May 31, 2001
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada5pm. The Vision of Youth is a small committee of community leaders intent on fulfilling recommendations set forth by youth of Saint John to improve education, quality of life, recreation and culture. The committee was seeking activities for a Canada Day Celebration, so I suggested a skateboard competition.
The city is loaning us the ramps and will allow us to block off the street. My job is to find the judges, set the course, and score prizes from skate shops. Hopefully, The Jimmy Swift Band will play at the event and we'll shoot a skate video featuring their music to post online.
8pm. Jayme Fouggre invited me to a potluck celebrating his departure from Saint John to the open road-- traveling west. I brought fresh baked oatmeal, raisin, walnut, chocolate chip cookies. The house was a castle; likely once the home of a wealthy ship builder. Now it belongs to Jayme's friend, Cory, who is bound to a wheel chair, but connected to the world via the web.
9:30pm. Paula Foley's CD release party was rapping up by the time I got to the Imperial Theater. Yesterday, Marc Gosselin pointed me to her web site, where I listened to samples of her music for the first time.
She is a social worker, with an excellent understanding of how to connect with people. During the entire few minutes that we were in conversation, she held my hand and looked me straight in the eyes. It was intense, but in a way that was warm and gentle. It was clear that she was giving me her full attention.
Sometimes when people are speaking to me, or I'm talking them, their eyes shift all over the place, and it doesn't seem like we are connecting; we are not on the same plain; their mind is somewhere else.
The clarity of an impression is often determined by the depth of the connection.
11:30pm. Dancing through this existence, I mostly bounce off other individuals with little interaction, because we are not going in the same direction; they are in a different groove.
