Mixed Blessing - October 2, 2017

Emily with monkey and dog.

Arriving in Victoria, British Columbia, where I haven't been for at least six years I was greeted by upscale public landscaping, well controlled dense traffic, and clearly prosperous conditions supported by vigorous tourism. The place is busy, precious, and modernized. So good to see the first of family, brother Greg's.

Instead of statues to racists, the most well placed statue I came upon was Emily Carr radical artist, who was also adventurous and socially iconoclastic in prim Victoria a century ago, now beloved. And at the other end of the freshened up Empress Hotel, orca mom and babe topiary ... so sweet. I've never seen such beautiful public landscaping as in Victoria and Vancouver.







And yet, I also feel the sting of the ever greater loss of wild nature, of almost any nature, and the grieving continues beneath the appreciation of human ingenuity.