On the day of the inauguration of America’s 45th
president, I had some cancellations from my clients due to illness, travel and
personal reasons. And so I left work 3
hours early. I caught a commuter bus
just after lunch and planned to go to my northern office on the way home to do
a little paper work and then go to the bank before going home to pack for the
weekend and head up north to my weekend home with my partner.
I was sitting on the bus as it travelled north on Highway
400, listening to a podcast on my iPod
when I noticed a woman across the aisle gesturing at me. She had long curly brown hair, glasses and she looked to be
about my age. I took the ear buds out of
my ears and looked at her. She wanted to
know when this bus would get into Barrie since she couldn’t make sense of the
schedule. I told her that I didn’t know
because I was getting off before Barrie but I offered to look at the schedule
for her. She handed it across the aisle
and as I studied it, I realized that it was not the schedule for the bus we
were on. She told me that she was actually
headed to Midland to attend the funeral of the mother of her best friend
growing up, who had just passed away. I
asked her how she was going to get to Midland from Barrie as I didn’t know of a
bus going there. She didn’t seem to have
a firm plan. She told me that she felt
going to the funeral was the right thing to do and she had decided to do it and
then just set off.
I was going to get
off the bus part way to Barrie and then drive there myself to pack up and then
head up north to Waubaushene, near Midland.
And so, I explained this to her and offered to drive her if she would
like that. After considering this
briefly she accepted my offer. She
seemed so intent on doing the right thing that I was willing to help her in
this mission.
We had to get off the bus a few minutes later and she
gathered her coat and two bags and followed me off the bus. Just as we reached my car, she realized that
she had left her knapsack on the bus.
She ran towards the bus which had pulled away and we watched it turn
onto the highway towards Newmarket. I
told her to get in my car because I knew
where the bus was going and I knew that I could catch it. We would simply follow it for ten minutes to
the GO terminal where she could retrieve her knapsack. And so off we drove. It felt like being in a funny movie at this
point and I was curious to see how the story would play out.
I soon caught sight of the bus and pulled into the
parking lot at the terminal as the bus swung into the bus lane there. I pulled up by a gate and my new travelling
companion, Mary jumped out of the car and ran into the line of parked
buses. A few minutes later she
reappeared, backpack in hand, scanning the lot for my car. I waved at her and she came to my car and got
in.
Then we retraced our journey back to the highway. We found lots of things in common to talk about
as we travelled. She had taken a course
in a building next to my office in Toronto on mindfulness meditation. I knew something about that and we shared our
experiences with it. We told each other stories
from our lives, just like people do in road trip movies.
Arriving in Barrie, we stopped at my home and she came
inside while I packed up. She noticed
things about my home such as my paintings and the cat box by the back
door. I had recently discovered it deep
in a closet even though my cat had passed away last summer. So that gave us more things to talk about as
we headed to Midland. The closer to
Midland we got, the more stories she told me about her childhood growing up in
Penetanguishene to the north of Midland.
It turned out that I had played music with a person who she had failed
grade 3 with.
Mary told me that the friend she was going to stay with
lived in Penetanguishene so I headed there after going through Midland. Pulling into that small town, she guided me
past the Anglican church that her father had been the minister at, past the
house she grew up in and the house next door that the deceased women had lived in. We drove down Church Street in search of the
house that the friend she was staying with lived in, looking for the landmark of a turquoise
garage door. We nearly missed it as the
garage door was up, but Mary noticed the same shade of turquoise on the posts
on the front porch. I pulled into the
driveway and opened the trunk for her, making sure she had all her bags this
time. She thanked me for the drive and
we said goodbye.
As I was about to leave Penetanguishene, it occurred to
me that I have a friend who lives there who might be at home. And so I dropped by her house and she invited
me in. We had tea and a visit and caught
up on the details of our lives. She
laughed at my road trip story. And then
I drove to my partner’s home in Waubaushene and told him the story of my
afternoon. He laughed too and said that
he would have given a ride to Mary as well.
The next day was Saturday and I followed the news of the
Women’s March. News of the huge crowd of
a half million in Washington and sister marches in other US cities, 30 communities in Canada as
well as 600 other marches on all seven continents of the world emerged on the
radio and internet. Apparently even in
Antarctica there were people who marched.
I bought a newspaper the next day to get pictures from the marches and
the total count. It was estimated that 2
million women and men marched in support of the rights of women, LGTBQ people,
the disabled, workers, environmental justice and the rights of all human beings
in opposition to the president’s twittered proclamations. I was surprised that women all over the world
would march in support of American women since many countries don’t like the
US. 
But then it dawned on me that these
women were seeing past nationalities and really standing up for what they
believe; the rights for all
people. It also occurred to me that my
time spent with Mary the day before was the same thing; helping a stranger do
what she felt was the right thing.
Joining forces to support someone who had just lost her mother. It’s just what we do.
In the following week, amidst shocking presidential
executive orders, emerged stories of other doing the same. A minister in the Netherlands’ government had
gained the support of 20 countries to cover the $600 million shortfall for
women’s health in the developing world, after the US withdrew it from
organizations that offer abortions to women.
Canada’s Minister of International Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau was
clear that Canada would participate in this initiative. The Minister of Public Safety in Canada,
Ralph Goodale stated clearly that torture is illegal in Canada and in all
international agreements including the Geneva Convention and that there would
be compromise on that, even though the president was all for it.
West Jet airline waived cancellation fees for
people who were suddenly denied entry into the US because they were from one of
7 countries that have now been barred from entering the US. The Canadian government said that Canada would
welcome anyone who was stranded by this new ban. Apparently there were protests at airports in
the US and Democrat politicians came to help those who were impacted. A law firm in the US that has offered pro
bono legal help to those affected were swamped with thousands of calls. Other people have been working long hours to download
US government info from the internet on Climate Change so that it can’t be
destroyed by the new government. I’m
sure there have been more stories but so far those are the ones that I have
heard.
My partner reminded me that there may be one big bully
but there are millions and millions of good people as well. And we need to remember that and be those
good people and make our story bigger than the one that currently dominates the
media. 
There were many clever and
amusing signs at the Women’s March but the one that spoke to this story read,”Love
Trumps Hate.” It is important to
remember that and not get swept up in the fear and hate that is creating so
much confusion. It is important to
remember who we are and the story we have to tell.
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