Today was spent working on a letter to a reporter in our local newspaper covering an event that I was honoured to be one of the presenters playing the role of “Ick”. Ick is a fairy that lives in the wetlands, in the dumping grounds, with the things people normally discard. Ick stands in for all that is dead. And encourages us to go forward with reverence and respect for that which has come before.
My face (as Ick) became the main image for the Eco Market event at the Regional Museum. Ick!! Not what I was expecting. Especially with the dazed look and the title about “preaching to the converted”
Here is the report in the Record.
This is what I wrote to the journalist in response.
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Attention: Joel Rubinoff
Thank you for your article about the Eco Market. You raised valid points. It highlights the irony of language, bandwagons, social concerns, walking the talk, and marketing trends. The difficulty of being human.
We are living through complicated times.
The vendors at the Eco Market are people in the process of bringing millions of dollars into our Region, creating social and environmental movements, as well as building non-profits embarking on initiatives that are all courageous and bold. The organizer, Jennifer Novakovich, owner of Eco Well, has done great things in a short time. She deserved a more neutral coverage, in my opinion.
I find it vital that we acknowledge and appreciate the very people doing the hard work and contributing to the compassionate solutions that this Region is known for. Ideally, we can go beyond judging each other and polarizing ideologies that are actually united at the core. United in caring for each other and the future. United in setting a path to make a global impact.
My presence at the event was because I was honoured to be with Jennifer Davis of Exit Matters in the presentation, “When Ick Met Spark: Conversations between Grief and Hope.” It encouraged the audience to take some time to reflect on environmental destruction and restoration. To observe their own tendencies to jump on bandwagons and not really see and feel what is happening. To analyze their own addictions and diversions from their own empathy. Martin De Groot narrated in the video accompanying our presentation. It was written by Jen Davis who won a start-up financial award for her board game to assist families in vital end-of-life decisions and conversations.
Here is the 10 minute video: https://youtu.be/AXNwRvPDY0Q –
-the soundtrack and art.
The picture that was featured is one when I was in costume at our booth and in the character of “Ick”. Ick stands in for all the rejected, lost and discarded. Ick is hidden and unnamed grief. It is interesting that it was her face that was highlighted in the article as “preaching to the converted”. I asked to have it taken off the digital version since the context of our presentation was not explained and the “(Headdress” is actually part of a jewellery line at Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery Gift shop. It also did not reflect the green innovation business theme. I should have told him that my name was “Ick”.
Joel, you were brilliant to use the “Ick” (eating crickets) and the “Spark” ( to get out of truck and not eat meat) in the piece. The conversation on stage witnessed Ick remembering that she was really a Phoenix. In fact they were flip sides of the same coin.
I wonder if we stand in that field between right and wrong, where could we all go together?
Too many times, people offering alternative choices are seen as a critique about habits and patterns already in place. Their invitations are rejected rather than embraced and encouraged. The Eco Market is a conference by a community organization dedicated to supporting and showcasing green innovation. It offers hope to our populations in the midst of being informed for future decisions. It offers a vital service. to business owners already battling criticism for not. “Just getting a job”, let alone selling something different.
Here it starts… in a Museum, in a pioneer village. There is faaaaaar to go. The crowded parking lots showed the passion that people have for alternatives. Waterloo Small Business Center seeded many of these businesses represented here. (mentioning gender and age was odd).
I graciously ask you to help the readers understand and hear deeper your point of view. I am curious and remain open to further dialogue to reveal the Phoenix right here in Waterloo Region.
Sincerely,
Carolyn Dawn Good.
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There is so much more to say. But I’ll leave you with that until another time.
