Update - June 1 2023

Update on some events

It has been some time since I recorded a podcast, and I thought I should give an update. Listen to hear the three large events that took place in my life from April – May 2023.

Resources:

Bill Cain’s book - https://www.amazon.ca/Diary-Jesus-Christ-Bill-Cain/dp/1626984077

Rick Beato’s analysis of If You Could Read my Mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ&list=PLW0NGgv1qnfzb1klL6Vw9B0aiM7ryfXV_&index=15

Rick Beato’s tribute upon Gordon Lightfoot’s Death - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iw7Jei8XOo

Documentary on Gordon Lightfoot https://gem.cbc.ca/gordon-lightfoot-if-you-could-read-my-mind

Glenda Bartlett’s obituary - https://www.wardfuneralhomes.com/memorials/glenda--bartlett/5196703/index.php

 

Connect with Tanya Hewitt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-hewitt-55804529/

Buy her a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tanyah

Credits:

Adam Johns – voiceover - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjohns730/

Beverley McKiver – composer and player of the music Tell Me About Love - https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverleymckiver/

 

Episode Transcript

Adam Johns (00:03):
Welcome to Beyond the Minimum, where we'll be exploring the world of work. We'll be chatting about concepts, ideas and phrases, explore practices and delve into what good looks like. Work can be purposeful value lead, and more meaningful to all who interact with the workplace. This podcast is brought to you by Tanya Hewitt who lives in unceded Algonquin, Anishinaabeg territory, otherwise known as Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Tanya Hewitt (00:33):
There have been three main events, and maybe 3.5. Two of them were very individual and one was very collective. So I would like to share these with you so that you know why I haven't been able to get to recording some of my traditional podcasts.

(01:09):
So the first one, I visited Israel. I met a group of women in the pandemic over zoom, and a subset of these women went toIsrael right after Easter 2023. Initially, I was opposed to going on this trip for two reasons, one, affordability and two environmental responsibility. Obviously, going to a spiritual retreat in Israel, which was how this was talked about, is not a free trip. And as I have struggled as a business owner, I knew I needed a handsome amount of money to be able to engage in this trip, I needed to have this really financed by my husband for whom I am extraordinarily grateful for having done so. But I don't necessarily want to be depending exclusively on his income forever in order to finance anything that I would like to do. The second reason, I never really had questioned the viability of flying, I had done it many times in my previous position. I have since learned that it is extraordinarily environmentally costly, and I am trying to reduce my impact on the environment. Maybe another reason was that this was, as I had said, touted as a spiritual retreat. I hadn't been on a spiritual retreat before and it seemed wild to do my very first spiritual retreat in Israel.

(02:44):
On this trip, we visited Galilee, a town called Magda, where we actually saw the Sea of Galilee (it's actually a lake) andsome ruins of a first century synagogue, and markets. We celebrated Shabbat the end of the week at a Jewish home, complete with food, music and dancing. We then went to Jerusalem where we saw the Mount of Temptation, Cana, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Ein Karim and the old walled city of Jerusalem. So a couple of shares from this experience. Each church in Jerusalem that is situated in a geographical place that is depicted in the gospels can have only that gospel, that their namesake story is read in that church. For example, at Cana, the churches can have as a gospel only John chapter two verses one to 11, where we talk about the wedding at Cana. At Ein Karim, which is the church of the visitation, only the gospel of Mary visiting Elizabeth can be read. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which has the territories of various Christians where Jesus was thought to be crucified, anointed and buried and resurrected, only Gospels of that story can be read, so you get the idea.

(04:06):
Another treasure was given to be by my roommate who brought a bunch of things with her such as homemade bread, and copies ofthe Diary of Jesus Christ, which of course, is not actual, literal diary material. But I learned it was due in large part to a woman who was part of that Zoom group, who encouraged the priest who had these amazing homilies to package them together in a book and sell that book. And that's what this is. My roommate brought copies of this book. And when we visited Cana and some of the other places that we visited, we read the fictional diary chapter pertaining to that event. It was a really fascinating and refreshing view on these New Testament stories. Another interesting thing was the endowment of a certificate. Other tour groups had done this to great fanfare in the hotel restaurant. So we got a certificate attesting in Latin that we visited the holy land. And not all of us saw what the certificate attested. As I mentioned, Israel was interesting.

(05:18):
So the second event that happened was the death of a Canadian cultural icon. He died and the notice was sent out. So TheNational is sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had breaking news for real breaking news, not some of this breaking news that goes on for days and days and days. This was breaking news at around 9:45pm Eastern Daylight Time that Gordon Lightfoot had died. And as The National is rebroadcast on the hour at 9pm 10pm and 11pm on the days that it's published at all, I was curious what the CBC would do at 10pm on May 1 2023. And sure enough, the CBC would have archives of this guy's early career. And the lead story at 10pm for about 15 minutes was that Gordon Lightfoot died at the age of 84.

(06:14):
So let me explain a little bit about why his passing is such a big deal. And I have come to appreciate the importance ofGordon Lightfoot, really, after he passed away more than when he was alive, which is a sad reality. But he did leave an enormous legacy to be able to appreciate. So there are many roles in music, composers write the music. So famous ones are Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, etc. Where they juggled instruments in their head and wrote sonatas to symphonies with very different scores for different instruments for the same piece. Musicians then play the music. And there are many musicians from orchestras to bands who are very serious about the quality of the sound they produce from their instrument, Yo Yo Ma comes to mind, and people like Don Airey, the keyboardist for Deep Purple, whom I saw years ago, very, very talented musician. Lyricists write the words. Sometimes these are poets, Leonard Cohen comes to mind on this kind of front. So Bernie Taupin was the lyricist to Elton John's songs. And you know that Elton John and Bernie Taupin have these very separate roles. Bernie Taupin writes the words and Elton John, I think basically does the harmonies, the melodies and maybe a harmony. I

(07:51):
don't, to my knowledge, I don't know, so this is my ignorance, I don't know if he actually sits down and writes a drum linewrites a second guitar line wrights or a lead guitar line and a second guitar line, he probably writes the piano that he himself is playing. One other role is that singers sing. So this one likely goes without saying there are many, many such as such examples. As of the recording of this podcast, Tina Turner passed away. And she is one of these singers who was excellent at singing, and probably in presentation as well, but was not known for any of these other roles. So while you can have experts in one of these domains, sometimes two or three, Gordon Lightfoot was a master at all four, he wrote all of the guitar parts, you know, with harmonies and different picking and violin, clarinet drum, whatever was needed, and he was excellent at it. Like he was a very skilled composer. A band wanted to pay tribute to this international folk star the by covering his music soon after Gordon Lightfoot passed away. So they got the sheet music and realized they could not sight read this stuff. They needed to study this for a month in order to play it competently. Like he was not doing things off the

(09:26):
cuff kind of thing. He was very dedicated at writing really good music, but it was probably very complicated music at thesame time. So I don't have a musicology background, but I will put into the show notes someone who does and truly admired Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan admired him and many of his songs have been covered by nearly countless artists. I think of If You Could Read My Mind I think has been covered by over 300 artists. Bob Dylan really did admire Gordon Lightfoot. There were many quotes especially when Gordon Lightfoot passed away of Gordon Lightfoot, being one of the master songwriters, Bob Dylan can listen to a Gordon Lightfoot song and hoped it would never end all these kinds of tributes. And you know that Bob Dylan didn't like Beatles songs. So he liked the complexity and the lyrics and the overall professionalism that Gordon Lightfoot brought to his craft. So Gordon Lightfoot wrote anywhere from 300 to 500 songs, he recorded nearly 300 of them and had many classics like iIf You Could Read My Mind, as I said, it was covered prolifically, Sundown, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and on and on and on. As I had said, I really only came to appreciate Gordon Lightfoot after he died. I did this rabbit

(10:53):
holing on who he was, and his contributions.
So some of the reasons I admire him are the following. So number one, he stayed Canadian. So from the rabbit holing he alongwith everybody else, tried to make it in the States in the late 60s. And he didn't succeed, you know, to be truthful. And so he came back, and then he started to get some air play with Early Morning Rain was his first I think, really recognized song. Later on, he was enticed to go to Los Angeles and live in Los Angeles. And I think he actually shot a movie or something in Los Angeles to very little acclaim, and he decided he didn't want to stay there. So he came back. And he actually stayed in Ontario. And there was an interview from somebody from the Mariposa Music Festival, which is near Oshawa which is where he's from - or Orillia - sorry, these "O" towns in Ontario, Orillia he really genuinely appreciated being asked to play at the Mariposa Music Festival. In his later years, he actually was refused to the ticket to play at the Mariposa Music Festival in the early 60s When he first applied because he sounded too much like the Everly Brothers, he didn't have a problem with that he didn't mind sounding like the Everly Brothers at that time. The Everly Brothers were quite popular in the late 50s, early

(12:25):
60s in the folk realms, so he the fact that he knew his roots, and he was loyal to them, I think is a really neat aspect ofwho he was.
Another reason why I admire him is that he atoned for his shortcomings. To be blunt, he was not a great guy in his heyday.And in his later years, he acknowledged that he recognized his hit song, That's What You Get for Loving Me, was misogynistic, and he refused to play that song. For the last 20, maybe 30 years, I will put into the show notes, a documentary that was basically the culmination of his life's work, where it starts with him, nearly 80 years old, watching, That's What You Get for Loving Me. And clips of him doing this with various artists and saying that he he hates remembering who he was in that era. He hates watching himself sing that song. Because he doesn't - he knows that it was a bad message that he was putting out in that song. And in that documentary that I spoke of that I'll put into the show notes, there are clips in there, that I think if somebody really wanted to show a polished version of themselves, they would take out. He has some really interesting interviews that he did that do not show him in a good light. And yet, they're in the documentary, he was able to show up, warts and all. And that's admirable. There aren't a whole lot of people, especially somebody with his stature, who would be

(14:19):
willing to be as open and forthcoming with some of the less desirable aspects of his life, but I find that quite admirable.
Another thing is he took his craft seriously. And he practiced it throughout his career. So much so that a site that I cameacross probably done in 2021 mind you, said that the need-to-know songs from Gordon Lightfoot included ones from this album, he recorded when he was 80. You know, his heyday was definitely in the past. It was in the 60s 70s. Like, that's when he got his notoriety. And those are the songs, those are the classic songs that, you know, everybody who's a fan of Gordon Lightfoot knows, I don't think a whole lot of people would be aware of a that he even did an album when he was 80 and B, that there are some people who think that those songs a couple of songs on that album are important enough to be on. If-you-want-to-know-Gordon-Lightfoot-you-have-to-know-this-song. Like that's astounding to me, that he would have that kind of influence over people. I know, I had seen years ago, a commentary on some artists who go to small music festivals and just play the hits that they did in the past over and over again. And while Gordon Lightfoot I think probably fell into that category for a little while, he didn't stay there. He kept writing things even you know, when he was 80. So I, and this

(16:13):
cultural critique was saying these, these guys in their 40s and 50s still have talent and should capitalize on being able todo more than just what they did when they were in their teens and 20s. But a lot of artists are comfortable with their audiences being okay with a very small playlist and just hearing the same songs over and over again. Gordon Lightfoot had 40 songs that he had in his repertoire that he played. And he said that each concert that he gave gave in his 80s was a selection of those 40 because I mean, he was 80 right. I don't know how, what his stamina was. But I know he played Massey Hall and all this. I mean, he's a prolific prolific songwriter. Another thing that is interesting about Gordon Lightfoot is that in some of the many interviews that he gave over the years that you can now find on YouTube, and some are being uploaded after he passed away the CTV or global had in their archives. He said that songwriting was exhausting, and that not everyone could do what he did. And given what I've told you about what he did to write a song, I suspect she was right.

(17:30):
And number four, he wrote about a lot of Canadian things. He wrote about a ton of relationship stuff, most of his songs areabout that. But he did write about nature, and he wrote about, well, he was commissioned to do the Canadian Railroad Trilogy back in when Canada was celebrating its Centennial. But he wrote about, you know, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, when it became a hit. It became popular, even though I mean, it's really just a song about a shipwreck that happened that he felt didn't get enough attention. Incidentally, he contacted those families and it was an American ship. He contacted those families for years went down to visit them, they had an annual bell ringing service where the bell rang 29 times and it was the families were so thankful to him for having immortalized there their loved ones.

(18:38):
So one caveat I'd like to put on this. He had a number of children from a number of different women, and none of whom, to myknowledge have come out publicly on their dad's death or legacy. So as I said, he was probably a complicated person, as most people are. Most people have many dimensions to their lives. And notwithstanding this polarized society in which we live where one aspect of a person becomes known, then they are blacklisted and canceled culture and all the rest of this Gordon Lightfoot was a womanizer and was an alcoholic and you know, you Anne Murray in the documentary doesn't necessarily show him in a great light. He did contribute a ton to the folk world internationally, to Canada specifically. And he owned his warts, he owned his failings, and I really I can't say how much I appreciate that. I'd also just like to put one song that I didn't realize was of the Gordon Lightfoot library of songs. I love minor chords from the 70s and Beautiful is a gorgeous, gorgeous song. With said minor chords, I probably heard it as a kid along with Chicago and others, but oh my goodness, it is a gorgeous, beautiful song.

(20:11):
So the third event that happened in my life is that my mother passed away on May 18 2023. And while things didn't start outso well with her death, I think it was obvious she was dying a few days before that. But there were efforts made to try to counteract that to try to combat the pneumonia and everything that she had. I did get to see her while she was still communicative, not verbal, communicative, but still able to communicate, I did what I could to ease her transition, I brought in stuffed animals, and I played a lot of music off of my smartphone. And so, one beautiful memory is two nights with my two daughters who came down after I did in her hospital room, holding her hands and petting her hair with Danny Boy playing from Spotify off my smartphone. And those are memories that we will treasure forever. I think, as I said, my mother died on May 18 2023, at the age of 83. And she breathed her last breath with her family in the room with Celtic flutes playing from my smartphone on her pillow. Nurses were asking me when I'd be leaving the the hospital at 9:30 at night, if I would be staying the night, three nights, nurses asked me and I was starting to feel a bit guilty. Should I be staying the night? Like I

(22:25):
wasn't planning on doing that. But of course, the more that I started to think about it, my mom could pass away in the middleof the night. And even when she died on that Thursday, we had a few things to do in the morning. And we didn't even show up in her room until probably afternoon. And she died at around 3:15pm when we were all there. So it was actually a very peaceful, very profound experience. To be honest, there's been a bit of busyness, dealing with funeral preparations and so forth. But the memorial service preparations to be more specific, but it is nice to know that everything is going well. And that I hope you are going well as well. And we are just enjoying beautiful days here. Amazing sunshine, maybe a bit too hot for this time of year. But that's climate change for you. There will be a memorial service for my mother on June 3 2023. I'll put the link in the show notes in case you're interested. So that's a lot of what has been happening in my life. I will soon be going to a conference. So that's the next obligation. And I hope to record another podcast between the visitation Memorial and going to Virginia for this upcoming conference.

(23:25):
I thank you for listening. I don't know if this is your first episode, or if you are a regular listener, having reallyappreciated some of this content. I just wanted to tell you that I really do appreciate you for listening. If you would like to express your gratitude for this podcast, I would encourage you to buy me a coffee, head on over to buy me a coffee.com/tanyah that's buy b-u-y me m-e a coffee c-o-f-f-e-e all one word.com/t-a-n-y-a-h tanyah. I will put this in the show notes. And I would really sincerely appreciate your support. In addition to that, you can rate and review this podcast and I really, really appreciate that you are here listening to what I am sending out to you guys. Thanks so much.

Adam Johns (24:37):
Thank you so much for listening to Beyond the Minimum with Tanya Hewitt. We hope this episode aligned with you. Maybe it was diametrically opposed to us, at any rate, we trust it made you think. The more we can think about our workplaces and start talking about them, the more we can collectively make a real difference. If you're living in Canada, please find out the Indigenous territory in which you reside. Begin using it to introduce yourself. Please reach out to Tanya through her email [e-mail]. Connect and chat with her on LinkedIn. Follow her company Beyond Safety Compliance. And remember to ask yourself the question, How does your work look? Because we can always go Beyond the Minimum.