Dog Days

Yesterday,Ted said the day was spongy - it wasn't summer hot or fall crisp - it was just a day that you couldn't get a firm grasp on. It sums up so much going on in the world - Libya, Jack Layton, wild storms off the eastern seaboard and crazy tornadoes and earthquakes - how to make sense of it all?

Oddly, in Jack Layton's death I see more hope in the country than I've seen in a long time. People are celebrating this man who dedicated himself to bettering the lot of the homeless and poor even as we mourn his passing. So many people recognized the goodness in this man and the values he strove to put into action through politics. Politics can have such a dirty connotation, but Layton chose to tackle social issues from within the system and change the way we see politicians - and by the outpouring of emotion for Layton, you have to believe it worked. He was a politician to the end, but only because he believed this was the way to bring about social change.

I was moved by the story of a previously homeless man on television who said Jack used to visit their tent village in Toronto to raise their spirits while he worked at City Hall to bring about affordable housing - affordable housing he managed to win for this man and many others. Others have come forward with similar stories. Layton's legacy is in these acts of compassion.

I continue to write. My manuscript is into the final few chapters before the editing work begins. I'm spending a great deal of my waking hours tying together the plotline in my head and backtracking to slip clues into previous chapters. It's a spongy, solitary process - exhilerating but frightening at the same time.

If you haven't viewed the Collected Works booksigning video yet, have a look on Youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6GOUFqBjmA

Last week of August coming up. The dog days of summer. Change sure comes quickly in this old world.