journal features

a cop checks me out during a protest

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2003.02.15

Today I went down to the demonstration against Gulf War II that was being held in synch with other demonstrations in the rest of the world.

I went down with my camera gear, all bundled up, but the -25^oC still got to me after a couple of hours. I don't know how I used to cope with hours and hours in that kind of weather while cross-country skiing out west, but I guess it's the time I spent in Australia and BC that did it.

While I was camped in front of the marchers, waiting for them to start, a cop came over and chatted with me for a while about my camera, the film I was shooting, and - eventually - the politics of the march. The cop seemed more left wing than I did, in that conversation. Later, when the cop had cycled off to join his fellows manning the front of the march, Charlie came over and informed me that the police like to single out likely characters in circumstances like this, and get a feel for their intentions. Sigh.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner