Glenn Kubish

Once a week I’ve try to notice what I noticed made me happy or grateful. So the noticing equipment doesn’t freeze up. This week's podcast is episode 100:                            1. Wherewithal   Through the kindness of friends and the historical support of taxpayers, I got to Rogers Place to watch an Oilers game in person. The person I watched, with the puck, without the puck, watched even as he skated onto the ice for warm-up, was Connor McDavid. It’s a different Connor McDavid than you see sometimes at the dog park or at the IGA, where he’s just another dog lover and coupon clipper. On the ice, on skates, free from the hold of the thick earth, #97 moves like the wind. Over, between, into, against, around, across, through, by. He skates prepositionally. And that would be quite good enough if what he did for a living was the league’s skating skills competition. He plays hockey, though, and that means he skates...

Here’s my unsolicited list of three little things from my little corner of the world that left behind some happiness and gratitude.                                             1. Crisis communications   Babysitting. What a misnomer. There’s a baby, alright, but there’s not much sitting. Instead, there’s a lot of swaying, rocking, bouncing, strolling, pacing, hoisting, pointing, lunging, bending, kneeling, climbing, carrying and dancing—lots of dancing. Shelagh and I pulled a long weekend shift caring for Little Buddy while his parents were away. It was a remarkable and moving 60 hours on the front lines of grandson care. I had forgotten many things. Forgotten how satisfying it is to have a four-month-old chew my finger with all his might, and no teeth. How to unlock from its base a car seat in which a back-facing, belted-in child sat outside OTTO on 95 Street, forgot t...

So the noticing equipment doesn’t completely seize up, here are approximately three things I noticed that made me happy or grateful, notwithstanding everything else, of course.                          1. Stopping   For all of the good things about moving in the city by bicycle, and the list is legion—fresh air, exercise, smelling home cooking when you pedal by a house with a working kitchen, being under the sky, the stars, the clouds, in the snow and the rain, smiling hellos to strangers as they pedal by, primo parking by your table at OTTO, propelling yourself, not having to pay 5 bucks a gallon, and so on—the prime good of getting there by bicycle is how easy it is to stop on the way. Stop to talk, stop to listen, stop to look.   “Hey, that’s Mrs. K,” Auntie Shelagh said as we pedalled by the boys’ elementary school teacher walking with her daughter and husband. Back Shelagh flew on the 142 Street service road...

  Happy end of the week, friends. To keep the noticing equipment from disintegrating, here are three things I noticed I noticed that made me feel happy or grateful. (Just a little longer today. It takes Arendt awhile to get to the point.) Episode 75:                                1. Taking readings   Monday morning’s first stop, even before the bathroom, even before coffee, was the mailbox. The New York Times Sunday edition is delivered overnight. One pound of news. I scanned the headlines. In Ukraine, an ‘Endless Caravan of Death’ ... How Gun Makers Harness Fear to Supercharge Sales ... A Key Hurdle for Prosecutors: Proving What Trump Believed . I am slightly consoled by the mere organization of the newspaper—all this havoc made to fit in boxes, all the power and greed’s copy neatly standing in perfect towers of print, left and right justified. If the message were the medium, a newspaper would b...