Community
Words that make me stop in my tracks
By Glenn Kubish
I stop for words on the street.
Like the day a couple of summers ago on the 103 St bike lane in Edmonton when page 70 from Shaw’s Pygmalion lay face up on the asphalt.
Liza Doolittle Day!
I picked up the loose page and, standing over my bike, read the scene where Henry Higgins tells his mother he has picked up a girl.
Mrs. Higgins: Does that mean that some girl has picked you up?
Higgins: Not at all. I don’t mean a love affair.
Mrs. Higgins: What a pity!
I remembered how Shelagh shared her love of musicals when we met. Camelot. My Fair Lady. She taught me that West Side Story was Romeo and Juliet.
And like the day last summer in the north end when I pedalled across scattered pages from the Book of Psalms.
Old testimony
I stopped and retrieved Psalm 33: “The Lord frustrates the purposes of the nations; he keeps them from carrying out their plans.”
I smiled. Still in the news that week was criticism of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s retreat to St. Paul (not the city) as controversy swirled around his government’s practice of separating immigrant parents from their children.
“…There’s a sense I feel as an urban bicycle rider of reading the city as I pedal across its pages of blocks and along its illustrated parks. To combine that figurative reading with a literal reading is delicious…”
“I would cite to you the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” said Sessions to a room of law enforcement official in Indiana (Lord, I can’t go back there).
In Sessions’ retreat to the altar, critics caught the whiff of theocracy. In the sudden appearance of the Psalm 33 on the 82 St service road, I fancied I heard the Lord’s judgement of Sessions.
And like today on the 83 Ave bike lane on my way to Coffee Outside. There by the curb lay more words for the picking.
Paper chase
I doubled back for the stapled pages.
Hit return, retrieve
It was an academic paper from an unnamed student in Education 395 who wrote an abstract of an attached 12-page article, “What Do You Lose When You Lose Your Language (1996),” by Joshua Fishman. I put the article in my pannier and pedalled on.
Tonight, I read the article. Fishman, who I now know was an American linguist who taught the sociology of language, argues that language provides to a community a sense of sanctity, a sense of kinship and a sense of moral imperative.
“[L]iteracy,” Fishman writes, “provides a community or it creates access to communication across time and space. We can talk to people who are no longer alive through literacy.”
Fishman died in 2015. I met him today in Garneau.
Hello from Edmonton, Prof. Fishman
There is something unavoidable about stopping for words when I’m on my bike.
It’s easy. I’m already outside. Stopping for words would never work in an automobile.
Stopping strikes me as a duty. I was raised to revere books. I still do. The experience of reading a book is the experience of reading sound made to stand still in shapes on a page. Reading is still a time-defying thrill. It’s painful to see printed words that are, essentially, time machines into the past, blowing forlornly down the street.
There’s a sense I feel as an urban bicycle rider of reading the city as I pedal across its pages of blocks and along its illustrated parks. To combine that figurative reading with a literal reading is delicious.
In the end, I enjoy the serendipity of it all, especially in this world of recommendation algorithms that tell me if I read this book, I will like this one. When I encounter printed words on the street, I hear the wind say: take what blows in and make something from it!
Of course, I may be reading more into things than I should.
Originally published at http://glennkubish.blogspot.com on April 20, 2019.
Glenn Kubish, Author
From the Central Alberta Child Advocacy Centre
The Edmonton Oilers MEGA 50/50 is BACK in support of three amazing organizations 
By purchasing your Oilers MEGA 50/50 tickets today, you’re helping to support the CACAC, along with Little Warriors and Zebra Child & Youth Advocacy Centre .
Purchase before 1PM to be eligible for all 4 early bird prizes, including a $500 Esso card, 2 PCL Loge Arkells tickets for November 1, $1000 for Alberta Beef, and $10,000 CASH!
Early Bird draws!
Buy before 1:00 for $500 Esso card
Buy before 7:00 for 2 PCL Loge Arkells tickes
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THANK YOU EDMONTON OILERS!
The Red Deer Regional Health Foundation has announced the winners of the 2024 Red Deer Hospital Lottery Dream Home and Tiny Home prize packages, as well as the Mega Bucks 50.
The Mega Bucks 50 jackpot reached $607,200.00, which makes Carolyn Pelerine of Cochrane, Alberta the winner of $303,600.00.
In addition, the luxurious Tree Hugger Tiny Home Prize Package, complete with accessories by Urban Barn and valued at $163,798.00, is now owned by Mary Vincent of Red Deer.
The coveted Sorento Dream Home Prize Package, which includes furnishings and accessories by Urban Barn and boasts a total value of $1,072,624.00, has been awarded to Maxine Rumohr of Sylvan Lake.
The highly anticipated draw took place at 10:00 a.m. Thursday at the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation office, located within the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, with an announcement following live on Facebook, allowing participants and supporters to join in the excitement virtually.
“We are delighted to congratulate the winners of this year’s Red Deer Hospital Lottery,” said Manon Therriault, Chief Executive Officer of the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation. “The funds raised from this lottery will significantly contribute to enhancing patient care and services at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who participated and supported this important cause.”
Proceeds from the Red Deer Hospital Lottery and Mega Bucks 50 will contribute to acquiring critically needed, state-of-the-art equipment for several units at the Red Deer Hospital.
This year’s lottery will fund equipment such as a phototherapy system, which allows parents to hold and soothe their infant while undergoing phototherapy, a cardiology case cart to monitor cardiac rhythms during stress testing, and other equipment to help provide excellent care for patients in the emergency and operating rooms at the Red Deer Hospital.
The winners of a variety of electronics were also drawn today. A full list of winners will be available in the coming days on the official lottery website at reddeerhospitallottery.ca. Prize winners who have not already been notified will receive a letter in the mail with instructions on how to claim their prizes.
The keys to the Sorento Dream Home and the Tree Hugger Tiny Home will be presented to the winners at a special ceremony this summer.
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