Stillness

Guelph Reads was born to decide which book, if read by everyone in Guelph, would bring about social change.

Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, is entering Year Two of a project that, in some ways, is rather similar, and in others, rather opposite.

After a lacklustre audience with the PM a year ago in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Canada Council for the Arts, Martel decided to send Stephen Harper a book every two weeks.

A portion of how he explains his project: "Who is this man? What makes him tick? No doubt he is busy. No doubt he is deluded by that busyness. No doubt being Prime Minister fills his entire consideration and froths his sense of busied importance to the very brim. And no doubt he sounds and governs like one who cares little for the arts.

"But he must have moments of stillness. And so this is what I propose to do: not to educate—that would be arrogant, less than that—to make suggestions to his stillness."

Martel started with The Death of Ivan Ilych. Over the year, he's sent Candide, To Kill a Mockingbird and Le Petit Prince. Just today, he sent To The Lighthouse.

He got one response, to Ivan Ilych. Since then, he's heard nothing. But he persists. It's his way of making social change, of trying to convince a busy man that he needs to slow down and appreciate life's stillness.

But in interesting ways, it's opposite to Guelph Reads. We're taking a group of people and asking them what book all their friends, family and neighbours should read. Martel is focusing on a single person, and asking him to browse an ever-growing reading list. Here's wishing him luck.

A busy guy

Clive Doucet, author of Urban Meltdown, seems like he finds ways to keep busy. Check out his blog/website, www.clivedoucet.com.

The globalized city

Clive Doucet argues in Urban Meltdown that cities have become the real agents of global change, that it's on that level that we consider ourselves citizens of the world while nations are dinosaurs concerned mostly with raising taxes and supporting the military-industrial complex.

As proof, he points out the so-called wars on terror in the US, England and Spain, contrasted with the giant protests against the Iraq war in New York, London and Madrid, and the horrible terror attacks on those cities. He argues the countries were acting like dinosaurs while people in the cities were acting as global citizens, and it was the cityfolk who payed the price.

He's an unlikely politician -- a poet elected to Ottawa city council rather unexpectedly. His perspective about cities surprises me -- I think expect that if I were in his situation, I would feel overwhelmed and uncertain of how to bring about change, but he clearly feels empowered. I'm impressed that instead, he feels like he's working in the most important layer of government.