Dear Dalton,
Well, today I'm impressed. Ontario is finally raising minimum wage! That's incredible. I barely know what to say. Our minimum wage has been frozen at $6.85 for nine years. Inflation has grown dramatically over those nine years and rent prices have risen even faster, all while we had a freeze on minimum wage. I guess that makes this a bittersweet piece of news for those of us who look at it with that in mind. However, all in all, this is a step in the right direction, and I thank you for it.
Did you know that Irving Layton is dying of Alzheimer's disease in MontrŽal? Isn't that one of the saddest things you have ever heard? He wrote such beautiful poetry for us and now he probably can't even remember what he wrote. One of my favourite Layton passages is called 'Hills and Hills' and it says:
The hills
remind me
of you
Not because
they curve soft and warm
lovely and firm
under the Greek sun
Or flow
towards the horizon
in slow limpid waves
falling away mysteriously
at the edge of the sea
So that I can only surmise
their being there
beyond my gaze
and stare into the greyness
But because
a long time ago
you stared at them
as I am staring now
I hate Alzheimer's. Thanks again for the minimum wage increase,
Heather Ann Kaldeway
<-- Non-Blog Writing