At long last, the repair to the circulation pump was made after five days of waiting. The dysfunctional pump was only about one year old, which makes this failure very unusual for such an electric motor.

What remains as issue is the site clearing during snowfalls and the upkeep of the public areas. We will have to see and meet one challenge at a time.

Last nite John and I met for dinner at Koi around five pm, which gave us lots of time for conversation and a stroll down Seventh Ave mall. When we arrived at Max Bell for the ‘Liberation Days’ play, Shirley was just arriving as well, all just before the doors opened.

I’d brought my Dutch liberation commemoration flag from Holland, which my sister Els had given me in 1999. As I was showing it to John and Shirley it became clear that we should look for a way to display it. This was soon accomplished with the help of the house staff and Front House Manager Lee, who quickly volunteered an easel in the public area. He also kindly treated the three of us to complementary drinks from the London bar.

And last but not least Lee also arranged for a picture of the cast holding the large flag on the set of the play. So, my impromptu thought and action of just taking that unusual flag and let things flow, resulted in a perfectly fitting supplement to the theme of the play.

Congratulations to the cast, the playwright and the designers of sets and costumes…

Regarding the play itself, I am full of admiration for the way this complex social and cultural event of the Liberation was captured and portrayed in the script, the acting, the stage set and scene. Innovative was the use of sound, projected images and the moving side walk that could move actors as well as props.

The playwright certainly captured and expressed the complex emotions and contradictory experience of the people in that half year time span called 'the days of liberation'. I was almost nine years old at the time and this play triggered many memories for me, going back sixty-nine years. Underlying this effect for me was the fine and realistic acting by this small cast who managed to learn quite a bit of Dutch and pronounce it too yet.

But, more important was the intensity of the acting and the involvement of the actors in their roles, which was veru impressive and moving. Congratulations to the cast, the playwright and the designers of sets and costumes, I hope that this show will find many venues across Canada and in Holland too. And thanks to my friend Shirley who alerted me to this play!

My talk on tolerance also needs some attention. I do think about it quite often, thought write about it less. This morning an additional idea bubbled up while I was having my coffee: ‘What are the benefits of being tolerant?’

This looked like a good addition to the afore going ‘How to be more tolerant’, the ‘need to be tolerant today’, the ‘setting of our modern plural social world’ and the possible ‘necessary survival skill for humankind’ that tolerance may turn out to be, even though we do not know that … yet!

What are the benefits of being tolerant?

The combination of necessary with the beneficial is compelling and attractive, making for a strong motive with which to follow through. Actually, the ten commandments have that combination in themselves as well. To prevent a killing is also to prevent revenge, while being fore warned legitimises judgement and punishment within the community.

These are old mechanisms that humanity discovered and acquired over time were experienced as religious imperatives to lend them the much needed authority.

Today, in our western society, traditions and their institutions of authority have developed to take the place of the earlier innovations that humanity with its religious traditions, established over time.
<10:29am~