What's the Magic Word?

Like much of the prairies, we got a very heavy late winter/early spring snow dump last week. It was about 10-12 inches of snow over about a 36-hour period. Somehow, even though it had only been a couple of weeks since we had snow, the bus drivers in town had already forgotten how to drive in snow. 

As a result, Friday morning found me standing on an unshovelled sidewalk waiting with three others for a bus that didn't come. As we waited the 25 minutes for the next bus, I got into a conversation with one of the guys I often say hello to in the mornings, waiting for the bus. 

Somehow, the conversation got into the history of contract law and how often we accept agreements without even scanning the document we're about to agree to. My conversation mate commented at one point that he thought that words were magic. They can affect your life, change how you behave, and some people build amazing power using words. 

I found myself agreeing pretty strongly with this sentiment. As a professional writer and songwriter, I've perhaps codified and systematized using words so it doesn't seem as magic to me as just advanced use of human technology. As Arthur C. Clarke put it, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I think we're looking at a version of this here. 

Using words and other communication methods to influence how someone behaves is at the core of the work I do in public relations. Maybe we call it a "call to action" or "intended behaviour," but we could as easily call it "the spell we cast upon the public". Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in Star Wars are both famous characters who could influence what people do just by talking. Maybe it's no coincidence that both characters were played by Christopher Lee. He could talk me into anything. 

But there is another element that, while we do talk about it in PR, we don't put as much emphasis on. The ability to make people feel a certain way. I didn't talk about it with my fellow bus rider, but I have discussed it with my career coach and with my sister over the last year. The ability to make people feel a certain way. Certainly, the reader of this blog experiences it every week - the ability of my words to illicit deep, lasting boredom. 

As a songwriter and musician, I see how music can be a major upgrade too. 

As my sister and I prepared the music for our grandma's internment last summer, we quickly decided that we were going to make them cry. Not provide some nice sad music. We were going to use our skills, the work of musicians before us and the history of the person we were honouring to make them cry. Magic? Maybe to some. But we knew how to wield it. 

I've delved deeper into it with my career coach, who did an excellent job of reminding me that not only is it a power I can wield, but, done responsibly, many people want me to. People want to be made to laugh, to think, and even, yes, at times, cry. And I suppose that's where we get into the arts and their ability to add something more than stuff or information to the world. We add emotion - we use our magic to bring intangible beauty to the world. 

What do you think? Are words magic? Is music, sculpture, painting, dance or any of the other arts magic too? Does the magic get a boost by being combined? Is there a human technology that seems magic to you? 

Dog-a-betes

 I shared a bit about it in the family group chat and on Instagram, but that's not my blog, so I need to reshare here.

We found out this weekend that Liberty, our Border Collie-Pyrenees mix dog, has diabetes. Looking back, of course, the signs have been there for a while. He's been losing weight, has an insatiable thirst and an ability to pee like no creature I've ever experienced. 

We finally took him in on Friday when it was clear that the weight loss was very serious. The diagnosis was pretty quick, and we spent the weekend taking him back and forth to the vet. They monitored him during the day, and we had him at home to rest and feel comfortable again. 

He's been a total champ. He's less concerned with all the needles than I am. Because I am a wuss with a severe needle phobia. But I guess now I need to face that fear because I'll occasionally need to give the boy the shot. It's against my Hippocratic oath to do no harm - the needle will create a small puncture wound - but I suppose it's worth it to give this guy a long, complete life. 

Of course, this comes with a lot of learning about diabetes for me. How insulin works, what a ketone is and how it is that a dog who's 7 years old, who's had a pretty consistent diet and exercise, could relatively suddenly develop this. 

One of the things I found reading about canine diabetes is that it's usually found in middle-aged dogs, so check on that one. It also usually stays dormant and can be triggered by becoming overweight. We were certainly commenting this past fall that he was getting chonky, and we should probably start getting him on a diet. Check two. 

So yeah. We now have our own Wilford Brimley of dogs. Delightful. 

Was glad to have the old boy home between visits. He even got a chance to help his sister change the blower motor on her car on Saturday night. 

From cat, to dog, to people. We were all very happy to have him home and to know what's up with the poor boy. 

Fly me to the moon

Yesterday, as I toiled away in the word mines of our government, four people broke a long-standing record and became the farthest humans away from earth ever. 

Seems lonely. 

Yes, the Artemis II mission (or more specifically the Orion space capsule) made its lap around the far side of the moon yesterday and broke the old record set by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission back in 1970. 

The crew was the very picture of diversity. They had a tall person, a short person. A boy person and a girl person. A black person and ... a Canadian. Personally, I think the only reason they didn't have a paraplegic person on board was that the rest of the astronauts would be embarrassed by how well someone who uses their hands to get around would perform. Make them all look bad. 

But I think Canada has been getting shortchanged here. 

"What are you talking about Pilot, Hansen is the first non-American to leave low-Earth orbit."

Sure, yes. We're all very grateful for that. But like. 

Why don't we get a cool name for our space-farers?

Chinese space-travellers are called Taikonauts. Those who have left Earth from Russia/USSR have been called Cosmonauts. I even found that France has their own name for zero-g wanderers: spationaut. 

So why can't Canadians have our own cool name? I mean, we have an entire astronaut corps, and we've sent 9 people to space a total of 17 times.  

Well, as with anything in this world, and consistent with this blog far overstepping it's reach in trying to change the world, I've got a proposal.

Espanaut. 

Reflecting Canada's bilinguality I grabbed the French word for space, "espace," which really has the English word for space in there as well. "Space". 

I also considered Siderialnaut, because Siderial comes from Latin but also is a word still used in English and French. But sidereal more describes the stars and really deep space. Maybe we can use that one when we send the first Canadian to Wolf 359. 

Maybe it's all a wasted discussion, though. Once the Cheeto Benito goes through with his annexation of Canada, they'll all become astronauts again anyway.  

On a separate note, but still involving Canada and space, a comedian at open mic last night pointed out that the entire Apollo program and 50-year absence from the moon have happened since the last time that the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. They won it in 1967, the first trip around the moon was 1968, the first landing in 1969 and the last mission in 1972. And we just flew past again now in 2026. 

The crux of the joke was that Jeremy Hansen was given the chance to either join a Stanley Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leafs or to be the first Canadian to go to the moon, and he decided to go with the one that had an actual chance of happening. 

Oof.