Christmas 1990
Christmas is not yet over and here we are typing our Season's greetings and letter - promptitude unprecedented! Main reason is that we are unable to do much else while the house is dis- and re-assembled after the Floods. Those of you who are west-coasters will have shared the recent soggy experience.
1990 has proved a memorable year for the MacDonald clan. Prospects are dim in the world at large with political uncertainty and recession at home and the threat of war abroad. On the domestic scene, a certain amount of maturity has been forced on us from our experiences of death, deficit, and conflict over the last twelve months.
Our new year commenced with tragedy. Our beloved Youth Orchestra director, Stuart Knussen, died suddenly on January 1. He was part of our family as we were of his. It was a shock not only to us but to the 70 young people over whose lives he had shed such an enormous influence, this man whom Vladimir Ashkenazy called "the world's greatest bass player". But the power of his vision has sustained the orchestra, and it continues to grow from strength to strength. We have just performed a great concert including Shostakovich's first Symphony, written when he was only 19, s showcase for the players, yet already filled with the profound statements of his later writing.
In June Di's father died, just before his 95th birthday. All the family gathered to celebrate his long and full life; and several of us made an unforgettable journey to spread his ashes over the waters near Salmon Rock on the Sunshine Coast, his favorite fishing spot. It would take too long to record Di's underwater exploits on that voyage, suffice it to say it was wondered whether she was so attached to her dad that she had to follow him overboard. Despite her loss, Mother's spirits are wonderful, and although plagued with heart and eye troubles, she has managed to enjoy some much needed holidays.
Sarah has just convocated and is now a faculty member at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, teaching piano and directing her own recently formed children's choir, as well as being assistant conductor of the Hart House Choir and studying organ and singing, as well as Latin at U. of T. Part of her summer was spent touring with the Ontario Youth Choir, but the highlight was her acceptance as Junior Staff at one of the Eton Choral Courses during that venerable institution's 550th anniversary year. Not many females can boast of having slept in the dorms at Eton!
While Sarah sang and played, Di put a pack on her back, bought a Britrail pass and spent a week in the highlands of Scotland. They met at the end of Sarah's session and together visited York , Chester, the north and est coast of Wales, then Hereford, Exeter and Salisbury (with an 11-minute stop at a tired-looking Torquay to pay their respects to Basil Fawlty finally ending up in London on the hottest day of the century.
Jeremy finally put the screws to his erstwhile painting boss and with luck he may get some back-pay by Christmas. He is currently fabricating wood-stoves, which are in great demand at this time of soaring oil prices. He was one of the few employees to be retained after the first major layoff, but he known the time will come when there is no more work at least for a while.
Simon spent his summer with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, fulfilling his second dream (the first was to be Sorrento Summer Staff) and deciding him on his career plans. At the moment his is playing many interesting gigs (his quartet recently played Government House for the President of the United Germany), but who knows what his future will hold - B. Mus, in Violin with a minor in Law and special honours in snooker? This is his gradiation uear - his grad pictures qualify him for a photo spot in G.Q., or at the least a stint as a Game Show host.
James continues to study the violin and is attending Central school, the fourth different junior high school for our children in Victoria. It is a good school. As our resident 13-year-old, he does his hest to keep us on our toes. After a rocky year, he attended a Native-run Rediscovery summer camp in the Stein Valley: 14 campers and 7 staff, a 3-1/2 day journeyon foot into the base camp, several days in camp complete with (as James describes it) "24 hours with a potato". Stories from camp are still coming out: tonight he told us that one of his fellow-campers had to eat a bee he had killed without provocation. He was being taught that one kills only in self-defense or for food.
The summer's dreadful earthquake in the Philippines had at least one happy result. For the first time in our 8-year relationship we were able to speak with our foster daughter Marivic. That was joy indeed. Marivic is completing her teaching degree at St Paul's College in Vigan.
Bob travels fairly frequently between his firm's offices in Ottawa and Victoria. These trips to Ottawa and other points east have given him the opportunity to keep in touch with his eastern family, and recently to spend a week rooming with Sarah in Toronto. In August he was able to hear Simon playing in the NYO's National Arts Centre performance (while Di listened to the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain in concert in the Albert Hall).
The business has recently included the translation of its Government systems (no acronymed G/MAX) into French. Bob's early attempts to recall his high-school French have had to be scrutinized carefully by the firm's Francophone employees. In a classic translator's malapropism, he translated "Passwords may not contain leading blanks", as "Vierges à gauche interdits", a source of great mirth in both offices when Pierre protested, "But Bob, there are no left-handed virgins in G/MAX".
In an age brimming with technologies for improving communication, it is still not a simple matter to achieve understanding. Even with the best intentions, we are often so busy making our own meaning clear that we fail to listen to what others are trying to tell us. Our conscientious desire as parents to "show the way" to our children on the verge of adulthood may prevent us from seeing their need to take responsibility themselves. We have had opportunity to learn this lesson through the past months. We hope to continue to learn, not only within our own family, but within the family of nations of which we are a part.
This Sunday the Church celebrates its New Year. We wish you life and health and happiness. The organ pipes at Chester Cathedral, photographed by Sarah in August, themselves convey an invitation, perhaps in the music of the great Bach Chorale, "Sleepers Awake."
Merry Christmas and Love from us all.