The Little Paper

So, we’re sitting upstairs at a café across from Trinity Bellwoods, enjoying a latté (me) and a chocolate ice cream (the pip), when Piper says, “You know, it’s a lot like Balzac’s here, Mom. The one near Dad’s, not the other one.” And I nod and smile and then I realize, Holy Cow, I’ve so got a city kid. I mean I knew this, I’d had an aha! moment with her older sister several years before when she asked me what a driveway was, but still... this is a five year old who can seamlessly slip from “I’m a fairy puppy, a blue one.” to knowing the exact change for the streetcar; a girl who’s equally at home dancing at The Gladstone as she is navigating the woods in High Park.

It’s true that she doesn’t get as much twilight hide-and-seek time as I did, growing up in a suburb, but that particularly delightful freedom aside, I think she’s got a pretty cool life. Pip’s been borrowing my camera a lot the last few months and the results, viewed all together, form a revealing and really compelling, albeit 3-foot high, vision of the city. I recommend this to everybody. Give your very young child a simple camera, let them photograph whatever they want – no “helpful” editing allowing – and you’ll be amazed and enlightened by what captures their interest. It’s also pretty interesting how much grown up knees figure into their fields of vision.

Speaking of children and cities and quality of life, I’ve been increasingly concerned the last several weeks about the new trains that Metrolinx intends to send past my local park. I’m not sure how there can be anything good about sending 400 diesel trains a day past about a dozen parks, schools, daycares and community centres. The Chief Medical Officer of the City of Toronto, Dr. David McKeown, just issued a report detailing how the trains will result in an unacceptable leukemia risk to the families in over sixteen “hot spots.” I’m not much of a marcher, and I sure as heck don’t want to diminish the need for increased transit alternatives but this seems terribly wrong to me. If it concerns you too, have a look at the details at cleantrain.ca. There’s a link on our website. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now, go watch the leaves change, play another game of Uno, get ready for kindergarten, maybe send a little note and one of Pip’s photographs to the Minister of the Environment. Have a great month! – Vicki