotes Canadian authors and the importance of literacy. Modeled after CBC Radio’s Canada Reads, the program invites the entire London community to read along with and engage local celebrity panelists as they consider and debate the merits of various works of Canadian fiction.

London Free Press Editor-in-Chief Paul Berton and Western alumna Adria Iwasutiak championed Wonderfull during the London Reads process that started in October with the first of five public ‘book discussion’ events.

Alumni Western’s partners in London Reads are the Book Store at Western, the London Public Library and the City of London.

Past Winners of Western/London Reads

2007-08 Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road
2006-07 David Bergen, The Time in Between
2005-06 Robert McGill, The Mysteries
2004-05 Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradmus!
2003-04 Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief

lookin for trouble

If anyone's looking for a little timewaster, come take me on at http://cleo-catra.mybrute.com

Derek Weiler Obituary

Derek Weiler, editor at Quill and Quire has died. His obituary is here.

The American Novel

On Academic Earth, lectures by Prof. Amy Hungerford...

one wonders...

in the era where Canada is ruled by a man who hates Canadian culture and art...

this

Wonderfull up for London Reads - VOTE!

Hello all,

As many of you know, my friend Neil had his first book published last year. What many of you may not know is that the book was included in London Reads, a competition like Canada Reads, but specific to London, Ontario. This is a huge honour and he's up against some heavy hitters like The Book of Negroes, which won this year's Canada Reads and the Commonwealth award.

Please take a moment out of your day to vote for Wonderfull by William Neil Scott here: http://www.londonreads.uwo.ca/vote.html.

And if you feel like forwarding this to anyone else, please do. The more votes the better. If you have not yet had a chance to read Wonderfull, I highly recommend doing so - both Chapters and Amazon have copies for sale.