skating on the canal & brecht

Favourite thing yesterday: I left work to walk home at 7:30pm. I was walking along a lonely stretch of the canal and saw a man, gracefully, buoyantly, joyfully, skating backwards. He seemed so alive and there seemed to be such delight in his movements. His skating was like a dance but also purposeful; he had a backpack on and was probably skating home. It reminded me of how much I love the canal and would probably have, on my list of ten all-time favourite things, skating on the canal. There is the magical world of the canal on which you see all sorts of people: men and women commuting with briefcases and tailored coats; kids with their classes from school; visitors with awkward looking parkas; speed-skaters; families; and, until recently (I haven't seen them this year) a group of five or six nuns in flowing inky-blue outfits and habits skating all in row together. I also love the sound of skates on the ice. And I sometimes wonder if I love it so much because mom once told me that she wanted to be a figure skater when she was young. Can one inherit such things? A love of ice?

Okay, the next item is a real stretch. I thought I'd search the list to see if anyone mentions the canal and, remarkably, no one did. BUT one person did note a poem by Bertolt Brecht with the word "canalizing" in it and so I thought, close enough! Plus, it never hurts to include a poem. Here it is:

On the Critical Attitude

The critical attitude

Strikes many people as unfruitful

That is because they find the state

Impervious to their criticism

But what in this case is an unfruitful attitude

Is merely a feeble attitude. Give criticism arms

And states can be demolished by it.

Canalising a river

Grafting a fruit tree

Educating a person

Transforming a state

These are instances of fruitful criticism

And at the same time instances of art.