Author Archives: Theo Lamb

Memory for Diversity: Remembrance Day in East Vancouver

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This year Grandview Park, home to our community cenotaph, is under construction as the city works to rejuvenate this space. Our Remembrance Day ceremony was moved to the much smaller courtyard outside the Britannia Community Centre. The master of ceremonies explained how they had trouble finding a complete band and horn player to perform “Last Post.” When all was said and done, the Commercial Drive community in East Vancouver honoured Veterans Day on a much smaller and significantly quieter scale than it’s accustomed to hosting.

My partner Kurt remarked on how Christian and English the ceremony was this year. Traditional but oddly out of place against the backdrop of our diverse neighbourhood.  Many people in attendance were honouring ancestors, family and friends from all around the world with Italian, German, Japanese, Greek, American, Canadian, and Middle Eastern roots. In fact, the list goes on and on. After all was said and done, Kurt and I found ourselves craving a more secular ceremony, one that compliments the multicultural generations of young veterans and peace keepers today, as well as our ancestors and veterans of World War I and World War II. It’s interesting to think about how these ceremonies will evolve as the years go by.

Some traditions, however, that have carried on from Armistice day, 92 years ago, will always move me. From the timbre of the horn during “Last Post” to the buzz of the engine of the World War II fighter plane as it flies in formation above my head. It’s these rituals that make the memory of my family come alive; men and women who served their country and belonged to a movement that sought peace and safety for people all around the world. A movement we continue to honour and support.

Digital Phil: The Wilderness Downtown

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I’ve been thinking about storytelling lately. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about video storytelling and whether it can capture an experience organically, without pretense or pre-production. How often do you read an online article or watch a Youtube video or advocacy promo that connects to your personally? Would you rather see a rough cut of something happening in real time? Do you appreciate the editing, sound and script that goes into telling a digital story?

“The Wilderness Downtown” has been well thought out, produced and is highly controlled – just like a scientific experiment. But I think it reveals yet another direction online storytelling wants to take. All you need to do is recall the address of the home you grew up in or the place where something important happened to you.

Arcade Fire is a Canadian Indy rock group, made famous by an album titled “Funeral,” which came out in 2005. They’ve donated a song off their latest studio album, “The Suburbs” titled “We Used to Wait” to a Google Chrome Experiment. Artists and programmers from around the world who test and push the limits of open technology submit Chrome Experiments. You can check it out, here.

Okay. So now you need to turn off any other programs you’re running on your computer, including whatever you’re using to read this email, except if it’s Google Chrome.

Turn the volume way up. And make sure you have the address of the home where you grew up, anywhere on the planet.

And, yeah, pray to the processing gods that Chrome doesn’t crash

Enjoy The Wilderness Downtown

Water Rushing Home: Blog Action Day 2010

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Blog Action Day takes place every year on October 15. Bloggers from around the world post about the same issue with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. This year’s topic is water.

I’ll never forget my first big trip away from home. It was 2004 and I was in New York City, ready to live and work for six months. Incidentally, home at the time, was Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

The morning after I arrived in New York, having already seen the bright lights of Time Square under a barely visible midnight moon, I sat down to breakfast and ordered a glass of water. Instead of the glass, the server brought me a bottle. (Is this a New York, thing? Or is it not a good idea to drink from the tap?)

I twisted off the cap and was ready to take my first swig when I recognized the tiny emblem in the bottom corner of the bottle’s label. It was a Canadian Flag. After reading the fine print, I realized that I was drinking water all the way from my hometown of Delta, BC. I didn’t even realize the suburban town where I grew up had a water bottling plant.

Today, on Blog Action Day, I can’t help but think about the idea of “home” and the water that flows toward it for all of us to drink. How does it get there? Does it come in bottles or do we drink it treated or fresh from a well? Do we run it through a Brita filter? Do we even think about it for more than a moment on any given day?

British Columbia is covered in Pacific rain forest. We have a lot of fresh water because of our beautiful mountains and valleys. Water accounts for most of our energy in BC. We have so much of it, we can sell it to the United States. The province flips a switch and the power that we thought was produced by water is now coming from Alberta and is produced by coal.

The next time you think about where you live and the place you call home, consider how the water you drink and use to cook and wash yourself travels from it’s own home to you. Consider the cost it takes to get to you, both economical and ecologically speaking. Consider the 1.1 billion people in developing countries who have inadequate access to water. And, yes. Consider signing this petition that supports efforts by the UN to bring clean drinking water to those who do not currently have access to it.

Web of Change: Yeast Dressing, Ladders, OMPA and Love

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Web of Change - Innovation and Collaboration to Transform our WorldThis is a post about the tenth anniversary of Web of Change, a conference held every year at the Hollyhock Institute. To everyone who could not attend this year, you were missed. And to those of you who have never been, I urge you to consider coming next year. Financial help is available and the carpooling is a gas.

I wanted to write a post that recognizes the many hundreds of participants who have attended the Web of Change conference over the years as well as those who have always wanted to attend and haven’t made it out. You all deserve to be kept in the loop.

It’s humbling to write and reflect back on the Web of Change experience knowing just how many brilliant minds and wordsmiths make up the conference each year. A handful of catchphrases don’t do it justice. However, I’m all about sound bites, brevity and wit and what have you. So here’s a little something to whet your appetite — Web of Change 10:10 divided into four flavours: Yeast Dressing, Ladders, OMPA and Love.

Yeast Dressing: Sounds Gross, So Good **

The Hollyhock Institute is on Cortes Island in beautiful British Columbia. Surrounded by the kind of beauty that inspired Emily Carr, Hollyhock devotes itself to personal well being and community building.

And it just so happens that Hollyhock is home to the best yeast salad dressing you’ll ever taste. That is, if you’re brave enough to try a dressing with a name like yeast.

It’s over this very dressing where the spark of inspiration and understanding first appears as groups of people from across the continent and a precious few from overseas sit down and break bread together. Web of Change, in particular, is an opportunity for social, tech, and not-for-profit leaders to converge in one place over a very short and intense period of time and share practices, successes, failures and, above all, stories. I know, without a doubt, that each and every person who has ever attended Web of Change values the power of storytelling on some level.

Ladders: We’re Listening

Whoever first came up with the idea of personal shoppers most have felt the same giddy sensation I felt when I first learned about “Engagement Ladders” at WoC this year. Personalized, profound and practical, Engagement Ladders are like stepping into Macy’s and receiving top-notch shopping service, only Macy’s is a not-for-profit and you’re an organizer. This exquisite tool that circulated the conference this year was directly responsible for a lot of innovative talk. With apologies to the many voices that helped shape this conversation – I’m going to try and do my best to describe what an engagement ladder is but for the love of Gibran, keep the definitions coming!

Within any given organization, there will always be a variety of supporters willing to take up the cause on any number of different commitment levels. Several organizers who attended Web of Change this year have begun tracking these supporters and taking a good long, look at which level, or in this case, which step they sit on the “Ladder of Engagement.” Engagement Ladders help us focus on what we should be measuring so we can not only reward each supporter, we can introduce them to the next step in a practical and profound way.  Web of Change 2010 attendee, Steve Anderson, has provided an excellent example of how his company, Salesforce.com, utilizes Engagement Ladders. A must watch video complete with a “Back-to-the-Future” moment for Steve as he listens to his voice, circa 2007.

OMPA: What He Said

I want to share with you an expression that one of our facilitators passed on: “OMPA.” It means “Our Mother of Perpetual Amazing” and I think it sums up some of the “ah-ha” moments many attendees had this year.

A conference is really just one big conversation and like any lively and successful exchange, it requires facilitation. This year at Web of Change, some extraordinary hosts were charged with bringing together two groups of people: front-line organizers and tech-strategists. I think it’s safe to say that unbeknownst to either group, both were in need of an uncomfortable and ultimately transformative conversation.  I have no doubt that the details of the conversation will continue to come to light over the next few weeks. All you need to do is Google search Web of Change and see what comes up.

Another beautiful sound bite that deserves to be featured is a question that was poised early on in the conference: “Are you on a mission or simply working for an organization with a mission statement?”

Great question.

Love: “Propagate Love With Gratitude”

The above comment was left below fellow participant Ian Rhett’s video of his Pecha Kucha presentation on love. (In lou of a talent show, participants prepared Pecha Kucha presentations. They were all remarkable and I hope they’re all eventually posted.)

His presentation eloquently reminds us, whoever we are, whatever we do, that we own our work. From leaders to linchpins, as Ian puts it, we “make the choice to stay involved.” His presentation also came at a vital moment: the conference halfway point. It’s for anyone who has ever felt frustrated or helpless in their work (um, that’s pretty much all of us, right?) It reminds us of the power we have to at least try and move mountains or remove ourselves in the best interest of love. “Life is short. Do what you love and love doing it.” Thanks, Ian. Rock on.

These are just a few snippets from the latest Web of Change conference, or rather, (un)conference. I don’t pretend to represent each and every voice that attended. I only hope to add to the conversation which, to my delight, continues to grow. I welcome all Web of Changers, and anyone else interested for that matter, to join in.

One final note. I just read this status of a fellow Web of Changer:  “listening is a willingness to be changed by what you hear.”  What a glorious sentiment and for past and future attendees, one I know you take to heart.

Much love and plenty of “word.”

Theo

Theo is an online community organizer with TheBigWild.org, the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Women’s Health Research Institute. Her background is in radio and television production. From time to time, you can still hear her voice on Vancouver’s Bollywood radio station, RJ1200. She also thinks redheads are pretty cool and likes to write about them on her blog, GingerAiling.com.

**Props to Tony Guzman, a WoC 10:10 attendee. When I asked him where to start, he answered “with the Yeast Dressing.”

It Would Take a Really Long Time to Walk Around Canada

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If you don’t believe me, check out these numbers I came across on the Government of Canada’s website. I did the math myself.

If you started to walk the length of Canada’s coastlines from the Strait of Juan du Fuca on the West Coast to the Bay of Fundy on the east coast, covering 20 kilometres** a day at a moderate walking pace, you would complete your journey in approximately 33 years.  That seems like a remarkably long time to cover the whole of Canada’s coastlines, especially when you compare it to how long it takes to cross the country on foot. At 5000 kilometres from coast to coast, you could walk across Canada in a little under a year. Then again, when you consider how many fjords, bays, inlets, and ice packs you’d have to cover along our country’s coastlines, 33 years sounds a little more believable. Now consider the time and effort it would take to keep these coastlines clean from human litter.

From September 18th to 26th, Canadians across the country will organize clean-ups along Canada’s ocean, lake and river shorelines in what is known as the Great Canadian Cleanup.  Last year during the cleanup, organizers covered 2, 457 km and picked up a total of 160, 914 kg of trash.

Cigarette butts take the cake as the number one item picked up by organizers with over 367, 010 found on our country’s shores. Food wrappers, plastic bags, bottles and dishes follow as the next most popular litter items on the list.

As a program, the shoreline cleanup originated in Vancouver in 1994. Over the last 16 years, it’s grown to become national in scope. Over 1,000 different cleanup sites have been registered across the country. Another 600 sites and it will smash last year’s record-breaker of over 1,500 sites.

You can join a clean-up or organize one yourself.  If you would like to read more about the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, visit their website here.
It’s time to clean house, gumboot-style.

**Gumboots may, in fact, slow you down. They’re known for their sexy good-looks and H2O protection, but they’re not the best at long distances.

(A similar version of this post also appears on TheBigWild.org. The Big Wild is an online partnership between Mountain Equipment Co-op and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. With the help of Canadians, it’s dedicated to protecting large areas of wilderness across the country.)

In Defense of the Mule

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Last weekend, I wrote an email to the Globe and Mail Style contributor, Leah McLaren, in reaction to an article she wrote on Jeggings. It wasn’t so much the subject matter that caught my attention but rather the author’s less-than-kind comparison of Jeggings to mules. Mules, as in the animal.

You can read Ms. McLaren’s complete article here, if you’d like. Otherwise, I would recommend reading the passage below. It captures the content in question.

And no, she has not written back, yet.

“More important, [jeggings] are an astonishing reminder that, in the world of design, two rights can and often do make a wrong – in extreme cases, one so painfully incorrect that it denatures both itself and the wearer. Jeggings, in other words, are the fashion equivalent of the mule – ugly, indestructible and thankfully unable to reproduce.”

- From “Jeggings are About as Hip as Skorts and Sandal Boots” by Leah Mclaren, The Globe and Mail, August 14th, 2010

Here’s My Email to Ms. Mclaren

Dear Ms.McLaren,

My name is Theodora Lamb and I live in Vancouver, British Columbia. As per my Saturday morning routine, I read your article on “Jeggings” this morning in the Cafe below my apartment building. I couldn’t agree more with you on the latest fashion phenomenon. Although, here in Vancouver, you’re more likely to see a pair of Jeggings on 4th Ave, which is Starbucks mama and hot yoga central.

One thing you’re far less likely to see in the “wilds” of Vancouver’s urban streets are mules. From what I know about them, they are gentle, hard-working animals and totally helpless when it comes to their reproductive situation. Simply put, I see the mule as nature’s underdog, which is why I thought it was a little unfair that you used the mule as your comparison to a fashion faux-pas. Yes, I know they’re the perfect example of nature’s hybrid. But unlike the “fashionistas” in the world that wear Jeggings, a mule has little to no control over
the circumstances of which it finds itself in nature.

Can I suggest another animal, perhaps one more appropriate for your comparison: the Skunk. Yes, I know it’s not a hybrid but, like the Jegging, Skunks scuttle our city streets both night and day turning heads the way only a freak of nature can do.

Incidentally, if you enjoy Science Fiction from time to time, I highly recommend Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” Trilogy. In particular, the second book in the series introduces a character called “The Mule.” Asimov quite cleverly embraces the animal’s characteristics and incorporates them into a character full of dimension and a story rich in epic suspense.

All the best,

Theo

Elissa Watts – Connections on the Fringe of Food

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Who are you?

I am Elissa Joy Watts, wife of Steve, daughter to Jon and Marilee, sister to JJ. I was born into a loving relationship with language, food, and all things beautiful. By day, I wield my linguistic skills as lululemon’s Communications Specialist. By night, I am usually dancing around in my kitchen, making a terrific mess.

What do you do for fun?

Simple things. The recipe for fun in my world is uncomplicated: free time, fresh air, family, friends and food. Give me sunshine, comfortable shoes, a good book, my journal and a cappuccino and I’ll follow you anywhere.

What is your favourite community and why?

Community is such a loaded word and favorites are hard to choose. I love the community of people from my church that meets at our place on Tuesdays because they genuinely care for one another and it shows. Being in the company of my friends who work for JJ Bean is fabulous because they are all so incredibly passionate about their craft. I love the familiarity of family and old friends because being known is a beautiful feeling. Wherever there are people putting others before themselves there is community. I strive towards fostering that.

What is your super power?

Bringing people together over food. (Preferably with butter involved. Lots of butter.) I come from a long line of women who have embraced the art of hospitality. Naturally, I wanted nothing to do with it as a child. And as a teenager.

Then slowly, after moving out on my own, I learned that I really liked to create with food and that it was the perfect way to express love for people. I fell head over heels and dropped out of college on a whim to pursue culinary school. It sounds romantic. It wasn’t. It was hard work but I loved it all. (Especially pastry.) My education has fueled my super power fire.

How do you use it to build community?

As I have honed my super power, I have become keenly aware that I am a rare breed among my peers. My goal is to use my gifts to inspire and encourage others to cultivate their culinary love language, expressing themselves and caring for others in a new, yet familiar medium – food. Nothing builds community like time spent with people over a meal. As long as there are hungry people that need a friend, my door is wide open.

My three favourite things about Elissa are…

1. Morning Coffee. Elissa is an ambassador of early morning get-togethers over a delicious cup of coffee. You may, at first, be blind-sided by the early, social start. But once you’re up, breathing in that morning air and sipping your way into a new day, you’ll thank her! Forget that first visit to Facebook or email. I’ve come around to the idea that, if you can swing it, starting your day with a friend is the way to go. Unlike lunch or after work drinks, you’ve got the advantage of talking out your day, working through anticipated fears and generally warming up your brain. 7:45 AM is the new extended lunch, only you’re energized twice as much in half the amount of time. Brilliant, Elissa!

2. Dish Washing. With talking/venting/commenting/liking/critiquing/judging/observing more popular than ever, the gift of listening is in high demand these days. I’ve known Elissa since we were both in Grade 5. Back in elementary school, our teachers would have special events in their conference room and be left with a sink full of dishes. Elissa and I were the two volunteers called in to wash and dry the dishes, during class time, no less! If you ask me now, I can tell you that my vision and memory of Elissa hasn’t changed one bit. She is still the beautiful girl with this evanescent quality about her who (gasp!) asks more questions and listens more carefully than one would expect of a ten-year-old or a twentysomethingyearold, for that matter. Elissa, whether she knows it or not, is leading a cultural crusade that rewards active listening and makes it “hip” and “cool.”

3. Elissa’s Joy. Both literally and figuratively. Elissa keeps a blog on Tumblr called “Elissa’s Joy” which she writes for friends, family and anyone else interested in what catches her eye. With only a few words and a photo, Elissa is able to capture those honest, fringe moments in life that film directors and essayists create by design. You know those moments; the ones where you discover a little piece of script or a seemingly accidental play of colour. They come as honest reminders that the pleasures in life are meant to be small, unexpected and filled with joy!

What Not to Do at a Stag or Stagette

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With wedding season in full swing and so many of my friends getting married, I’ve been lucky enough to attend several pre-nuptial events. I’ve been following the aftermath of these events on Facebook and rather than drag out why I’m writing about this or who’s involved, I’m just going to put it out there: I think cameras of any kind should be banned from stag and stagette parties.

It’s no secret photographic evidence from these wedding rituals and rites of passage can do more harm than good. But it’s not enough to simply acknowledge this harm and encourage your friends to honour the no-pic and post rule: abjuring photos from stags and stagettes has to find a place in pop culture before things can really change. We need to create a meme or cultural “on-switch” to remind us they don’t belong.

We’re pretty busy these days, posting our lives on Facebook and making a point to capture these events in the hopes that our friends will comment and thus, make us feel included and “cool.” I think we need to stop and consider what, exactly, we should be doing to ensure there’s protocol around what should not be posted on Facebook. Stags and bachelorettes are an excellent place to start.

Just like we have the catch phrase “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”  which has embedded itself into mainstream culture and risen to meme status, we need a reminder that cell phones and digital cameras should be put away, left at home or thrown off a bridge for the sake of unbridled fun times** with our friends. An added bonus to doing away with photos during a stag or girls night out also minimizes the number of drunken and destructive phone calls you make to your potential new partner or, heaven forbid, ex-lover.

In a perfect world, the likes of Seth Rogen or Andy Samberg could alter the world of photo and Facebook etiquette forever by writing it into one of their scripts. The post-credit photo sequence at the end of “The Hangover” is a perfect example (keep in mind, it’s R-rated -er, X-rated.) Alas, we’re left to our own devices.

I ran this idea by a friend and he suggested the catch phrase come off as something like the “papa-nazi.” Perhaps this particular phrase is a little too loaded but it’s a start. We need a go-to line that can be heard and understood across a strip club or martini-strewn counter that is quickly and simply understood by the crowd as “put ‘em away boys and girls ’cause tomorrow is another day.”

**When I say unbridled fun times, I do not mean breaking the law or committing adultery or hurting yourself or anyone else around you for that matter. Follow my advice and embrace this motto: make smart decisions (patent pending.)

CLJ Reviews The World Without Us

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CLJ Reviews The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

What We Read

In The World Without Us, author Alan Weisman considers a planet Earth where, one day, humans simply disappeared. No plague, no meteor strike. Weisman simply imagined a planet where we vanished into thin air. Why? He wanted to think about the planet in terms of how it exists now with buildings and houses and dams and nuclear power plants. Weisman, asks us to think about how long it would take the planet to return to its natural state without humans around to muck it up? To answer this question Weisman takes us on a  369 page journey of edu-tainment. He interviews crews who work below the earth’s surface in New York’s Subway, working everyday to literally keep the ocean out of their tunnels. He considers rubber tires and the many millennia it would take to see them disappear (if they disappear at all). The whole tour of decay and time kicks off with your home and how easily water could destroy it in less than 100 years. Weisman does a remarkable job considering all the angles and weaving a planetary story for his audience.

What We Did (And How We Did It)

For this particular book club, I asked the group to read a short excerpt from a Danny Hillis, which appeared in Wired Magazine in 1995 and ultimately gave rise to the Long Now Foundation. In the article, Hillis considers the concept of time and how humans can’t possible consider their planetary future when it’s clear we have trouble envisioning our world 100 years in the future. I asked each group to consider their own version of a long-now clock and whether it would be artificial or nature-made. The winning clock was the concept of a waterfall, designed to flow in balance with its surroundings and give way to natural signs each time 10,000 years passed by. After this activity, which was designed to get people thinking about the concept of Earth-Time, we launched into our discussion.

What We Thought

I think it’s safe to say that everyone in the group appreciated the book. There were points in Weisman’s work where each of us felt we needed a breather from the content. There was also some disagreement with regard to Weisman’s solution to our current misuse of the planet. Oh, and everyone shuddered when they read of the future of A) our nuclear reactors B) the oil fields near Houston and C) the plastics floating about our oceans. But All in all, I would recommend this book to just about anyone who’s has a passing interest in their home, the concept of time, plastic and babies. Now you’ll just have to read the book to discover what all of those things have in common.

Enhance Your Online World Cup Experience

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Ladies and gentleman, we are on the eve of what I might argue is the world’s finest sporting event — The World Cup. I’m happy to report that you have the musings of Gumboot editors John Horn and Kurt Heinrich to look forward to over the next few weeks as they attempt to explore the community-related possibilities that an event such as this is apt to inspire.

To add to the excitement,  I have a few fun tools to enhance your online World Cup experience. The first is a schedule that an online developer has put together for our delight. As Darren Barefoot puts it, “it gracefully enables you to explore a complex schedule–32 teams, 30 days, 10 venues, 64 games–along a number of axes.”

The second tool is designed to help you support your team in the Facebook and Twitter arenas: Twibbons. Click here and you can select the team of your choice and bear their flag on your Facebook and Twitter profile. It will be as if you’re carrying the country flag yourself. You could, as I’ve done, split your allegiance and decide to support two different teams. I’ve chosen to support an underdog on my Twitter profile and a favoured team on my Facebook profile, as you can see above. Germany is favoured, right?

Have fun with it! Go Cameroon, go!