Yesterday, Ted and I got back from two weeks at Anglin Lake in Northern Saskatchewan. Leaving Paradise is never easy but I was eased into reality by a very nice note that appeared on my BlackBerry when I was loading up my cart at the grocery store. The note came from an artist in the Maritimes. She’d been kneading bread, watching the clouds and listening to CBC when she heard an interview with me on Shelagh Rodgers show.
My correspondent said some kind things about the interview and asked for the name of a visual artist I’d mentioned. The artist’s name is Scott Plear, and Ted and I own two of his paintings. Like Scott Plear, the woman who wrote to me is a colourist. She gave me the address of her website. I went to it and was dazzled. She has painting of iris called “The Yellow Surprise” that I would willingly sell all our pop bottles for.
A few minutes after I answered the first email, I got an email from the sister of another artist. This woman had been driving in Northern New Brunswick when she heard the CBC interview. She said she thought I sounded like an interesting writer, and she’d search out the Joanne Kilbourn series. She, too, gave me a website address—this one was for her sister. I liked what the sister said about making art, and her work was mesmerizing. Another happy discovery for me.
After that, I received five emails from friends, here and there across Canada, who had heard and enjoyed the interview, so I got back to them with our latest news. This morning I received an email from another talented visual artist who had heard the interview. I’ve been to his website – like his work very much and when I’m through with this, I’ll drop him a note and tell him so.
Years ago when Ted and I were living in rural Saskatchewan awaiting the birth of our first child, Peter Gzowski’s “This Country in the Morning” introduced us to people who, like us, felt the need to connect with the lives of other Canadians. Peter Gzowski was a gifted interviewer and his interviews with the brilliant and the famous set a standard that has never been exceeded. But when I remember “This Country in the Morning” and “Morningside” and “This Morning”, I remember people talking about books they were reading; exchanging recipes for jam and pickles, and telling family stories – doing pretty much what I did in the interview with Shelagh Rogers that was re-broadcast yesterday.
If my experience is any indication, it seems that, despite programming changes with which many of us disagree, CBC is still managing to keep Canadians in touch with one another. And for that, it deserves two and a half cheers.