by Heather Plett | Jun 28, 2006 | Uncategorized
I work downtown. Nearly every day, I walk past the poor, the destitute, the marginalized of society. I’ve learned to block it out – the glaring poverty around me. After so many years of walking downtown streets, I know how to insulate myself against it. I don’t really see them. I brush them off when they ask for change, I hurry past them when they get in my way. I rarely look in their eyes. I forget about their humanity.
I think I’m safe behind my walls. I justify my actions. “It’s best not to hand them spare change – they’ll probably spend it on alcohol or drugs.” “There are downtown ministries that can help them – I don’t have to.” “I’m doing my part for poverty overseas – I can only do so much.”
It’s so much easier to feed people in Africa. It’s easier to care for the children who don’t stumble drunk down back lanes of my downtown. It’s easier to visit their mud huts, take pictures of them, and then go home to my comfort and my table full of plenty.
I think I’m safe in my fourth floor office with my posters and brochures about ending hunger in Africa or Asia. I think I’m okay blocking out the poverty just outside my door. But then I leave the building at lunch time, open the door in a distracted state, stumble over the drunk sleeping body of one of the poor of my own city, and I find myself shaken to the core. My heart won’t stop racing.
The poor are right here. With me. Around me. And I have learned to ignore them for my lofty ideas of feeding hungry children elsewhere.
After lurching past the body on the sidewalk, I stepped inside the church next door. The priest spoke words directly to me. God cares for the poor. It may not be what he said, but it’s what I heard. Blessed are the poor. Blessed is the drunk man sleeping in my doorway.
by Heather Plett | Jun 28, 2006 | Uncategorized
Don’t you sometimes want to mess with billboards and ad campaigns? Sometimes advertising brings out the subversive in me and I find myself tempted to climb up onto a billboard with a can of spray paint to add a few words of truth.
In the mornings, I cycle past an armoury where they display recruitment posters for the military. “Strong, Proud,” the poster proclaims above a picture of a young soldier in uniform, and I want to add at the bottom “and sometimes dead.”
Beneath the multitude of ads for the latest cell phone, I want to print “Seriously. Isn’t your old one good enough?” or “Get real – you need to watch TV on your CELL PHONE? Perhaps a visit to an addictions counselor is in order!?”
Under the ads for the latest exercise equipment – the ones with the buxom babes and bronzed bodybuilders, I want to say “Come on – you KNOW you’d have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for plastic surgery if you want THAT body. Buy the exercise equipment and you’ll be out a coupla hundred dollars and you’ll STILL have your old body!”
On the clothing ads… “Take a good look in your closet. Do you really NEED more clothes?” or “It may look good on the model, but it will look like a SACK on you!”
Under “Wal-mart. Always low prices,” I’d put “Abusing people all over the world so YOU can enjoy low prices.”
Fast food restaurants: “Do you want to add THIGHS with that?” or “Bring us your kids – we’ll make them fat and lazy.”
And speaking of the “Truth in Advertising”, check out this hilarious video clip.
And here’s another fun link about the truth in tobacco advertising.
What truth would you add to ad campaigns?
by Heather Plett | Jun 28, 2006 | Uncategorized
With tonight’s final game (a nail-biter resulting in Julie’s team emerging victorious), soccer season ends until September. Next week will find us twiddling our thumbs, not knowing what to do with all the free evenings. Perhaps we’ll set up our lawn chairs on the edge of a soccer field anyway, just out of force of habit.
It’s been an incredible season – no missed games because of bad weather. Only a few at the beginning were too cold to be pleasant, but mostly it’s been a delightful way to spend the evenings.
So now, because I know you’re dying to see them in uniform, I give you THE SOCCER PICTURES….
First of all, Nikki, who’s wearing #7
And here’s Julie, wearing #3
And because he got in on the action too, here’s a pic of Coach Daddy with his favourite team-member and with his coaching partners (note the stylish coach attire – I made them all photo shirts with the team pic on it).
If I were handing out end-of-season team awards, I would give Julie “most improved player” (she got quite aggressive toward the end there!) and Nikki “strongest kicker” (yikes! I’d be scared to get in front of that powerful leg of hers!). Oh, and Daddy and his coaching buddies – “most valuable coaches” (they made an awesome team)!
by Heather Plett | Jun 27, 2006 | Uncategorized
When I got home from work one day last week, four-year-old Maddie tugged on my arm. “Mom, come watch me – I know how to pump on the swing!” Beaming my approval, I followed her to the swing set. She hopped on the swing and started moving her legs – back and forth, back and forth. Slowly, the momentum lifted her into the air.
I sat down on the deck and watched her, cheering her on. Marcel stepped out of the house and stood beside me. “Yeah,” he said, “she just figured it out today. It’s kinda nice now – I can sit on the deck, read my paper and drink my coffee, and she doesn’t bug me to push her on the swing anymore.”
A few days later, we were at the church picnic and I sat relaxing in the shade talking to the other grown-ups as we watched the kids play. Maddie swung high in the air on the swings. Julie wandered off to play somewhere else, and Nikki picked up her 7 month old cousin and found a quiet place to entertain her. “Ah,” I sighed happily to my friends, “my kids don’t need me much anymore. I can actually finish a drink now without having to get up to push someone on the swing, change a diaper, or wipe a snotty nose.” It felt SO luxurious to have a conversation with friends at a church function without interruption.
Maddie’s accomplishment on the swing marks another milestone in the growth of our family. With the third and final child, each “first” also marks a “last”. The first step meant our last crawler. The first word meant the end of baby talk. The first sippy-cup meant the last bottle or breast-feeding. The first time on a real bike (with training wheels so far) meant the last of the tricycles.
Sometimes it feels like only yesterday that we became parents and learned how to change diapers, soothe aches and pains, potty train, etc., etc. Now here we are with all these major steps already behind us. No more potty training. No more rocking them to sleep. No more high chairs or bibs. No more pushing them on the swings (well okay, sometimes they still WANT it even if they don’t NEED it :-).
It comes with some bittersweetness, this growing up thing. Yes it’s nice to sit back and watch them swing high as the trees without my help. Yes it’s nice to finish a grown-up conversation without interruption. Yes it’s nice to not have to be the source of everything for a needy little baby anymore. I don’t deny the pleasure in those things – in fact I quite enjoy it.
But there’s the other side of it too – the part that fills us with a bit of sadness when they don’t need us anymore. Nikki is such a grown-up girl she handles her baby cousin with ease and responsibility. She’s almost ready to stay home without adult supervision, and soon she’ll be babysitting. Julie can quite capably bake a cake by herself. Maddie can reach light switches and pump herself on the swings.
From here on in, they will continue to need me less and less. It’s beautiful and it’s painful all at the same time. Before long, I’ll be in the same shoes as Linda, watching my youngest graduate. Sigh.
In the meantime, though, before they run off to lives of their own, I sure hope I can remember to taste the sweetness of every moment I still have them with me. I may not have to push Maddie on the swing anymore, but once in awhile, I’ll at least sit and watch her.
by Heather Plett | Jun 26, 2006 | Uncategorized
Why don’t you go on over and welcome a new blogger to blogland. I’ll give you a few hints:
– she’s cute
– she loves soccer and running mini-marathons
– she’s always been a deep thinker beyond her young years
– she made me a Mommy
(Note: if you’re a creep and you have no business being there, than stay far, far away from this particular blog, because I’m not afraid to HURT YOU!)
by Heather Plett | Jun 24, 2006 | Uncategorized
That’s right, I’m in Cahoots. Remember when I fussed and fumed about the fact that there are very few good magazines out there and I thought I’d have to start my own to satisfy my high standards? And remember when I said that two smart women in Saskatchewan read my mind and started the magazine of my dreams? (Whew! It seemed like a lot of work to start my own, so I’m glad they beat me to it.)
Well, that magazine is Cahoots, and shortly after I fell in love with it, I sent them an article (many of you already read it when it appeared here – it’s about preparing to turn 40). Those two smart women were kind enough to publish it in the latest edition. (If you’re reading this, Carla and Michele, thanks!) 
Here’s a picture of it. Trust me, you really should whip out your credit card, go here, and subscribe to this magazine. No, they didn’t pay me to say so, it’s just SO GOOD! Women of blogland (and other friends), this is the kind of magazine that NEEDS to thrive. This is the kind of magazine that should appear on every magazine stand, bravely telling the world that smart women are looking for a little more than glossy fashion magazines, celebrity rags, and homemaking tips. Take my word for it – you’ll be glad you did. (And I’m not just saying that because they had the good sense to publish my article – there are lots of other things in there that outshine my meagre offerings.) For starters, isn’t it refreshing that the cover page features artwork instead of airbrushed models?
(For my local readers, you can get it at McNally Robinson. Other than that, I’m not sure where it’s available.)
In other news, I’ll also have a piece appearing in Beyond Ordinary Living, another new magazine that shows alot of potential. I’ll let you know when it shows up on a magazine rack near you. And I have a contract for a couple of other short pieces for another magazine that, at this point, shall remain nameless.
It’s happening, folks – I’m putting my stuff out there in the universe and lately, the universe has been responding favourably. I can say much more bravely now – I AM a freelance writer.
