I did get my “perspective” shot, but I was also reminded not to be afraid to put my hand out, palm up. Wonderful, unexpected things can happen.

Here’s a collage of some of my artsy Instagram shots from this week.  If you would like to see more, please visit my photo website where I’ve created a gallery just for iPhonetography.  Signed, Inspectress Gadget.

I can’t help but also share Robert Frost’s famous poem here; it seems so fitting!  Have a great week everyone.

Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken

]]> http://pattihenderson.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/the-road-taken/feed/ 2 pattihenderson The Road Taken for Wordpress http://pattihenderson.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/providence/ http://pattihenderson.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/providence/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:50:34 +0000 pattihenderson http://pattihenderson.wordpress.com/?p=1052 ]]> The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines “providence” as “the protective care of God or nature.” On this Thanksgiving Monday, I am giving thanks for providence. I just got back from a lovely two-day road trip with my Mum and Dad. Every two years I pick my parents up in their gigantic purple “mini” van and we embark on a well-planned adventure to take in the fall colours. In years past we have toured the back roads of Muskoka, having our Thanksgiving supper on the Segwun. This year we decided to drive up the Lake Huron shoreline to Tobermory and take the MS Chi-Cheemaun on one of its last sails of the season across Georgian Bay to Manitoulin Island.  I do most of the planning and Mum and Dad oblige by clapping at the most spectacular fall foliage.  I am blessed that they are so easy to please!  This time around I made a mistake when booking our overnight accommodations.  I picked a lodge pretty far inland on the island (they forgave me as I had a rather crazy week).  As it turns out, our overnight stay was in stunning Providence Bay.  Just at sunset I had a chance to venture down to the beach and take the snap above.  I am convinced that nowhere else could I have taken a sunset snap like this one.  It was, in fact, providence, that led us to our resting place on Saturday night.  All three of us enjoyed each other’s company, we relaxed to the sound of endless waves lapping on the shore, and we felt, for one night, surrounded by the protective care of nature.  Our weary souls needed that more than you can know.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  May providence smile down on you this week.

In fact, this past Friday I almost had an opportunity to attend an event that pulled together a diverse group of leading thinkers in and around Toronto.  On Friday our city hosted TEDX Toronto, a version of a global conference held in various cities around the world with the sole intent of spreading great ideas.  Or even better, to foster the innovation that happens when a series of good ideas bump together to solve a problem. Most who attend find that the diversity of ideas shared often trigger a-ha moments in their own line of work.  This Friday’s event in Toronto included a local Grade 12 student sharing his work in information retrieval research, a U of T Professor of Psychology sharing his work in the field of belief, prediction and creativity, and the Co-founder of Engineers Without Borders speaking about his work tackling why poverty persists.  Three truly divergent ideas that could quite possibly converge to solve a global issue or a local one.  Unfortunately for me my Friday at work was typical, a bit crazy. So I couldn’t venture uptown in the afternoon as planned. Fortunately, TEDX organizers do a wonderful job of capturing the talks on video, and they are posted on YouTube almost immediately.  The video that was created to kick off the event is a wonderful ode to the host city, Toronto. It was shot in black and white (which reminded me of my photo of the Toronto skyline taken last Sunday), and it does a great job explaining why those of us who live here love it. You can watch this video here, as well as the speaker videos from Friday’s event.

If the notion of diverse ideas colliding to form new ones strikes your fancy, I would also recommend a book I’m reading right now by Steven Johnson called Where Good Ideas Come From, where Johnson states: “we are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them.”  If you are not in for a long read at the moment and want to get a visually appealing synopsis of Johnson’s book, please check out this short video. It will get you thinking! And that’s always a good idea!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

I must admit that this run is quite personal for me. It is for everyone.  So many family and friends have been touched by this devastation called cancer.  Each year I head down the boardwalk to the registration table at Woodbine Beach, hoping to start my run early before the crowds come. I need a quiet buffer around me for the first 5 kilometres so I can reflect on family and friends, and the gift that is a happy, healthy life.  I took the photo above at the 2 kilometre mark today, when the trail rounds a bend and the whole of Lake Ontario opens up in front of me.  It is at this point that I remember Betty’s plea and make a pact to never forget my dreams. To never forget how lucky I am.

This past week I have been reflecting upon the past 10 years and wondering, like many, has our world changed since that terrible day not that long ago? My degree is in International Relations and it is only natural to try to place this event within a context of change over time and impact on the global stage.  I have read special anniversary articles from the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Globe and Mail and many others trying to search for some greater meaning to 9/11.  But it wasn’t until yesterday that I found a piece that was able to give shape to this post. The ever thoughtful New Yorker published a special eBook this week that shares all of the New Yorker articles written on the topic of 9/11 starting with the first article in the weeks after that tragic day.  Celebrated author Jonathan Franzen wrote these words: “Who would have guessed that everything could end so suddenly on a pretty Tuesday morning? In a space of two hours, we left behind a happy era of Game Boy economics and trophy houses and entered a world of fear and vengeance.” (From The Pages of The New Yorker: After 9/11)  It is tempting to hope that the world has changed as a result of such an unthinkable, horrific event but the news this morning still shares stories of war, terrorism, and sad examples of man’s inhumanity to man.  What has changed? Can this event that has scarred our psyche have meaning?

The best I can do today is think about how my life has changed. On the surface it might seem “not much.” Just as I am typing this a huge army plane, likely from Trenton, just passed low over my apartment and not unlike the days and weeks after 9/11 my heart races and I duck my head. Just briefly.  I have shared my 9/11 story before in this blog.  I have shared what happened as if it was a story that happened long ago to somone else.  A dispassionate re-telling is easy. The week I was stranded in St. John’s Newfoundland was hard.  I think about this week in terms of “before and after.”

The “before”, September 10, was an awesome day.  I had just landed in St. John’s on a marvelously sunny, warm late summer day – a decidely different experience for me in this friendly city.  Before that day I had been storm-stayed in St. John’s several times, as the result of both snow and fog.  To arrive and see the stunning horizon and the brightly coloured homes along the harbour cheerfully shine was such an unexpected treat.  I got to my hotel, changed into shorts, t-shirt and hiking shoes and decided to hike to the top of Signal Hill, knowing that the next two days I would be cooped up inside a hotel conference room giving a geography in-service to Newfoundland teachers and consultants.  I remember reaching the top of Signal Hill and finding a quiet place to sit and look out over the ocean.  Such surroundings often force reflection and for me, I saw my life ahead of me reflected in the wide, endless expanse of the Atlantic.  Anything seemed possible.

The “after” was much different.  It doesn’t take long to recall the emotions of the next day as I’ve recalled the story here before.  Curiosity. Why are so many planes landing on the airport tarmac behind our hotel?  Horror.  Why are people jumping out of the World Trade Centre buildings? Disbelief.  How can those steel bastions of strength fall so easily, so quickly? Fear.  Firemen yelling to evacuate our hotel.  What next? What on earth can happen next? Numbness. Making the mistake of watching the television once safe back in my hotel by the waterfront.  More numbness as I aimlessly walk the streets along St. John’s harbour, wondering how long it will be before America decides to strike back. Fear again. What’s going to happen to us? Loneliness.  When can I hug my family again? I need them. Badly.  I just needed to be held.  And later that week, Terror. How can I get on  this plane in a week when planes were used as weapons? And finally Anguish. I am home, but everything has changed. Will I ever feel safe again? How can humans behave like this? Why? Why? Why?

Today, on this anniversary, I find that the before and after emotions run through me just as easily as they did back then. The images of that day, that week, are apparently seared into my very being.  And I wasn’t even there where it all happened.   Yet everyone has a story about that day and I am not alone.  And I am not alone in wondering if such a day could have meaning after what we saw and felt.

I am writing today to say that 9/11 certainly does have meaning. In the years that have passed since my prolonged stay in Newfoundland, I have experienced better times, better words to describe this “after” time.  Hope. Resilience. Forgiveness. And  best of all, Love.  My fortunate visit to that chain link fence in Greenwich Village last fall revealed to me like nothing else could, that there is hope in our human race.  That we are able to learn from such a sorrowful story. That day I had intended to visit The Tribute WTC Visitor Center at Ground Zero.  Based on the embarassing river of tears that flowed from me in The Village looking at those heartfelt ceramic tiles, I didn’t trust myself to go in the visitor center. I wasn’t yet ready to see all of those images and stories. Now I know it would have helped.  This past weekend I found and purchased a book just published that shares the many stories of those who have gone within the center, experienced the stories and shared their own.  If you find the need for evidence that hope and forgiveness does exist, please pick up 9/11: The World Speaks.  I cannot think of a better way to draw this post to a close than to share two quotes that made me weep, and believe in better days ahead:

“The best tribute to the victims of 9/11, to the victims of all types of terrorism, is to keep the testimony of a future without fear, without mistrust in others. This is the legacy we must leave for our children and for future generations. Pain won’t win, ever.”

“The 9/11 tragedy is a story in the lives of all people in our world. This will change our perspective on the importance of life itself.  I hope we will be more sensitive, be more loving and responsible people. Life on earth is short. Let’s give importance to it.”

How have I changed? I appreciate life, every day. I hug people (too hard probably…but I’m making up for that week without hugs), and I cherish my family and my dear friends.

Love one another.

You might wonder why I would spend a Saturday devoted to what is essentially my job during the week, publishing.  Well, for me it is not a job. It is a passion!  I am certain I am not alone in this. Publishing seems to draw like-minded folks who adore all things to do with the written word, in what-ever form, digital, print… you name it, we love it!    I attended BookCamp Toronto last year for the first time and I remember wondering why I hadn’t attended before. It was an awesome experience to gather under the same roof with editors, authors, sellers, marketers, bloggers etc from across the publishing world here in Canada to learn about our collective experience in an industry that is literally being turned on its ear.  The theme of last year’s conference was “We’ve Gone Digital, Now What?” and this year’s conference theme was similar, “The Future is Now” but with a decidedly different buzz in the session rooms.  Perhaps the biggest change between last year’s event and this year’s is the advent of the iPad, coupled with the meteoric rise of e-reading.  With the rise of e-reading (and the decline in print sales) has come the debates over pricing, the value of content, and the definition of the word  ”book” and even “reading”.  In one short year we went from discussing the production challenges of turning print into digital, to debating the value of the content itself. The deeper undercurrent that made yesterday’s buzz seem tinged with immediacy is the larger question that stems from all of these debates: does the publishing industry still have value in the eyes of our customers?   Are we still relevant in this new age of gadgets, widgets, blogs and free content? Is there still room for the intelligent curator of content, a mantle book and newspaper publishers have long worn with pride?  If you asked anyone at Ryerson these questions yesterday, you would have been met with a confident, determined and emphatic “yes! Of course! and here’s how…”  coupled with a collective rolling up of sleeves.  Indeed much has changed in the past year, but I can say from personal experience that publishers are innovating and adapting at a rate that would make your head spin (trust me, it makes ours spin!) with the end goal of providing readers with the best experience possible, no matter the format or device.

This is not an easy road, and there has been and will continue to be casualties along the way that will break our hearts but not our backs.  I must recommend a documentary I saw at the end of the conference yesterday: Page One: A Year in the Life of the New York Times, as an example (an in your face example for sure) of the challenges publishers are facing.  Long an institution in the US, this past year saw the NY Times face a series of hurdles that nearly crippled the news giant: Wiki Leaks, loss of revenue and readership due to free news aggregators, and a huge round of layoffs never before experienced at The Times.  I will admit here that even though this documentary was engrossing,  it was tough to watch, as all publishing houses are being asked to do more with less.  I left the Carleton deep in thought and managed to walk all the way down to Queen Street before I realized where I was.  It is clear that if the publishing industry hopes to remain relevant, the drive to innovate coupled with the commitment to create the best reading experience is a non-negotiable.

How did my evening end?  After a long Saturday devoted to debate over the future of publishing, I came home to a timely note from my sister Jen on Facebook. She wrote, and I quote: “Happiness is reading a good book on the porch listening to a thunderstorm roll in.”  (I’m proud to say the good book is The Help from Penguin, the trade wing of the publisher I work for). Thanks to all of the avid readers out there – we appreciate you more than you can possibly know!

If you’re interested, here’s the link to my write-up from last year’s BookCamp TO. Have a great rest of your weekend!