The Bathroom Bill

The Saturday edition of the Toronto Star recently ran an article in the Weekend Living section entitled “New Loo” all about the flourish of unisex bathrooms in Toronto as debate over gender rights rages. My first thought is “you’ve got to be kidding!”

From further reading of this article, it seems the “Bathroom Bill” as it is being called, has passed in the House of Commons by a narrow margin. The controversial legislation reinforces the rights of transgendered people to use whatever bathroom they see fit. Gendered bathrooms are being regarded as “old-school” and “traditional” but is this a tradition worth keeping?

My Plan B

I have always been a proponent of having a Plan B–a backup plan just in case what you are doing now turns out to miss the mark for bringing health, wealth and happiness into your life or it somehow gets taken away from you, much as a job might.  Recently, I realized that I spend a great deal of time thinking, no, it is deeper than that, it is pining for my Plan B to become my Plan A.  And then something unpleasant happened at work.

A Lesson Learned, Finally

From left to right: Dr. Dennis P. Kimbro, Curlie McCalla, C. Carol Brown (me), Dr. Vibe

 

Recently, I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Dennis P. Kimbro, author of Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice. What amazed me about him was his humility, his warmth, approachability and his total lack of ego. Let me paint you a picture of this amazing man.

Our Changing Times

Something dramatic is happening to adolescents. Adolescent was a time of physical and psychological change, self-absorption, and preoccupation with peer approval and identity formation. It was a time to come to terms with sexuality, to define a sexual self, and to make sexual choices. It was a time when boys and girls focused inward on their own fascinating changes. But that has all changed.

Dum Dum De Dum

Weddings are dangerous. Think about it. People making promises you know they are going to break, others falling under the spell of the magic that is the ceremony and pop a question they had no intention of asking before. And stuff–namely the garter and bridal bouquet–are thrown at people to encourage them to be the next one to take that trip down the aisle.

Don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled that people are still committed to the institution of marriage especially the younger generation. They seem to hold hope that they won’t join the 51 per cent of couples who get divorced. I’ll borrow some famous words from Jesse Jackson, “Keep hope alive!”

Standing at the Pearly Gates

I recently ended a 5-year relationship .  There were some things missing for me that made the relationship just not enough. During the time that we were together, I was less than 100 per cent committed to the relationship. He felt it too and had a Plan B as a result. 

Silence used to be golden

I ride the GO Train into work every day. I am constantly amazed at the number of people fidgeting with iPods, MP3 players, Blackberries and other electronic devices. I often wonder if the world has gotten so addicted to technology that we can’t survive even the short GO Train ride without being plugged in or if we all suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and we can’t just enjoy the scenery and silence and just be one with ourselves and the universe. What happened to using that quiet time to plan our day, reflect on pass actions, and connect with whatever spirit we believe in? 

Watch Your Mouth!

I was on the subway when two 17-year-old girls got on the train.  They started talking in the excited way that teenaged girls do about an upcoming school trip which would take them overnight to Chicago. It was a normal enough conversation about what they were going to  see and do, who else was going on the trip and how excited they were, except that every second or third word was an expletive. The entire conversation was peppered with them just as adjectives might be thrown in to paint a more brilliant description to a listener.

Manners First

On October 28, 2008, the Ontario government tabled legislation that will ban text messaging and emailing while driving and force motorists to use hands-free cell phones on the road. 

 

A similar ban already exists in Newfoundland-Labrador, Quebec and Nova Scotia – and legislation has been put forward in Prince Edward Island and Manitoba. Alberta rejected a cell phone ban earlier this year. A few states in the U.S. have a ban, as do many countries including Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and the UK.

Givers Get

The Great Depression in the United States began on “Black Tuesday” with the Wall Street crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. It is thought that the basic cause of the Great Depression was a sudden loss of confidence in the economic future and a combination of high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted malfeasance by banks and investors, cutbacks in foreign trade, and growing wealth inequality, all interacting to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending and production.