Gotta love optimism. Enthusiasm for the future unbridled by naysaying. We don’t get much of it nowadays, what with all the complainers online. But in the midst of this ocean of darkness, occasionally someone shines one of those beacons of hopeful thinking that keeps us sailing beyond the doldrums of the present.
Actually, every age has its naysayers; every age has pessimists. They’re the ones that dampen the dreams of youth by concentrating on what they don’t have, what the world isn’t, or what hasn’t been done. Naysaying narrows that sea of potential to a strait with Scylla and Charybdis in wait. But again, every so often someone suggests in the darkness that a bright future awaits. Such is the message of George Elliott Clarke, Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
Looking into Canada’s makeup and potential future, Clarke sees the potential for “hybridized citizens” of his nation to become “triumphantly humanitarian.” He imagines a time when differences will not separate but will, instead, combine. Essentially, Canada’s “melting pot” demographic will become a force for the good of humanity. Using a synesthetic metaphor, he writes, “Canadian culture will be a polyphonous kaleidoscope. Beautiful.” *
Synesthesia aside, the idea of a visualized harmony or polyphony is an interesting thought. Can we in all our diversity somehow work together not only for a mutual and creative good but also for a respect for the individual?
We will always have naysayers and pessimists among us. That’s a given. And bringing together diverse populations has been difficult, especially since any unity is subject to breakup by the constantly changing whims of individuals and groups. History gives us more examples of cacophony than it does of polyphony.
Cooperative optimists endeavor to write a human fugue that few of their contemporaries can appreciate. Nevertheless and on occasion, diverse efforts do coalesce into a pleasing, if only a temporary, composition. Maybe educational systems should include mastery of the fugue as a lesson in culture: Everyone playing a different song on a different instrument yet all the sounds somehow making beautiful music. Yeah. Beautiful.
*U. of Toronto. The Canada Issue, Vol. 18. No. 1. Online at http://research.utoronto.ca/edge/spring2016/the-future-of-canadian-cultures/ Accessed on April 15, 2019.
Actually, every age has its naysayers; every age has pessimists. They’re the ones that dampen the dreams of youth by concentrating on what they don’t have, what the world isn’t, or what hasn’t been done. Naysaying narrows that sea of potential to a strait with Scylla and Charybdis in wait. But again, every so often someone suggests in the darkness that a bright future awaits. Such is the message of George Elliott Clarke, Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate.
Looking into Canada’s makeup and potential future, Clarke sees the potential for “hybridized citizens” of his nation to become “triumphantly humanitarian.” He imagines a time when differences will not separate but will, instead, combine. Essentially, Canada’s “melting pot” demographic will become a force for the good of humanity. Using a synesthetic metaphor, he writes, “Canadian culture will be a polyphonous kaleidoscope. Beautiful.” *
Synesthesia aside, the idea of a visualized harmony or polyphony is an interesting thought. Can we in all our diversity somehow work together not only for a mutual and creative good but also for a respect for the individual?
We will always have naysayers and pessimists among us. That’s a given. And bringing together diverse populations has been difficult, especially since any unity is subject to breakup by the constantly changing whims of individuals and groups. History gives us more examples of cacophony than it does of polyphony.
Cooperative optimists endeavor to write a human fugue that few of their contemporaries can appreciate. Nevertheless and on occasion, diverse efforts do coalesce into a pleasing, if only a temporary, composition. Maybe educational systems should include mastery of the fugue as a lesson in culture: Everyone playing a different song on a different instrument yet all the sounds somehow making beautiful music. Yeah. Beautiful.
*U. of Toronto. The Canada Issue, Vol. 18. No. 1. Online at http://research.utoronto.ca/edge/spring2016/the-future-of-canadian-cultures/ Accessed on April 15, 2019.
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