Sunday 21 May 2017

Day 10 - Protest-Parade Poser

I am a protest-parade poser.  I am Canadian.

When asked whether I’d take part in the International March for Science (April 22nd – Earth Day 2017) in Paris, I evaded the question.  I work for a science organization, share the concerns, and knew my daughter would march in the Toronto parade.

Yet I can’t say that I felt the need to impress Rebecca nor to add my voice to fight for science.  The protest also fell on the day we were booked to head off for the Loire Valley, and I cited this as my reason for not going. But then on the day before, a colleague of the same vintage said “Aw  - come on ! How often do you get to go in a protest parade in Paris?”

I knew that this fellow baby boomer was recalling the French student protests of the 1960s.  Protesting in the streets, manning the barricades Les Misérables-style does seem like a very Parisian and just thing to do.

Checking the schedule for the march and the schedule for the trains, I learned that (1) we were to leave for Amboise at 1:30 PM from the Gare d'Austerlitz; (2) that March for Science was to begin at about the same time in the Jardin des Plantes next to the Gare d'Austerlitz.

So, as soon as we arrived at the station, I left an anxious Michele with our bags and ran down the street to the gates of the Jardin. I didn’t see any marching, but watched the setup, mingled with crowd, and heard a few speeches. I took a selfie for my daughter and left for the Gare.

Looking out the train car window an hour later, I thought my participation was pretty tepid, pretty lame, pretty Canadian.  Aside from tuition-fee protests in Quebec and the Idle No More demonstrations for aboriginal rights, Canadians haven’t gotten off their butts very often or, at least, very vigorously in recent years. We are known as a people who sheepishly accept our lot, bow to big business and government, pay high bank rates and telecom fees, smile and thank our abusers, and say excuse me in the process.

Not the French.  They get worked up and scary even about things like peer-reviewed research and scientific data.

Knowing people who need convincing on climate change, on the benefits of biotechnology, and on the need for artificial intelligence, I felt a little uncomfortable amidst my fellow March for Science protestors. 

“You know, if that protest wants to influence ordinary people, they probably shouldn’t use a   Frankenstein killer robot as their symbol,” I said to my wife. “They might have cranked back the megaphone a bit too.”

Nevertheless, I found myself wishing I could have marched in the protest that day and assumed that I had missed a unique opportunity.

A week and a half later, we were in Angers wrapping up our Loire Valley holiday and getting ready to catch a train back to Charles de Gaulle Airport and the flight home.  After a walk of 120 kilometres, it wasn’t bad to have a couple of days rest, but we were a little bored.  All of the shops, most of the restaurants, and even the museums were closed. 
It was the May 1st weekend.

La Fête du Travail is a big deal in France.   A day to not only celebrate workers and workers’ rights, but also to campaign for more and to stage protest marches.  This year with the presidential elections underway at the same time, the protests took a lively bent everywhere and, in Angers, they took the form of a long, noisy march right in front of our hotel on the main drag, Boulevard du Maréchal Foch.

The combination of nothing else to do and of a wistfulness over missing waling part of the Paris protest prompted me to run down to the street and join the march for a few blocks.
Again, I took a selfie and bowed out.  

It was OK.  But I did feel like a poser.  I wasn’t sure what was being protested exactly and what we were yelling and singing about - other than to let Marine Le Pen know she would not be invited to the post-parade wine and cheese.

The next morning, riding in the TGV to the CDG, I read online that other May Day marches including the one in Paris had taken a violent turn with fire bombs, water cannons, Molotov Cocktails, tear gas, and injured police.  Protesters interviewed by the media said that they were fighting Le Pen and the Front National, but weirdly they also promised to protest Macron if he got elected.

“These guys are nuts,” I said, thinking that sometimes not protesting makes more sense.

I rationalized that if the choice is violence or misrepresenting an idea, pursuing quieter and respectful avenues make a better statement on some issues.


But then again, I am Canadian.

Saturday 20 May 2017

Leonardo's Razor

When I think of the town of Amboise, the Chateau Clos Lucé, and Leonardo da Vinci, I want to get a shave.
Not because of Leonardo’s later-life commitment to growing a long beard, but rather because of his life-long commitment to growing his brain.

When I found out that our holiday in the Loire Valley would take us through Amboise and past the manor where Leonardo spent his final years, I was thrilled and wanted to use this as an excuse to study his work and life anew.  I bought three different versions of his notebooks settling on one that seemed readable and visual.

Leonardo’s persistent curiosity and thoughts on art, science, and technology rub off and tweak the way you look at things.  But some passages seem like fragments of thought and confound, and I might have put the book aside had I not seen explicit references to Amboise and the Loire River.  This spurred me on to the end of the notebooks and presumably stuff written near the end of his days.

He shifted from science, engineering, and artistic technique to just telling stories.  Funny stories.  


In one, a priest travels across the Tuscan countryside sprinkling holy water on the plants, the pastures, and the people.He enters the great artist’s studio and sprays a few drops on unfinished paintings.

When the painter moves to protest, the priest stops him and says “Say not a word, I will receive my rewards one hundred-fold from the heavens.”  As the holy man leaves the villa, the artist, presumably an avatar for Leonardo, goes up to the second floor and dumps a hundred-fold of the water on the priest.

It cracked me up.   It was only a little funny, but I laughed most thinking of Leonardo da Vinci as a humour writer.

The story that touched me the most though was one about shaving and a razor.  In it, the razor is an anthropomorphic character.   He, the razor, shines brilliantly when opened up and remains sharp when at work.

But Mr. Razor is a lazy guy and thinks that cutting through the gnarly beards of the peasants is beneath him. He likes it best when he is closed up inside the nice warm cover and at rest. Eventually, the razor gets his wish, and the barber leaves him alone.

But he slowly rusts up and is of use no more.

By this point, you know he is not talking about a razor but rather a person and more specifically a human mind. When it is open and active, it is brilliant.  Closed and idle, it seizes up.

Leonardo was about my age, mid-sixties, when in Amboise and thinking about such things.  I could easily relate and resolved to try and buy an antique razor in the Loire as a souvenir and reminder to keep an open mind.

But about a week before we left I found myself telling Leonardo’s stories to my barber at the Beacon Hill Mall in Ottawa. He pulled open a drawer and picked out an old razor in its case and gave it to me.  I tried to decline, but the barber insisted saying he had three old ones like it.  But he said this one was at least eighty-years old. Later, I read online that the company named on the blade stopped manufacturing this model around 1890.  

The razor sits in a glass display case in my den – opened up, shining, and inspiring.  I am definitely going to take all my haircut business to the Beacon Hill barbershop from now on. But it doesn’t seem like enough. 

So, when I think of Amboise, Clos Lucé, and Leonardo, I want to also get a shave.