We said that Tony Lucca would go all the way… and having fallen just two places short of victory, it turns out he is not the one-dimensional artist Christina Aguilera said he was.  But what did in fact go all the way, was the made-for-TV vendetta between the less than supportive Christina and her former Mickey Mouseketeer teammate, Tony Lucca.

Mocking his latest performance – with paper cup in hand, Aguilera first coolly complimented Lucca, but ended it with, “the lyrical connotation was a little derogatory towards women, but all in all I thought it was fun.” She was referring to Lucca’s neat rendition of Jay-z’s “99 Problems,” where the word “bitch” was avoided in the lyrics.  Moments later after Chris Mann’s performance, she made reference to how Mann was a ‘real man’ with class nonetheless – no need to be derogatory toward women… All this said while sporting what appeared to be some sort of sequence diaper on stage.

Such hypocrisy.  How can a woman comment about something being derogatory toward women and dress as though her voice itself was not enough?  Are there no brassieres that fit?  Were stores empty of apparel that fell below the crotch line?  And why not meet her contestants on stage for that supportive hug without first looking for the perfect camera angle?

In defense of Tony Lucca’s and Adam Levine’s choice in song, Lavine said,

“Just to clarify… the intent behind the song – we talked about this for hours Tony and I… and the ‘*#!** ain’t one,’ is life getting at you; things bringing you down… we’re not referring to women, we’re referring to everything.”

Christina Aguilera has a voice that some would argue is bar-none – Blake Shelton admitted that on the show a number of times.  But she, like all of us, has another voice – made up of not only words, but of actions.  From pretending not to recognize Tony in auditions to referring to him as one-dimensional and then slamming him for being derogatory toward women – in front of his family… there’s no doubt that there’s some sort of unfinished business here.

We’re not sure what went wrong in the former Mickey Mouse Club all those years ago that made Lucca deserving of such a snub.  But perhaps as Lucca’s career progresses, the truth will eventually come out.

Q. Is the rendition of this song derogatory toward women?  You decide… Here’s the Tony Lucca performance that brought such heat from Christina Aguilera just a couple of nights ago…

Tattoos are in the zeitgeist.

Go back to Peter Greenaway’s The Pillow Book (1996) and take another look at the beauty of script on skin. Consider the strange attractiveness of Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2007) where skin is a canvas on which art can be created. Think Angelina Jolie and Rihanna.

My favourite tattoo on Angelina Jolie’s body is from Tennessee Williams: “A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages.” Jolie says, “I am still at heart—and always will be—just a punk kid with tattoos.”

Pop princess Rihanna sports a range of tattoos, all delicately placed on her body like small inked masterpieces—cascading stars down her neck and back, a star in her ear, a musical note on her ankle, a Pisces sign behind her ear, a Sanskrit prayer on her thigh, an Arabic phrase on her ribcage, “rebelle fleur” on her neck, a “shhh” on her right index finger.

Compared to the svelte Rihanna, the rotund Gertrude Stein had the face and body of a Roman emperor, a body that Picasso painted over a 100 times for his famous portrait. Kathy Bates plays Stein admirably in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, but she’s physically too slight, too non-imperial. You need at least 200 pounds, preferably 300, to play the fleshy Stein.

Stein pronounced like a Pope, held court like a movie star and was “The Presence”at 27 rue de Fleurus where Picassos and Matisses hung from her walls and supplicating young writers paid homage.  A mother of modernism, she wrote as a mischievous leprechaun might – cryptically, sometimes hermetically. Godmother of Hemingway’s first child and his early muse and mentor, she learned to do cubism in language and then taught Hemingway to do the same in his poetic vignettes, in our time, and his subsequent collage of stories and the same poetic vignettes, In Our Time, his first and last modernist works.

Along with Hemingway in A Moveable Feast and our own John Glassco in Memoirs of Montparnasse, Stein wrote one of the great Paris books of the age – The Autobiograhy of Alice B. Toklas, her autobiography – disguised as a biography.

Stein’s most famous sentence is “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose,” four thumps rather than the often misquoted three. She seemed to write this line conscious of Shakespeare and what Juliette said to Romeo – “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” Not according to Gertrude Stein.

Pick your body part. Any one of these Steinian lines would look good on you:

Let me listen to me and not to them.

There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.

You look ridiculous if you dance. You look ridiculous if you don’t dance. So you might as well dance.

It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business.

If you knew it all it would not be creation but dictation.

– J.S. Porter

The Doublethink…

One of the most difficult things for me to deal with since moving to the United States is the rampant “doublethink.”  I find myself angered almost daily by the countless ideas in the media that are completely at cross-purposes.

Protecting freedom means taking it away; protecting family values means attacking women’s rights; protecting religious freedom means defending hate.  It often makes me wonder if anyone is actually paying attention or are they just waiting to hear something that resonates with them.

Shortly after moving to the States, I knew I wasn’t getting the “news” coverage I wanted.  So, as a part of ‘broadening my horizons,’ I sent out a request to my Facebook friends: “What American news sites can I go to for the least biased reporting?”

I got laughed at… and my American husband recommended the BBC.  Hmmm…

Living in Canada and occasionally reading American news often led me to raise an eyebrow; living in America and being surrounded by American news has often led me to being hoarse from yelling at my computer screen.

I know there are people who see the “doublethink”… but perhaps, like me, they growl and yell in private – but that doesn’t change anything.  Maybe, sometimes, rolling your eyes and walking away is the best course to keeping your sanity.

Perhaps I’ll develop that same survival instinct. But, I guess for now, I will continue to rant and when my response gets too heated, maybe I will listen to my husband when he says “step away from the computer”…

Better that than tossing it out the window, I suppose.

InRetro has a lot of growth left in it before reaching our entire vision.  Yet since 2008, we’ve made great strides.

This past summer, we learned that InRetro Radio ranked in the top ten online radio stations within three different genre listings for “most listened to” and “best sound quality” originally through the Live365 Radio Network.  Since reaching those accolades, we decided to part ways with LIve365 and with the help and support of thousands of listeners (yes, we have been reading and replying to all of your emails!), we’ve taken the time to re-group on how to take our radio endeavour even further.  This of course is something that takes time and ingenuity, and we hope to have a decision and follow-up plan soon.

We’ve also learned what we need to do to make InRetro Magazine better than it’s ever been – taking to heart the valuable feedback we’ve received to date in an open and honest manner.  And more importantly, we’ve learned more about you, our reader – and our listener… What you like, what you don’t like – and the topics and new ideas you want to know more about.

Our name ‘InRetro‘ is short for everything in retrospect.  But it’s also referring to comparisons in time – in society, politics – with a strong emphasis on culture, fashion and music.

If you’ve read some of our past issues and want to comment on the stories – or if you’d like to get your ideas across, we’d love to hear from you!  I carefully read all incoming mail and love to hear what our audience has to say.

Until we meet again, on-air, on-site, or on your favourite e-reader, I remain,

Yours truly,

Nancy Duffy
Executive Producer/ Publisher / Editor
_________________________

Letter to the Editor

Notice on Letter Content and Size

All letters and comments are welcome, although we ask that you keep your submissions under 400 words.  InRetro reserves the right to edit as well as the right to refuse the publishing of questionable and/or offensive material as it sees fit.

Editing will be limited and is meant for the purposes of maintaining readability as well as for the sake of fitting as many letters as possible within limited print space.

You may email your letter to editor at inretro.ca.  Please ensure the entire contents of your letter remains in the body of your email, as we will not open attachments.

Thank you!

_________________________

J.S. Porter, Poet / Author

Poet and essayist, J.S. Porter was born in Belfast in the north of Ireland and educated at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He has had a longtime interest in the arts. Formerly an arts contributor to Grail, in 1999 he received a Catholic Press award for his article on the German-Canadian sculptor Ted Rettig.

He has been a contributor to Poetry Ireland Review, Kentucky Poetry Review, Canadian Literature, The Antigonish Review, Quarry, Brick and the Literary Review of Canada. He has also written for The Globe and Mail, The Ottawa Citizen, The National Post and The Hamilton Spectator.

Currently he writes for the online journals Hamilton Arts & Letters and InRetro Magazine. His most recent books are The Glass Art of Sarah Hall and Lightness and Soul: Musings on Eight Jewish Writers. Acknowledged for his literary achievements in the Canadian Who’s Who, he lives in Hamilton, Ontario with his wife Cheryl and dog Dylan.

Erin Drushel, Contributor, InRetro

I am a proud 30-something Canadian living in America.  I moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 2009 because I married an American who had kids and, frankly, it just worked out better this way.

I’m a bit of a political junkie who enjoys the news.  Being an informed consumer of the news is important to me and I do my best to not take everything at face value.  My rule of thumb is ‘Question Everything.’

Previously, I worked for the Ontario government in various capacities, both political and non-political, specializing in issues and communications management.

Since moving to the “Land of Cleve” I taught myself to crochet and became a fan of NFL football.  I also enjoy Science Fiction, Doctor Who and my favourite author is Terry Pratchett.  And, because it must be mentioned, I love my cat.

On the quirky side: since moving to the States I’ve not had a cell phone.  I suppose you could say I’m quasi “off-the-grid”.  I do not have cable or satellite and I don’t use Netflix.  The reason being – I don’t need it and don’t want it… for the most part, anyway.

Ursula Franklin - Source: Visionaries: Canadian triumphs © The Toronto Star. Reproduced with the permission of The Toronto Star.

Parents teach us to say thank you. Sometimes we forget.

Sometimes we don’t get the chance, or seize the chance, to say thanks to individuals who have contributed to our well-being in some way.

Sometimes we get lucky, though.

At a book launch for The Glass Art of Sarah Hall at the Nicholas Hoare Bookstore on Front Street in Toronto on April 29^th, 2011 I said thank you to Ursula Franklin.

Do you know her?

She’s an authority on metallurgy, an experimental physicist, a peace activist, an officer of the Order of Canada and the author of the 1989 Massey Lectures, The Real World of Technology. In the early 90s I used her lectures in my literature courses for technologists at Mohawk College.

Dr. Franklin – along with George Grant, Marshall McLuhan and Arthur Kroker – is a Canadian who has thought deeply about technology, “the house in which we all live.”  She recognizes that technology is as natural to human beings as dams are to beavers; it’s what we do, it’s where we live, it’s how we live.

She also recognizes that our house is built on the foundation of nature. Without nature, no technology; without the natural world no technological world. That’s why in The Real World of Technology an undercurrent of thanks seeps through her pages. She urges us to “get away from the egocentric and technocentric mindset that regards nature as the infrastructure to be adjusted and used like all other infrastructures.” Nature isn’t an infrastructure or a superstructure; it’s a substructure without which nothing happens.

In our economic and political decision-making, Franklin wants us to ask a different question from the usual one – “What will the Americans say?”  And, instead, ask, “What would nature say?”

How do we get nature into the boardroom? 

In everything we do, Dr. Franklin posits the idea of keeping three books of record-keeping or accounting. The first book measures financial loss and gain, the second social impacts, and the third book “is the place to give detailed accounts of the gains and losses in the health and viability of nature, as well as the built environment.”

How do we build on the wisdom of our First Nations and join them in giving thanks to mother earth?

A year ago I gave thanks to a 90 year-old lady with an immense intellect, an inclusive imagination and a deep-feeling heart. I told her how much her little book had meant to me and my students. It made us think about balance, priorities and responsibility.  It gave us a new vision of technology.

– J.S. Porter

In developing countries, where issues of environment, human rights, jobs, politics and corporations collide, conflict is sure to follow.  As typical North American suburbanite citizens, we tend to see such conflict as a problem of distant have-not countries.  We are, after all, the creators and supporters of corporations in the western hemisphere who over the past several decades have made it our job to spread our commerce around the globe for economic survival.  But for the last 39 months a pot of such conflict has been brewing in our own back yard.  The energy sector has single handedly attempted to shape the North American energy policy at the justification of jobs, self sustainability and profits – and at the expense of public health and natural resources.  The Keystone XL Pipeline is cylindrical. There is no one side to its controversy and the media coverage has proven just how slippery the issue of oil –in its most rudimentary form, can be.  The following is a critique of the online media coverage at the heart of the controversial period (from November 3 to November 12, 2011) of the Keystone XL Pipeline as reported in the mainstream media outlets of the Globe and Mail, and Washington Post – and Rabble.ca as a representation of alternative media.

Background:

The Keystone XL Pipeline is an infrastructure project of TransCanada Corp. with the goal of transporting bitumen from Alberta’s tar sands to the southern coast of the United States to be refined into oil.  This was a project that had been approved by the Canadian authorities well in advance of any controversy overspill.  With only the Department of State approval required on the U.S. side, Stephen Harper prematurely called the decision a “no-brainer” and as such TransCanada Corp. signed contracts with carriers, and began laying miles of pipeline in anticipation of a quick start to the project’s construction phase.

The economy of the United States has been under a tremendous amount of pressure as of late with a national unemployment rate of 9 percent and a bleak looking economy in the foreseeable future.  The proponents of the Keystone XL Pipeline have been dangling their carrot of employment – with promises that their project could mean up to 20,000 new jobs for the U.S. – a controversial figure in itself, as non-supporters say that realistically the figure of newly created jobs would be 5,000 to 6,000 at most over a short term period of two years.

Part of the pipeline’s trail includes traversing through the environmentally sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska and over part of the Ogallala aquifer, an important source of water spanning eight states including South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.  This already strained aquifer is responsible for supplying drinking water to approximately 82 percent of those living within the aquifer limits and supplies farmers with nearly 30 percent of the groundwater used for irrigation. (USGS, US Geological Survey).  But this is only one reason why environmentalists are upset.  The larger reason is that if the Keystone Pipeline goes through, production of the tar sands will increase dramatically, making it impossible for Canada to meet any kind of standards required to slow down climate change.

The Dene, Canada’s First Nations people residing near the Athabasca basin have already sustained hardship through the production of the tar sands.  An expansion of production made possible through the new pipeline would further strain this hardship. In a media release dated September 27th, 2011, Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus stated, “Toxic tailings ponds already cover hundreds of square kilometers, and are growing by the minute. Millions of litres of contaminated water leak each day from these tailings ponds into groundwater and tributaries in the Athabasca River watershed. These waters flow through Denendeh, from northern Alberta to the Arctic Ocean, and any pollution in the water impacts our communities. This is one of our main concerns about tar sands development.” (Dene Nation, 2011)

Not only does the Keystone XL put the environmentally sensitive land of Nebraska and the people dependent upon it at risk should the project move forward – there are other risks involved if it doesn’t.  If the Keystone XL pipeline does not go through, people of the oil industry have indeed been creating a back up plan.  Top of the list is the Enbridge Gateway pipeline which plans to take the same bitumen from Bruderheim, Alberta, through the mountains to Kitimat, British Columbia where it will then get shipped to refineries in Asia.

The Coastal First Nations people are among the many of the developing communities within Canada who already face multiple challenges like housing and unemployment among a host of social issues.  This is a collection of First Nations’ communities that rely on the land as a source of food and more so on the fresh water of the west coast for fishing.  The oil industry of Alberta’s ‘Plan B’ is in direct conflict with the Coastal First Nations people’s way of life.  In a media release dated November 15th, 2011, Executive Director of the Coastal First Nations people states, “We will do everything in our power to protect our coast from Enbridge’s risky pipeline and tankers proposal. It’s a future Coastal First Nations cannot imagine. It’s a future we won’t allow to become reality.  Last year, on March 23, 2010, the Coastal First Nations issued a declaration banning tankers carrying tar sands crude oil from their traditional lands and waters, a ban they have vowed to defend “by whatever means necessary.  Our people are fishing people. We thrive despite high unemployment because we have access to traditional foods like wild salmon, halibut and shellfish. Why would we allow a pipeline that would help destroy our most important food sources?” (Sterrit, 2011)

Assuredly the issue of the Keystone XL Pipeline is indeed complex and even if stopped, the plight of the oil industry continues.  Politicians on both the U.S. and Canadian sides have done little to direct an energy policy that could help bring these conflicts to an end by outlining a clear plan for North America’s energy creating a framework – boundaries and rules for industry to work within.  Let’s see how well the media do in communicating and representing these complex issues.

Methodology:

To ensure that the media coverage critique was not an “apples to oranges” model of comparison, coverage under review was limited to the online portions of the three media representations.  This was done because the mainstream media of the Globe and Mail and Washington Post, had the advantage of being a physical newspaper as well as online media, which would skew coverage comparison to Rabble’s online-only alternative media.  Coverage on the Keystone XL Pipeline project was followed from November 3 to November 12^th, 2011 with a matrix identifying what was covered in the article with the following subject identifiers: First Nations; Organizing/Protesters; Oil Industry; Landowners; Politics; Jobs; and Environment.  Other identifiers were: date of publication; the section of the site that the article was posted in; if applicable, the city the article is being reported from; who wrote the article; and the images or video postings included in the coverage.  The data is then analyzed taking all of the above into consideration to uncover patterns of coverage and reporting for each of the three media.

Globe and Mail

Quantitative Analysis at a Glance

Qualitative Analysis

With the Globe and Mail what becomes immediately apparent is that the origin of the author and location have a profound affect on the tone of the article or blog being analyzed.  One writer in particular, Nathan Vanderclippe, authors or co-authors 6 of the total 19 articles either from Calgary or Ottawa.  All of these articles are critical of the environmental movement, the Obama Administration, and sympathetic to the oil industries.  Of the six articles, all touched on politics, the oil industry and jobs in that order, with quotes from the likes of crude oil and natural gas producer, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and Rick George of Suncor. His sympathetic viewpoints align with the article placements on the site.  All of his articles are either under “Investing” or “Industry News > Energy & Resources.”

There is little to no mention about why protestors are so passionate about keeping the Keystone XL Pipeline from going in the ground.  And only 3 articles mention First Nations people and only in passing.  Rather, the articles reflect threats of where the industry will set its sights on next, should the project be stopped.

“Pipeline supporters have warned that the loss of the Keystone project will force Canada to turn to Asian, notably Chinese, markets. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver – who has lobbied aggressively to win American support for the project – travels to China this week. The minister will attend a mining conference there, but will also meet with senior Chinese government officials and company executives from the energy sector.” (Vanderclip, 2011).

The summation of the Keystone XL coverage in the Globe and Mail, inclusive of all articles and authors, places the emphasis through its media coverage, on the oil industry, politics and jobs in that order.  This could also be related to the fact that nearly 70 percent of the writers are male.  It’s also important to note that 13 of the 19 articles are being reported on from either a business or investment point of view and reside in those sections of the paper online.  Certainly this reflects the stance on the subject matter by the Globe and Mail as a whole.  Overall, to the Globe and Mail, this is a business versus politics issue, with little regard for the other players affected.

Washington Post

Quantitative Analysis at a Glance

Qualitative Analysis

When reviewing the coverage in the Washington Post, one of the first things that stands out is the lack of coverage on the First Nations people.  It occurred to me that if media were properly covering how such a project would affect the people of the United States, that they would research how it has already affected those dealing with the effects of the tar sands now – especially at the expense of a bitumen leak.

That being said, there appeared to be slightly more balance in the reporting of the Washington Post, however.  The emphasis on environment and politics were equal in coverage followed by the oil industry.  There was also a lot of discussion in the articles about the actual organizing of protesters.  This makes sense in comparison to the coverage of the Globe and Mail since the gathering of protesters was deployed in the nation’s capital as opposed to in Canada despite the show of a great number of Canadians in Washington.  Yet again, there was evidence of a change in tone according to what section an article appeared in.  Clearly those in the economy section focused on the jobs that would be lost if Keystone didn’t pull through – as well as on how much money has already been invested in the project to date.  Environmentalists were mentioned often enough but were portrayed as only a blockade to jobs and progress.  One video posted on November 10th in the Economy section by the Associated Press, showed an interview with TransCanada Corp’s CEO Russ Girling who blamed protesters for steering away 20,000 jobs.  There was no protester representation and no discussion as to what the protests were about.  The accuracy of the 20,000 jobs figure was also never called into question.  As Girling talked about the money spent to date, no one was critical as to why TransCanada Corp. started spending money on pre-construction costs prior to any official approval from the State Department.  It was as if they had already known it was going to be approved – as though they were given an under-the-table green light.

And now for the balance.  On November 8th, 2011, the Washington Post wrote an article pointing out the conflict of interest in the original approval process of the pipeline construction.  “Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica, whose organization used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain e-mails between a TransCanada lobbyist and officials at State, called the pipeline review “a sham, corrupted by bias, lobbyist influence and conflicts of interest. It should be obvious to the White House that it would be wholly inappropriate to continue moving forward with this rigged process” (Mufson, 2011).  This was never mentioned in the Globe and Mail coverage.  And on November 11th, there appeared a clever blog post by Rachel Weiner, which talked about how the protesters were actually made up of people with different beliefs, but a common enemy. “Environmentalists oppose the project because of the energy-intensive, pollution-creating oil extraction. Conservatives and tea party activists are worried about the use of eminent domain, or the government’s ability to take private property, to build a pipeline for a foreign company. And both sides are concerned about oil leaking into aquifers that supply Texas and the Plains states” (Weiner, 2011).  One blog post by Elizabeth Flock spoke of how both sides of the debate used the term ‘Occupy Obama’ during the protest campaign.  First belonging to the protesters, the Republican National Committee started a social media campaign using the exact same term in effort to try and confuse people.  This was a good attempt by the media to show the public just how gullible Keystone XL proponents think they are.

Rabble.ca

Quantitative Analysis at a Glance

Qualitative Analysis

Rabble’s focus was equal in three areas – organizing of protesters, politics and environment.  For Rabble, it is just as important to ask the questions about who is deciding on energy policy, as it is to tell people why the tar sands are a bad idea.  They more deeply explored the conflict of interest that was existing at the State Department for Keystone XL approval, and a great deal of their focus was on the subject of ‘organizing’ itself.  Of course many of the bloggers were industry people in their own right, as opposed to journalists.  Written columns and blogs were more based on opinion and few contained any interviews from proponents of the Keystone Pipeline.  Much more coverage of the plight of the First Nations people was expected to no avail.  There was one mention in passing and a 2^nd mention in an article posted by Maude Barlow, “I told them about the harm done to the First Nations communities that live downstream from the tar sands. I told them what might happen if there are spills along the route as we have already seen 14 serious spills in the first phase of the project.” (Barlow, 2011).

Careful considerations, however, were taken to explore what went wrong with the Keystone Pipeline process, specifically with columnist Fred Wilson, “Here is the no-brainer that Stephen Harper should have figured out. If your product is seen as a global environmental nightmare, and if your failure to demonstrate that it is produced in a sustainable framework creates nothing but controversy for your only major customer, having some oil left in the ground is the least of your problems.” (Wilson, 2011). Wilson is a labour and NGO activist based in Ottawa as well as the Assistant to the President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

Summary

Out of a total of 45 articles written on the subject, it was disappointing to see so little coverage (5 articles in total) on the First Nations people, as I fear they are a collective community who will be facing the brunt of what is to happen with the Alberta tar sands in the future.  Much of the success of the demonstrations that took place in Washington can be attributed to the media coverage of the protesters during a pre-election season – with a President who is well aware of the organizing power of the same group of young activists that helped make his 2008 campaign a success.  The First Nations people of Canada do not have this advantage.  They did not make up the election base for Stephen Harper, and with 3+ years left to go in a majority government, it is unlikely the Harper administration will do anything to defend those developing communities who stand in the way of the tar sands’ expansion and the prospects of future exports.

Late last year (December 2011), the State Department had requested an alternate route for the Keystone XL Pipeline – a decision that made environmentalists giddy and proud of their organizing and protesting efforts. However, as this topic continues to be part of the ongoing political debate – fueling a heated jobs-related election issue, no resolve is final.  Currently Nebraska lawmakers are scheduled for a final vote on a bill this Wednesday which would allow the State Department of Environmental Quality to resume its review of the proposed crude-oil pipeline as it stands.

Nothing is final – until it’s final.

Who Speaks for the trees?

The small orange forest-creature The Lorax does in the recent Hollywood movie inspired by the Dr. Seuss picture book.

So do the protagonist Ted’s grandmother (voiced by Betty White) and his love interest Audrey (voiced by Taylor Swift).  Grandma remembers the old days when real truffula trees grew in the neighbourhood of Thneedville, not the fake lollypop plastic, and remembers too that people breathed real air, not the kind that comes in plastic jugs. Audrey doesn’t remember the tree-days but she longs for them and spurs Ted on to his quest to fetch a seed from the Once-ler. The Once-ler was responsible for the original deforestation and, now holed-up hermit-like in an empty house, needs to redeem himself.

The Na’vi in James Cameron’s Avatar also speak for the trees.  When human capitalists and colonizers invade the tree-paradise of Pandora for profit and development, and they witness the uprooting of their Hometrees, they retreat to the Tree of Souls (Ayvitrayä Ramunong in Na’vi).  This Tree of Life, a vast biological network, enables the Na’vi to connect with their ancestors and the god-force of Eywa and ultimately repel the invaders.

Through technical innovation, Cameron’s movie creates a visually enchanting world of bioluminescence where organisms produce and emit light. In this world, woodsprites, seeds from the sacred tree, float like airborne jelly-fish and Pandora’s flora and fauna resemble the earth forms of ferns, palm trees, mosses, grasses, bamboo and succulents.

Who speaks for the trees? Unfortunately we can’t rely on the fictional characters of the Lorax and the Na’vi, although we can take the Lorax’s words to heart:

UNLESS someone like you

cares a whole awful lot,

nothing is going to get better.

It’s not.

We can say no to bottled water and bottled air. We can stop cutting down trees. We can stop making business and profit the centre of our ethical thinking.

We can care a whole awful lot.

– J.S. Porter

It takes a lot for an artist, or anyone for that matter, to come to the understanding that everything you thought you knew, you didn’t. Oh the humility that suddenly washes over you when you know the truth. Adam Cohen, son to the great Leonard Cohen, in all his raw talent, in all his past-perceived mistakes, shouldn’t be so hard on himself. As teens and young twenty-something’s we all feel infallible and sometimes smarter than most.  The ‘years-gone-by‘ are such good teachers for modesty – because in reality, we each play a small but very important part to a much greater whole.  It is a realization that comes from empathizing with others and learning more of who we truly are when we finally stop being someone else.

Quitting at Failure

Cohen briefly quit his family trate when he walked away from the music business in 2007 – despite reaching minor accolades over the releases of three albums, 1998’s self-titled debut, 2004’s French-language Mélancolista, and 2004’s Ex-Girlfriends. He expected much more fame and fortune than realized. The above video clip was released in August of last year.  You can hear that Cohen’s done a lot of growing since his self-titled debut in 1998.

“Success has been a fruit that has been very slow to ripen for me…” says Cohen. “I had really, really given up being in this business. Luckily I was given another lease. My goal wasn’t to be good. My goal was to be successful. And I can’t believe that it’s taken me this long to learn that you’re supposed to merge the two.”

Why are we talking about this now?

Because it’s interesting (and perhaps because I’m also pushing close to 40 myself). 38 is such a small number and we’re all getting older – no matter how old or young we are. The term “coming of age” exists for a reason. Wisdom takes time. Very precious time. And that’s what makes our lessons learned so valuable – because they are learned at the expense of these precious pods of time.  Cohen’s story is a perfect example of what this journey of growth is all about. Aim for the real stuff (what I’ve always referred to as the ‘meat and potatoes’ of it all) – and if it’s good, the rest will follow.