The northern Haida Gwaii communities have experienced so much loss in recent days. Family and community members, my heart is with you.
Also, Masset Fire Department, you deserve more appreciation than words can express. You are a dedicated crew with amazing skill and heart.
How do you know something is true? Right now, off the top of your head, without overthinking it, did man walk on the moon?
Whatever your initial response is, keep it in your mind for a moment. The class of Grade 4 students I sat with all agreed the answer was an obvious yes.
This was the beginning of my social studies class at Lena Shaw Elementary in Surrey. There were many follow-up questions from our teacher, but they all seemed to branch off from: how do you know?
Our parents. It was on TV. Photos in textbooks.
By the end of this school day, we started to look more closely at what we can rely on as true. Without physically witnessing and experiencing an event ourselves, how do we know what to really believe? There was a moment where you could almost see the light bulbs appearing and illuminating over our heads as we realized there is a lot of faith in trying to decide what is true.
On the same topic, I was an adult when I learned that narwhals are real. For real-sies. Unicorn of the Sea is an endearing name that I had always just assumed meant mythological. I had never seen one personally; it didn’t come up in daily life very much. I had no reason to question it any further…
Artificial intelligence can create images that are very realistic. It is remarkable how quickly posts get shared on social media, making the quest for what is true even more difficult.
Even though our eyes can play tricks on us sometimes, and images can be purposefully deceiving, witnessing events in person seems like one of the most reliable ways to confirm things. Advice and opinion from colleagues and friends you respect might be a close second. After that, there’s a lot more faith involved in what we believe to be true.
What I know for sure from the past couple of weeks, because I attended in person:
Haida Gwaii Arts Council – there was a performance by a three-piece string group from Manitoba. The bass player in the band had one of the most unique instruments I have ever seen. Chatting with folks for the next few days after the show, many of them didn’t know anything about it until after it had happened. (Perhaps they are taking long breaks from social media as well.) It would be lovely if the visiting artists wanted to submit a little biography to the Arts Council to put in this newspaper for us.
Choir – south and north end have groups you can meet and sing with. The south end was very open format and all-inclusive, with lovely song selections.
In the north end, we have the Tow Hill Community Choir, where we (try to) hit the right notes and learn where on the music sheet it tells us to be bold or soft with our voices. They are interested in having new and more members, especially if you are a gent who sings bass.
Vancouver Island Regional Library – keep an eye out for events being posted to say farewell to the old space and welcome the new location. Fall is when we expect to open doors to the new space. For anyone who can’t remember that far back or hadn’t quite landed here yet, the new library location in Masset will be roughly where the old pool was.
Regular Public Meetings – the Village of Masset has regular public meetings on the second and fourth Monday of each month. Summer and different holidays might occasionally affect that schedule. Community members who would like to attend just for information purposes or to bring forward their topics for the council to consider, please join our public sessions. It is the passion of our community members that moves ideas forward for our community.
Cherry blossoms, magnolias, and salmonberry bushes are all flowering. Songbirds are busy at the crack of dawn. Breaking out of our hibernation to start attending more things in person, so we know they really happened.
See you out there.