It was another lively meeting in the Crafts Room yesterday. Nabil Danial chaired the meeting and we were pleased to welcome a new guest, Suren Ulaganathan — our thanks to Penny for sending him along.

 

It’s always interesting to hear what people have to say when we go  “Around the Circle”. Concerns were expressed about the bombing by the U.S. and Israel that had just been visited upon Iran. (Our thoughts and concerns go out especially to our friend Mohammad Eslami, who has family there. May the turmoil that Iranians are experiencing be brief.) Samir reminded us of the importance of fostering good relationships in our lives, referring back to his presentation at our Valentine’s meeting. The topic is always a propos, and I invited him to bring it back to us on a future occasion. In a similar vein, Suren underlined that we all need to look for the positive things in life — which is easy to say, of course, but doing it sometimes takes work, given our current social and political climate.

 

Patricia Abergel was up next, to deliver her “Icebreaker” speech to the club. It’s always so interesting to hear people’s stories of the paths they’ve taken to navigate their lives, and that was certainly the case when listening to Patricia. She has German, Swiss, and French roots and now, of course, is a staunch Canadian. We’re lucky to have her here, though, because she almost ended up in the U.S. when she first emigrated to North America. We’re very glad she landed up in Toronto and I’m quite sure that Patricia feels that way too.

 

Susan Philipp delivered her Icebreaker speech as well, and she titled it “Passion”. She told us about her youth in South Africa and the many twists and turns she’s had in life, including meeting the man who was sitting beside her. Travel has been a constant theme for her though, and the list of places she’s wandered through, both alone as a backpacker and with Len, is long and impressive. They’re far from done yet, though; apparently, Rome will be next on their travel agenda later this year.

 

After the social break Phil Nayman led us in an activity he titled “In the Spotlight.” He posed each of us a straightforward question, such as “Have you ever attended a family gathering and wished you were somewhere–anywhere–else?” (That was a good one.) He gave us the option of answering truthfully or of making up a lie. We marked down our judgments — Truth or Lie? — and at the end of the session were invited to tally up our scores as everyone came clean in turn. Well, I must say that we had some pretty good liars around the table. I soon gave up tallying my own sheet because I was so often fooled; wrong, wrong, wrong. Susan’s judgment was a whole lot sharper, though, taking Phil’s prize as the winner.

 

Sarab Sandhu finished the meeting by directing us in a series of breathing exercises. Our breathing instinct is automatic, so we don’t often appreciate how fundamental it is both to maintaining our health and to establishing a balanced state of mind. Sarab has long made a study of the practices handed down to us by the Hindu yoga masters, both ancient and modern, and we’re glad to have him share his knowledge with us.

 

That’s it for now; my thanks to all of the people who attended. Our next club meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 13th, at the YRP station on Major Mackenzie. We will stage another debate, and it was decided to tackle some version of: “Be it resolved, that because of the job disruption that is predicted due to the AI revolution, government should institute a Universal Basic Income program (“UBI”). (The wording is still to be finalized.) I will chair the event, and our scheduled debaters are: Al Brown, Ebi Taebi, Kim Watson, Vasu Desikachary, Samir Stasi, and Sarab Sandhu. The teams have not yet been assembled. We hope to see you there.