Dear Friends

No, we haven’t changed our secular humanist point of view, but given the events of the last six months, I decided we all could use a reminder of the peace that we sometimes found during our cathedral-visiting in France late last spring. The photo is of Chartres outside Paris. The cathedral was indeed tranquil between waves of tourists, until the workmen repointing the façade turned on a diesel engine to power some of their equipment. It was annoying at the time, but on reflection it seems an apt metaphor for what is going on now: beauty is only eternal if you maintain it, just as the economy only works if you regulate it. The idea of the efficacy of unfettered free markets is as much false dogma as—well, you can pick your example from the Manichean Heresy to Mao’s little Red Book and beyond.

This has been a remarkable year, n’est-ce pas? The high points from us include some political ones: the election of two good men in our neighborhood (Thomas Mulcair, re-elected NDP member of the federal Parliament from Outremont, and Amir Khadir, the first Québec Solidaire representative to Quebec’s legislative assembly in Mercier, one riding to the east,) and Barak Obama’s triumph in the US. Of course, as always these victories come with strings attached: the Federal Conservatives only got 37 per cent of the vote but they want to govern like they were majority (stay tuned to see what happens when the prorogued Parliament resumes in late January) while Obama is faced with monumental problems which may bring out his small-c conservative tendencies. Let’s hope he listens to Paul Krugman and that gang…

As for the Soderstroms, probably the high point was Lee’s career change. For the first fall in 40 years, he’s not teaching at McGill. It’s not retirement, he insists, but a switch to woodworking and photography as professions. So far he has several interesting furniture making projects going in the basement, while in his office upstairs he’s learning the ins and outs of Photoshop so that he can work with the black and white film he plans on continuing to use. He'll keep his hand in on the academic front with more reflection on health economics also, but he’s also had the time to watch the unfolding economic dramas closely and comment on them to friends and family.

Elin and Emmanuel installed their passions in one place last summer: a sunny upper duplex which gives Emmanuel room to display and work on his collection of 18th century New France material culture. Follow this link to see him at a conference dressed in period style: that's him on the right in the gorgeous gold suit. The new digs have also become Elin's base for her music making. One of the recordings she was involved in will be a tribute to Henry Purcell by Les Voix humaines, due out from Atma in time for the 350th anniversary of his birth and for which she got to play a viola da gamba from the 17th century: you can see that their household is a meeting of minds. Elin also toured France and Italy in October with Les Idées heureuses, and she continues work on her doctorate in performance at the Univesité de Montréal.

That means for the first time both kids are at the same point in their academic careers since Lukas started his own Ph.D. in philosophy at the UdeM this fall, after finishing his master's with a thesis that got excellents from his examiners. The work also was the basis paper he gave at a conference on Continental Philosophy in October. At the moment he appears to be in the middle of corrections for the course he’s TAing as well as his own work. Sophie, who until now has been deeply involved in support for reading programs, is now a consultant for the Lester B. Pearson School Board on science and technology and social studies curriculum. She also has been giving papers, including one to reading specialists from all over Canada in Halifax last July.

As for me, a project I’d been working on for nearly 10 years came to fruition in March when Cormorant Books published my novel The Violets of Usambara. Nothing like taking a while to finish something: I won’t bore you with the details of why it took so long. The Walkable City: From Haussmann’s Boulevards to Jane Jacobs’ Streets and Beyond came out this fall from Véhicule Press, and only took four years to research and write. It also was the pretext, in part, for our trip to France. My cousin Cathy Retterer joined us for a couple of weeks too, which made the visit even more fun.

The kids will be here for Christmas which should a real pleasure, We’re hoping to go to Portugal in the spring, partly for fun and partly for a new writing project for me. That is, if I can pry Lee away from his new careers long enough!

Best wishes for a 2009 that has all the good things of 2008 and none of the bad ones.


Mary