THE EXPEDITION Chapter 12: Green, Eggs, and Wham (Section 1)
- Ann Cognito
- Apr 16, 2022
- 7 min read
In which Ann visits an amazing green family Date: May 20-May 26, 2019 Regina
Actually the wham part came first. Regina’s big. Cities hit me like a ton of bricks. It had been so nice to be out of them, and although so many good things happened in Regina, the city itself did hit me over the head like a ton of bricks.
North Hunter had gotten in touch with someone helping with walk support, and they’d gotten me in touch with her, messaging. She was offering us a place to stay in the city.
North, it turned out, is a drop dead gorgeous and brilliant young woman who is one of the main organizers with Fridays For Future in Regina. She’s also one of the most ecologically serious and greenest-at-heart people I’ve ever met. So is her mother, Naomi, now the fiery and inspired leader of the Saskatchewan Green Party. While I was there, she was running federally in the area, and though I wish she could have run to lead that party, the provincial party is downright lucky to have her and I have no doubt whatsoever that she will be a big part of changing this country. So will Northy. I only met North’s brother briefly, but did meet her grandparents. This whole family knocks my socks off; this kind of living is just their normal.
They practice everything they preach. They live consciously and sustainably. Everything they do and decide is done with regenerative principles in mind, and with the future in mind. They are close to becoming a zero waste household. Northy comes home later than she means to from things sometimes because she’s apt to do things like randomly stop and build a composter for a stranger who’d been putting their yard waste into plastic bags, or other such spontaneously helpful things. She’s constantly cleaning up garbage and litter as she passes through the world, leaving a trail of clearness in her wake.
Naomi makes beautiful jewelry, and artwork, and craftwork. She sets up at all sorts of events and whatnot. She also teaches yoga, and does quite a lot of other holistic type things. She’s also part of the family haskap operation. Haskap berries sort of between blueberry and raspberry, but a bit different, and ridiculously good. I didn’t even know they existed before now! Large quantities externally will turn you purple; small quantities are delicious all kinds of ways or just by themselves.
I also learned what cackleberries are. At first I thought they were something else harvested on the family farm, but no…. Cackleberries, also known as chickenfruit, are those things that Mr Myrtle loves so much that he understands not only the correct name, but the spelling, and several euphemisms, thus requiring an ongoing succession of alternate terms, to which I now had two more exceptional options! Cackleberries are eggs. Naomi makes awesome omelettes.
The Hunters have a guinea-pig named Fluffball Fluffy Climate Warrior Moonbeam Ragnarok Destroyer of Lettuce. She has an instagram account for her warrior work. Besides being very helpful in the yard and kitchen, she’s lovely company.
They really are all crazy-busy, though Fluffball maybe not so much. They’ve basically turned their lives over to the planet, and pretty much everything they do is for her. It was wonderful talking with them in between everything, though, and I’m so glad to have been able to meet them. Somehow, Naomi even found a piece of time to do an interview with me, which she posted on her Green page.
I tend to go a little outside myself during interviews and speaking. Otherwise I get such hideous anxiety it can turn into panic attacks. It helps to ‘back up’ a bit. I do make notes, but if I carry them I stay hyper-present and it gets worse, so I try to rehearse general and specific interviews and talks in my head and with Mr Myrtle or, if I’m lucky, sometimes obliging humans. It doesn’t necessarily go spectacularly, but at least keeps awful things like panic attacks from happening.
Sometimes I do much better just bumping into people and talking off the top of my head. One day while staying with the Hunters, there was a large street festival nearby (they live in the ‘hood where those things happen). Naomi set up her jewelry booth, and we accidentally explored the whole festival while looking for her because I turned the wrong way right off the bat. Oh well, it was fun… and I had some conversations that made it more than worth it.
A few times, I spoke with groups of students who were involved with the local Fridays for Future school strikes that Northy was helping to organize. These students were so enthused about my walk that some got in touch with one of their teachers, who later invited me to speak to the whole class. Another group went and found their teacher to meet me. I met a couple other teachers as well, there with family, or just hanging out. It was so great speaking with them, because although I’d been calling and emailing schools, none were open to letting me come speak. Some were plainly discouraging. A few were downright rude. To be fair, some wished they could have me speak but said it would have to be approved through a lengthy process which would take much too long and would undoubtedly be as fruitless as a post-climate-crisis apple tree.
The school where I went to speak is a junior high school. The entire class petitioned the principal to let me come talk with them, and it’s one of the most special times of the whole walk. Every student was there – nobody missed it. Their teacher introduced me, and gave them a nutshell version of what I was doing, though they really all already knew. He brought up a couple of the news articles on the projector for them, and then I said a bit myself. Mostly, though, it was all about what the students wanted to ask. We could have continued all day, I’m quite sure.
They had so many questions and every single one was a really good one. They were such a smart, interested, informed bunch of young people, not to mention curious, and inspired. They were inspiring, too, to me.
Quite a lot of people are concerned that young folks might be left out of the push for climate crisis education and action, or left behind. Speaking as an oldish person, the truth is – it’s the other way around. We broke the future. They’re not putting up with that. We’ll be lucky if they choose not to forget about us.
Teachers aren’t supposed to support school strikes. Many do anyways. Some even take their students to the strikes – or, ahem, follow them there to make sure they’re alright when they all just happen to mysteriously walk out of class on Fridays. These teachers usually face various degrees of reprimand, none inconsequential. Many are told they’ll be fired; some probably have been. They keep supporting their students anyways because it matters too much, and because they refuse to bow to the administrative and political powers that be. I doff my hat to those teachers so very, very much.
Meanwhile, Carmen was still out west again and wasn’t sure when she’d be back, though it’d be soon enough that she still wanted me to stay. She worked out a means of passing a set of her apartment keys on to me through a friend of hers whom I went and met and picked them up from. Mr Myrtle and I stayed there a few days ourselves till she got back. North and Naomi (and Fluffy) graciously let Mr Myrtle and I stay for almost a week while Carmen and I sorted that out.
We were able to go to the Friday school strike, which was such a great experience. I hadn’t been to one yet, and the Regina youth do them well. They vary in size from dozens to hundreds, depending. Some Fridays are coordinated national and international strike days, and those can be huge. This day, I’d guess a hundred and fifty people came out. They were mostly young, but it’s become usual all over the place for some older folks to come out to support (and sometimes protect) the youth.
North often portrays Mother Nature at these and similar events. Moving gracefully through traffic or trees in flowing greens and blues, with flowers and twigs in her falling hair, she looks like she sprouted out of a meadow and I swear the bugs and butterflies and small critters follow her. Children certainly do, and they learn from her, too. As the event wound down, Northy and a whole crew of small people and their parents wandered about talking and ridding the legislature grounds of garbage and cigarette butts.
There was a Green New Deal town hall event while I was in Regina, and so Mr Myrtle and I locked up our scooter and trailer with all the attendees bicycles and sat in on that. There wasn’t much talk of how the proposals are not even remotely lose to being what we need, so I made myself stand up (at my table, not up front) to talk . After introducing myself and my walk, I went over the speaking points XR had just emailed out regarding the shortcomings of the Deal. That was received with quite a bit of interest, and that made it worth the nervewrackingness of standing up in a room full of 200 people I didn’t know (and two whom I did but they were a few tables away). I hope people keep learning, and keep pushing for better. What we’re being handed as possible solutions are not even good enough to be stop-gap measures. They do not involve deep enough changes and political or industrial commitments to even begin to save us, let alone the planet.
One evening, a local but widely-read publication called the Briarpatch hosted a discussion panel on the idea of ‘just transition’. I went with Naomi and North (and Mr Myrtle, of course, who behaved very well). The event was prefaced by an entire issue on the subject which I still have. If you can find it, it’s totally worth reading. In fact, just subscribe to the Briarpatch, they’re brilliant. After the panel, there was lots of good conversations… there was also very nice food.
Sometimes anxiety makes me eat. I tried to be polite about the event nibblies, but on the way ‘home’, I passed a falafel place and couldn’t help stopping. It was the first falafel I’d had since before moving to Jamaica, and one of the most appreciated ones I’ve ever had. I wish I could remember where it was, but it was so good that I ate too much (as soon as I got ‘home’) and then fell dead asleep.
Comentários