FRAN DARLING![]() I moved away (tragically) from Kelvin and Winnipeg in October of grade 12 when Dad was transferred to his Montreal head office. I did grade 12 at High School of Montreal, an inner city school built in 1862, and shock to my system. Since grade 12 was post-grad in Québec, I never really graduated from high school. In 1972, I left McGill with a B. Arts in English. After 3 years of learning how to dish out bullroar on short notice, I went into advertising ó working in Montreal department stores and radio stations. I married starving medical student Pete Leckie from California in 1975, and in 1977 we moved to Vancouver where he did a residency in general surgery. Daughter Nancy was born in 1978, son Dave in 1981. We moved to the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island in January 1982 and weíve been here ever since. Iíve been writing since then ó stories, poetry, songs, chancel dramas for young people at Duncan United Church, ads and press releases for community groups, a one-act historical play for Chemainus Theatre, and I have a mystery novel on the back burner. Iíve been so involved with worship planning and teaching at church that Iíve started courses at Vancouver Theological School, aiming for a Masterís in something eventually. I do book-keeping and work in admin for a local accounting firm part-time. And my column Valley View appears once a week www.cowichannewsleader.com (hit “Opinion”). So weíre still here in Duncan BC. Nancy lives in Kingston after a year acting in Toronto (meaning lots of jobs in bars and a Molsonís commercial), then returning to Queenís this year for her teacherís ticket. Dave has been at Simon Fraser for computer science but is currently taking a year out, which means heíll probably build more computers in his room. My mum retired in Vancouver and my siblings live across the continent. Peteís still practising in spite of people asking when heís going to retire (he just got his first job 20 years ago), probably because he golfs with passion. We have a house overlooking the Valley and an old cedar-shake logging camp cookhouse on the shore of Cowichan Lake. Come visit anytime: fdarling@island.net. Note on the second picture above: I’m seated flanked by my kids Nancy and David. Standing are Nan’s sailor (Lt in the navy, weapons officer, ironic laughter allowed if you know my history in the peace movement protesting cruise missiles up-Island, which he fires) named Dan Charlebois, brother-in-law Joel Sheldon from Pasadena, Mum, Pete who rarely gets his photo taken, Jil his sister.) |
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--- My Best 100 Posts --
Preparing for Civilization's End:
What Would Net-Zero Emissions Look Like?
Why Economic Collapse Will Precede Climate Collapse
Being Adaptable: A Reminder List
A Culture of Fear
What Will It Take?
A Future Without Us
Dean Walker Interview (video)
The Mushroom at the End of the World
What Would It Take To Live Sustainably?
The New Political Map (Poster)
Beyond Belief
Complexity and Collapse
Save the World Reading List
Civilization Disease
What a Desolated Earth Looks Like
Giving Up on Environmentalism
Going Vegan
The Dark & Gathering Sameness of the World
The End of Philosophy
The Boiling Frog
Our Culture:
What to Believe Now?
Rogue Primate
Conversation & Silence
The Language of Our Eyes
True Story
Cultural Acedia: When We Can No Longer Care
Useless Advice
Several Short Sentences About Learning
Why I Don't Want to Hear Your Story
A Harvest of Myths
The Qualities of a Great Story
The Trouble With Stories
A Model of Identity & Community
Not Ready to Do What's Needed
A Culture of Dependence
So What's Next
Ten Things to Do When You're Feeling Hopeless
No Use to the World Broken
Living in Another World
Does Language Restrict What We Can Think?
The Value of Conversation Manifesto Nobody Knows Anything
If I Only Had 37 Days
The Only Life We Know
A Long Way Down
No Noble Savages
Figments of Reality
Too Far Ahead
The Rogue Animal
How the World Really Works:
If You Wanted to Sabotage the Elections
Collective Intelligence & Complexity
Ten Things I Wish I'd Learned Earlier
The Problem With Systems
Against Hope (Video)
The Admission of Necessary Ignorance
Several Short Sentences About Jellyfish
A Synopsis of 'Finding the Sweet Spot'
Learning from Indigenous Cultures
The Gift Economy
The Job of the Media
The Wal-Mart Dilemma
The Illusion of the Separate Self:
Happy Now?
This Creature
Did Early Humans Have Selves?
Nothing On Offer Here
Even Simpler and More Hopeless Than That
Glimpses
Fragments
What Happens in Vagus
We Have No Choice
Never Comfortable in the Skin of Self
Letting Go of the Story of Me
All There Is, Is This
A Theory of No Mind
Creative Works:
The Ever-Stranger (Poem)
The Fortune Teller (Short Story)
Non-Duality Dude (Play)
Your Self: An Owner's Manual (Satire)
All the Things I Thought I Knew (Short Story)
On the Shoulders of Giants (Short Story)
Calling the Cage Freedom (Short Story)
Rune (Poem)
Only This (Poem)
The Other Extinction (Short Story)
Invisible (Poem)
Disruption (Short Story)
A Thought-Less Experiment (Poem)
Speaking Grosbeak (Short Story)
The Only Way There (Short Story)
The Wild Man (Short Story)
Flywheel (Short Story)
The Opposite of Presence (Satire)
How to Make Love Last (Poem)
The Horses' Bodies (Poem)
Distracted (Short Story)
Worse, Still (Poem)
Conjurer (Satire)
A Conversation (Short Story)
Farewell to Albion (Poem)
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