Zoe at the Special Olympics

Life is really busy right now with a new job, finishing thesis, and now a flood in my hometown and I am making sure my house is not being washed away.  The good news is, my sister competing in Alberta' Special Olympics this weekend in Devon, Alberta.  Despite the flooding, the event is going on as it is further north and not in the flood zone.  Here is a blog post my mother wrote about the event.  More to come later.

Zoe at the Special Olympics

Apparently the Olympics went very well and Zoe won a silver medal and three bronze medals.  One medal for each event she entered.  Very cool Zoe!  I shall call in the next few days to hear her stories.

Zoe Wins Four Medals

Grad School Lazy = RUN

It is time to get in shape using my shapely form.  Going from teaching all day and moving around for 6 hours organizing children, teaching lectures, providing supplies, starting projects and the general mayhem of teaching elementary school, grad school has left me lazy.  Yes, I blame grad school.  Other than the research I completed this summer at festivals and interpretive centres, grad school required my brain, fingers and wrists to function on overload, but not my other body parts.  Hence I am less healthy and fit than I have ever been in my life.  A once former athlete, I have been a casual participant in sports and other activities over many years, and several years ago was so frustrated in a crazy job that I began working out 1.5 hours a day, just to deal with the daily stress and bur-ha-ha.  I was tighter after that job but the insanity lead me to other paths in my life.  I moved to London and started to travel, during which I walked and moved for hours every day, and tried every delicious looking European snack possible (have you been to an authentic patisserie lately?).  Then I transitioned to grad school and lost it all, my sleek calves, my Carnival shaped butt, my tighter abs, and my single chin.  I want these back and in order for this to happen, and under the pressure of great friends, I joined a running club.

This means I have joined the Running Room for a 10 week Learn How To Run clinic.  Now those who know me know I am an athletic person and many of the sports I participate in include running.  My shins have always cried out in pain after a long workout, so I am learning how to run properly and will ease into running with this clinic.  Perhaps I will share interesting wipe-outs and other such nonsense on this blog.  Be prepared for shenanigans!

So far one of the runners this evening told me that there is a new basketball team starting up in Manitoba for women aged 40-49.  I have not found the link yet.  I will keep looking and share because I would really like to get back into basketball.

That would be awesome....must finish thesis first!

My new New Balance shoes:

Love New Balance, always have.

My new ICEtrekkers:

So I don't fall down and go boom!

My new underoos care of Costco and Paradox:

Note: my legs are far more luscious and curvy :)

Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada

Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada by Stuart McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Twenty years later this book is still a relevant piece of Canadian literature reflecting on the lives of those individuals who live in rural communities.  Working hard to survive and communities these people share with McLean what they love about living in small towns, what endures them to their community members, and the various ways in which they are attempting to survive together as urbanization increases and their rural populations decrease.  From a hockey town in Manitoba, to the historic town of Maple Creek, to the far reaches of a bay town of Sackville, the reader is taken on a soft and melodious journey through the eyes of those who live and work in rural communities.  I wonder if he has written an updated version.  I think McLean should.

The most interesting part for me was the meeting McLean secured with the person who created the Canadian flag, George Stanley living in Sackville, New Brunswick.  He was asked to create a version of a potential flag by a member of parliament as he had strong interests in history and heraldry (a means of identification, usually focused on country or familial commitment).  He based his single maple leaf design on outfits Olympians wore during the 1928 Olympics, the games my grandfather Doral Pilling and his room mate Percy Williams both competed in.  "One of the images I have carried with me all my life is a photograph I saw when I was a boy.  It was a picture form the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam of Percy Williams breasting the tape and winning a gold medal for Canada.  He was wearing a white jersey with a red maple leaf on his chest.  It's an image that has always struck with me."  Recently a book was written about Percy Williams by Samuel Hawley titled, I Just Ran: Percy Williams, World's Fastest Human.  Another book to read especially since the author consulted with my Aunt Arta Johnson who was instrumental in documenting her father's, Doral Pilling's, oral history which included stories about the 1928 Olympics and the athletic tours he participated in as the team returned to Canada.  I also have two cousins who have taken this maple leaf motif from their Olympic uniforms and had tattoos made from them.  Family stories and choices coming full circle.  Thank you McLean for shedding more light on a family story of which I was unaware.


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Doral Pilling In London

I have just spent the last hour scanning parts of Doral Pilling's autobiography into a computer.  I am in the process of sending this information to Dr. Bruce Kidd who is a professor at University of Toronto and researcher the history of athletics, amongst other topics.  He was at the University of Manitoba several months ago and I went to his presentation then provided him with the family story of Doral (my maternal grandfather) helping Percy get through his Olympic events without throwing up etc.  When I read the account in his history (thanks Arta for all your transcribing and work on that book), I can't help but think that Grandpa Doral was using sport psychology techniques with Percy long before the term was even identified.  A forward thinker for sure.

Having just taken a peek at a website dedicated to Percy Williams created by Samuel Hawley, I came across several pictures of Grandpa Doral that I have not seen in any relatives houses.  Once again, I look at these pictures and wonder why my brother Trent is there (or several of the Wood's boys), give my head and shake and remind myself I am looking at Doral.  Here is my favourite shot mostly because many of us have now been in London and here is Doral in the same city long before the rest of us even existed in the flesh.

Taken from website:  http://www.samuelhawley.com/percy1928olympics2.html

From left to right: Doral Pilling, Percy Williams, Stanley Glover

I just love this shot!  Take a look at the website to find even more information and amazing pictures about Percy Williams, with Doral Pilling often hanging in the background.

Obesity Stigma

Here is the social follow-up to my previous BMI Rant.

One of the classes I am currently taking requires us to find, read, summarize and pose questions based on an article based for that week's topic.  This week the topic is Leisure Constraints for which I found the following article and my summary.  It is long but really, really good and will remind us all that prejudice in any for is completely and absolutely unacceptable:

Obesity-Stigma as a Multifacted Constraint to Leisure 

The word obesity has been mentioned increasingly in health research, physical education, recreation, leisure, and the media over the recent decade.  Most of the researches in these areas measure obesity by using one measure, the Body Mass Index (BMI).  (It was recently altered by the NIH in the United States to line up with the WHO international guidelines, which moved 25 million Americans from the normal weight range into the overweight range, and moved people 12.5 million American from the overweight category to the obese category.)  This shift in size levels of individuals and an increase of a sedentary lifestyle by many people, has been interpreted by many governments and professionals as a quick decline in health within many countries. 

 In addition, there are social and cultural anti-fat biases or obesity-stigmas that have developed parallel to the changes in health assessment.  Many professionals see these attitudes as the final form of acceptable discrimination as this very visible experience stigmatizes and marginalizes people.  Participants that demonstrate such prejudice can include family members, friends, co-workers, children, teens, young adults, adults, health and wellness professionals and the general public.  Interestingly, people in the overweight or obese categories have been studied and their biases towards other people in the same category can be as judgmental.  It is hypothesized that anti-fat bias continues to grow because unlike other marginalized groups, larger people are socially marginalized and do not form self-support groups or blame the prejudiced attitudes on the perpetrators (called self-protective properties), instead they internalize the stigmas and prejudice as their own personal flaws (called attributional ambiguity). 

This culmination of this research should have a profound effect on the leisure, recreation, physical, and kinesiology fields but the work currently in place is not effective, as there is strong psychological and self-worth component that these professions are not addressing.  These leisure constraints create a psychological cycle of feeling too big to participate in leisure, which decreases participation and the access to benefits, and lower participation keeps self-worth too low to motivate participation.  Leisure constraints for people who fit outside the 'average' size include lack of access to the correct size of exercise clothing, equipment made for shorter and smaller people, negative attitudes and demeaning judgments of individuals at recreation facilitates, and assumptions that one's participation is to lose weight rather than for other benefits.  Individuals in the recreation, health and physical activity field also carry a great deal of prejudice and judgment towards larger individuals, especially undergraduates in the kinesiology and physical education streams. 

Lewis and Van Puymbroeck suggest the following work should be completed in order to truly be effective professionals and change the socially acceptable fat-bias that is so prevalent:
1.) Reduce our individual obesity stigmas as we do our best to understand this complicated leisure constraint issue.

2.) Change our focus from appearance to overall health and wellbeing.

Look beyond traditional health models and include addressing the socially constructed attitudes in our society that create these stigmas of prejudice.

3.) If we are the gatekeepers of health and wellness, what type of accessibility (or lack thereof) are we creating?  Change the gatekeepers to change the exclusive environment.

4.) Focus on intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints as research continues.

5.) We need more qualitative and evidence-based research that integrates themes of leisure constraints.

6.) We must not assume that it is always the goal of the larger person so lose weight. 

 Lewis and Van Puymproeck summarized with this paragraph:

"With twice as many people affected by overweight than not in this country, related opportunities for both leisure researchers and practitioners abound.  Children who are overweight are often seen as undesirable playmates.  Social interactions across the lifespan are often limited due to the presence of obesity.  People who are significantly overweight not only face social judgement and discrimination in many aspects of their lives, but also discriminate against others who are overweight.  These forms of prejudice and discrimination are likely to significantly impact the leisure experience of people who are overweight across the lifespan." (p. 584)

Two last comments by the authors:

"Current interventions are not succeeding, and more research is quickly needed." (p. 585)

"We must decide the identity we wish to assume related to this current health crisis." (p. 585)

My questions for the class:

1.) If we are going to broaden our perceptions of health to include more than appearance, why are we using the BMI as the primary measure of health?  It is time to develop an improved, more accurate, increasingly helpful way to measure an individual's over-all health.   

2.) How do we balance the desire to create healthier less costly (health wise) cities, provinces and countries while decreasing the social and cultural prejudice that is so rampant?

3.) What social and personal stigmas do you have attached to your own body size and type?  Is this attitude affecting your view of others? How so?

4.) What new interventions can we develop to increase the overall health of the people who freely choose to access our services as leisure, recreation and Kinesiology professionals?  

Lewis, S. T. & Van Puymbroeck, M.  (2008).  Journal of Leisure Research, 40(4), 574-588.

Grad School

14 hour day yesterday up until 2 am
7 articles read
1 poster complete for undergrad presentation night
5 page paper to finish tonight
1 page proposal to complete tonight
32 undergrads to train as physical education teachers in two days
2 book chapters to read
124 papers to grade by next Wednesday
8 more articles to read next week
1 take home mid-term to finish in two weeks
mid-term three days after reading week

will be up for a while

in my gut, mind and heart

enjoying all of it

brain feels really, really big

Cleveland

Amongst the travels my family made one spot was Cleveland, Ohio.  We moved to the city in 1986 and left to move to Ottawa in 1990.  That provided me with enough time to begin Grade 9 and finish high-school completing Grade 12.  Interestingly enough we moved from Brussels, Belgium to Cleveland.  I know, odd really.  Two cities that I thought were polar opposites historically, in entertainment, architecturally, proximity to other countries, with respect to languages, in culture and in the ways of chocolate, frites and gaufres.  Needless to say, in my eyes after four years in both cities, in a list of two cities, Cleveland was not at the top.

After spending time as an adult near Brussels, I realized that each city has more in common that I once thought.  Both cities are largely overlooked as people plan travels or consider a place to live; I found friends in both cities with whom I am still in contact; each city has its respective although somewhat different entertainment activities; both specialize in amazing musical acts that sucked up much of my hard earned babysitting money.  In all, both cities made their mark on this one soul.

Returning to the point of being an over looked city, here is a cry out for help from one of Cleveland's most well-known supporters, Drew Carey, questioning the continued decline of Cleveland and attempting to find alternative ways to revitalize a large and wonderful place on Lake Erie.  While I do not agree with the documentary's opinion about education and increasing the number of charter schools (the best way to suck the public system dry of many good students, teachers and administrators), the show does raise interesting questions about the best practices involved in revitalizing and growing an already established city.  During some moments, I kind wanted to move back......

  

Voices and Society

Edward Bruner has said, 'there are always feelings and lived experiences not fully encompassed by the dominant story.  Only after the new narrative becomes dominant is there a re-examination of the past.' - Canadian Journal of Traditional Music, 1986

Thoughts have been swirling around in my head for many weeks now.  It all started when I picked up a book that had been staring at me, calling out my name, and asking me why I had not yet purchased it yet every time I entered a UK bookstore.  After months of denial of desire, I purchased a copy, read it faster than a gazelle escaping a sharp toothed beast; purchased the second book and sped through it like a short track runner; pleaded with family to purchase the third and final book in the series in the UK as it had not been released in Canada.  When the last book landed in the city, was placed in my hands, and quickly consumed the series haunted my thoughts and still do.  Its messages very vivid and mentally an interesting to wrestle with as these books are not happy-go-lucky.  The heroine is an intricate mix of edgy, intellectually brilliant and emotionally complex.  All interesting people are.  

Steig Larsson, the talented writer whose life was cut short would be devastated to see how his life partner is now being treated due to the books he wrote about the corruption of some areas of government and their treatment of the marginalized.  As a CBC: The Current podcast shared, Eva Gabrielsson, Steig's partner of 32 years, did not receive any legal access to Steig's legacy because of Swedish law.  Interesting no?  His books include themes of women's experiences, injustice, cruelty, violence, sexual exploitation, power struggles, and using your own means for self-care, and here is his partner struggling as a woman for justice and equity under the law.

The experiences of Eva, the stories from Steig, combined with the student who made an appalling comment this week in class (after having spent nine weeks discussing and studying the voices of the marginalized) is prompting me to share books, people, news, views, pages and clips that have reminded me that the dominant voice is rarely faultless or representative of the majority of voices.  Follow what ever link you wish in hopes that it will help you remain a critical thinker and participant positively in the society we are all creating.

The Case of Russell William

Gentlemen Prefer Bones

Flamenco in Spain

Before we begin, click here to feel, read and see the moment:



As you read, you are in a place of broad landscapes and soft hills.  Sometimes you can hear the wind in a song, a swoosh of birds floating by, a sudden crash of waves, or a Moorish voice drifting on the surface of the wind.  You are in Madrid.  A sticky summer's day.  Cold glass, dripping water on our thigh as you lift the delicate vessel to your lips.  The rush of searing, cold liquid flushes across your tongue, down your throat in sweet relief.

A dancer enters.  Another follows.  Poised, ready for movement.  The music of nature begins.  Her torso twists as if disconnected from her arms. She stops and stares.  She moves with him creating a swirl of arms, hands, clothes, and faces.  They pose again.  Breathing heavy.  Her hands continue their former rhythm.  He dances behind her, constantly reaching out to her with his stare.  Another whirl of shapes, points, gestures, movements.

One Week In Heaven, Part II

My body rose early.  It was a morning my brain was done resting and it woke up my body, a little earlier than usual.  One of my last days to sleep in and enjoy the silence of Shuswap mornings as my REM dreams passed through my head, and I woke up.  7:30 am.  Far too early for a holiday morning.  But I was up and the kayak was calling.  My brain took my body up out of the bed, out the screen door, to the edge of the small cliff, where my eyes observed a quieter summer lake than I had ever seen.  "People won't be up for another 2 hours...perfect time for you, the phosphorescent orange kayak, lifejacket and paddle to head out onto the polished, glass surface of the water to meditate in the stillness of nature."

My body dressed and headed down to the beach and it was only me, a few birds, silent fish in the water, a few buzzing bugs.  No boats.  No people.  Little noise.  Out I went, splitting the surface of the water with the bottom of the kayak...trimming the liquid upon which I rested in two.

My brain did what it usually did when I my body is moving and breathing to the rhythm of my muscles.  It began processing.  The past year in a far off country...my experiences as an educator, its triumphs and disappointments...the inner contentment I finally felt as a single grown-up...my decisions to move, to start anew, or at least take a break from the place I had lived for so long...my brain hopped and skipped over these thoughts and on the lake I remained along with the assorted creatures.

Le Parkour

While in London I saw the following clip on one of the most famous shows that has been created in the United Kingdom, Top Gear.  I could not believe my eyes and watched in amazement at the dexterity and agility of these two men.  Parkour starts approximately 2 minutes into the video.



Did you watch it?  Amazing eh?  The goal of the process is "the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment." (Quoted from Wikipedia.)  I was astounded as I watched this episode on TV, and then I had a chance to see a live Parkour performance at a weekend festival in London along the Southbank, near the Thames River.  A stage had been set up with various bars, platforms, climbers, and crash mats as 20 - 25 young 'traceurs' and 'traceuses' demonstrated their phenomenal skills.  The way they climbed vertically climbed like sticky bugs up the walls; jumped, arms and legs spread out like flying squirrels from the top of the platforms; then rolled, flipped, grabbed and spun all over the 3D objects; it was physical work that boggled my mind.  

Here is some Parkour, also called Free Runnning, in Canada, all collected by Recreation Canada.  If you know an energetic child who needs a focus, try signing them up for a group or class near you.  If they become very serious about the sport, direct them to the Sports and Lifestyle Magazine titled SPIKED Extreme Sports, Parkour articles in the February 2010 issue.  (May I suggest you skip the boxing articles.  I have always despised boxing.)

I am going to try grabbing the edge of my bed, jumping enthusiastically into the air, and landing gingerly using a tuck and roll move onto my bed.  That is the extent of my Free Running abilities.

Past Four Days

Since my return to Canada, I have been living and breathing the Olympics.

Here is the Canadian channel for your viewing pleasure:

CTV Vancouver 2010

Watching the Men's Hockey game then the Closing Ceremonies.

Amazing moments of beauty and triumph!!!