Marie-Claire Blais (1939-2021)
bell hooks (1952-2021)
Joan Didion (1934-2021)
Candy Palmater (1968-2021)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (1931-2021)
When we lose the greats, it is as if the earth stops turning, for a fraction of a second, and exhales. Be they old or young, we think: It's too soon.
When we lose the greats, we worry and wonder how to move forward. Who will comfort us, who will teach us, who will help us navigate these confusing times? In our grief it is difficult to contemplate that others may follow.
The world has lost 6 more greats in these fading days of 2021, as though the year's losses -- loss of stability, of time, of friends and family members to cancer, heart attack, covid, steely old age -- weren't bad enough.
Perhaps our planet thought that it could trade away its dread of the new year to come; as though releasing them to the universe might also release its own fear, or maybe even motivate its citizens -- us -- to alter our destructive ways and pay attention for a change. A grand bargain for peace, justice, climate action.
How could anyone possibly replace them? They whose words kept us afloat in dangerous waters, through times of conflict and grief, in search of truth, in hope of reconciliation:
"Even the waves of the sea tell a story that deserves to be read. The stories that really need to be told are those that shake the very soul of you... I prepare to be shaken." Lee Maracle, Celia's Song, 2014.
"Tout est immortelle et rien ne sera oublié de ce qui fut." Marie Claire Blais, Les voyageurs sacrés, 1962.
"I choose to re-appropriate the term ‘feminism’, to focus on the fact that to be ‘feminist’ in any authentic sense of the term is to want for all people, female and male, liberation from sexist role patterns, domination, and oppression." bell hooks, Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism, 1981.
"Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant." Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, 2005.
"The reality is that words do hurt. Which is why, as a society, we remove hurtful words from our vernacular as we evolve." Candy Palmater, in Chatelaine, 2017.
"We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy." Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy, 2016.
How fortunate are we to have shared time on this planet with these greats. May their memory be eternal, and may their words be their legacy and an inspiration to a new generation -- to all of us -- to be great.
