Celebrate our candle lives

Integrity as our driver

Red crossbill, photo Geoffrey Simmins

Is it possible for an ordinary person living a small life to in any way affect the darkness of climate catastrophe and wars that the media parades in front of us daily? This is a bold statement to make, but I’ll come out and say, Maybe.

Not that long ago I attended a talk given by a Pender Island resident, a brilliant climate lawyer, David Boyd, who was the environmental special rapporteur to the UN for the past six years. It was a terrific evening. David suggested what’s wrong with the world, and what’s what we’re reaping now in terms of consequences can be summed up in six words, “Exploit people, exploit environment, get rich.”

What if we flipped this maxim on its head? “Respect people, respect the environment, share resources.” Okay, I’m not Jeff Bezos. I live on an island with a winter population of 2900 people and I’m a writer, one of those peculiar individuals driven by their art. So I’m a person of modest means.

But, but imagine how revolutionary and just plain fine it would be, to make explicit in our lives this change we’d like to see. “Be kind to people, be kind to the environment, allocate resources kindly.” It's pithier with six words. The important thing is integrity becomes the driver rather than greed, fear, or scarcity.

Pender Island, photo Geoffrey Simmins

Thinking of scarcity, I’m reminded of how hard it is to get a job teaching Creative Writing at the university level in Canada. There are very few of them. And yet, once a writer friend, herself applying for a job, told me about it. I hadn’t known. We both applied; she got the job. I’ve never forgotten her generosity of spirit. I got a job at a different university a few months later.

Years ago, I listened to a conversation at a party about nannies, the employing thereof, where to find them, their hours and what one could pay. It soon became apparent that the real info being shared was how little these people could pay their nannies, and what country lent itself best to this exploitation. I felt sick. One woman I’d known for years and I’d felt quite warm toward her. I was never able to feel the same again. These two-career families were following right along in the societal dictates, “Exploit people, get rich.”

Not long after that, someone I was close to, a minister and his wife who had a very high-powered job, hired a nanny.  With those party conversations fresh in mind, I thought, well, that would be interesting. How were they going to handle this?

I made discreet inquiries. They paid probably double what the people at the party felt they could get away with. The minister and his wife also paid holiday time on stat holidays, unemployment insurance premiums, and for a couple of weeks paid holidays. In short, they behaved exactly as one would hope that an employer would treat your sister or daughter. When they bought a new car, they sold their six year old Nissan to their nanny for $1.

Integrity. It’s a candle held up to the dark of the world. We hold these candles up, not the billionaires who feel they can buy part of Patagonia and build a refuge for themselves where they alone can escape the ravages of climate change.

Pah. What about replacing the greed ethic with, “Cooperate with people, cooperate with the environment, share resources,”? Or, “Cherish people, cherish the environment, share wealth”?

Indigenous people talk about plants as our relatives, of animals as our relatives, birds and whales. Could I include unrelated people as my relatives? I have no difficulty with plants being part of my family.

Darts Hill Garden Park, Photo Jannette Maedel

Years ago when I dipped my toes into the water of journalism, I wrote a magazine article about the Darts Hill Garden Park, a magnificent garden seven and a half acre garden in the lower mainland. Francisca Darts and her husband Edwin had developed it from land that had been logged. It was a mess; I saw pictures. Over 75 years, Francisca turned the area into a paradise, famous among horticulturists, who came around the world to visit. The writeup on the garden says the Darts Hill Garden Park, has, “the most diverse collection of mature tree and shrub species in the Pacific Northwest. Many were planted from seed collected from around the world.”

Francisca told me with great pride that there was one tree in particular, a huge paulownia, which the Queen of England’s head gardener inspected and said, “It’s better than mine.” I mean, is there a greater accolade in the horticultural world? She showed the paulownia tree to me; it was in bloom and just jaw-dropping.

Francisca also told me she had developers calling constantly. She could have become rich. Instead, as I was writing the article, she chose to leave her garden to the city of Surrey, so it could be enjoyed by everyone. She maintained a life tenancy there.

Paulownia tree, Photo MySeeds

As human beings, are we supposed to ripen into sparkly individuals who serve the environment? Can we allow our actions to be powered by integrity?

Years ago, before real estate became so ruinously expensive, I watched a couple of friends of mine buy houses, renovate them and rent them out. Now, there’s ways and ways you can do it, as in cheap, with mismatched crummy materials and workmanship that would make a professional carpenter gag. I’m thinking of a particular basement apartment my daughter rented which flooded periodically and, surprise, grew black mould. The landlord never even replaced the carpet, he just brought in a space heater.

In contrast, my friends who renovated houses had a different standard. “We bring them up to the level that we ourselves would live in them.” Decent, in other words. It concentrates the mind wonderfully, having that thought. Everything needs to be clean, tidy, finished and a reasonable quality.

In whatever small way that we land on this planet, can we facilitate healing?

I’ve been very fortunate to have a knowledgeable and hard-working gardener assist me for the last 10 years. At one point, it came to my attention that a guy we both knew was charging more per hour than she was. I said, “You do know you’re charging less than the guys on the island?” Of course she knew. I was waiting for her to raise her rates. But I didn’t have to do that. I said to her, “Starting today, I’m paying you the same.”

Tiny stuff, right? But each fair, respectful action we take is a candle. And I’m a big fan of candles. We can hold them up together, lit against the dark, for our relatives the plants, the oceans, and maybe people too.

Is there a pithy way you can describe how we can replace the greed/exploit ethic? I’ve used the words respect, cooperate, cherish, and share but I’m convinced there’s a punchier way to phrase things. I’d appreciate your input!

Sunrise