Bruce’s One Big Day

This is an accidental Big Day. Accidental because its subject, Lee Miller – one of the most important war photographers of the 20th century – was unknown to me a week ago. But our excellent local art gallery, the Polygon, had just opened a big show of her work. The keeper of the Lee Miller…

“Is there sleep in my eyes?” Jen says, emerging from the tent to meet the day. Imagine if that construction worked for other occasions … some verb residue lingers on you from the thing you just did. I’ve got a little work on my hands. I’ve got a little play on my feet. We are…

Tuesday, June 10, 2025 was a pretty big day for Verna Marzo. And also for everyone she shared it with, for reasons that will become clear. Here’s how it all went down. 5:30 AM Many of Verna’s days begin this way – eat, pray, exercise (lots and lots of situps). But not all in that…

michael jerrard photo / unsplash LA FORTUNA, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica A Sloth State of Mind  Costa Rica has a motto: Pura Vida. Literally: “pure life.” It’s an invitation to stop worrying and just gear down and chill. Don’t stress over what you can’t control. Dispacito, as the animal-crossing signs dotted beside the country’s highways…

Working the BC Election, en famille October 19, 2024, 5 am The eggs crack before dawn does. Omelettes all around. Because protein. Protein is the foundation of democracy. It’s election day in British Columbia. Every election – local, provincial or national – requires citizen participation, and lots of it. There’s a variety of jobs to…

We were trudging up toward the summit of Mt. Becher, sweating like mules on the Erie Canal, the whole lush Comox Valley and the islands of the Salish Sea spread below us, when we ran into another hiker. She meant business: had the poles, had the layers of fancy apparel and the hey-Martha boots. We…

The first wish-list I ever made for OBD, ten years ago, included this candidate item: “chase a solar eclipse.” I even wrote the date in the calendar: April 8, 2024. That’s today. Alas, two factors have conspired to dilute the dream. One, I’m in Vancouver, which is not in the so-called “path of totality.” And…

“The circle of an empty day is brutal and at night it tightens around your neck like a noose.” — Elena Ferrante * This morning, in a fit of spontaneity, the girls bugged out for a 24-hour getaway to Vancouver Island. Leaving me at home with all the ingredients for a Big Day of my…

Sometimes it hits me: I’m kind of a bad parent. Not whipped-them-all-soundly-and-sent-them-to-bed bad, just … a bit lazy. Neglectful. Inattentive to the shifting emotional barometric pressure of youth. When the girls are quietly dealing with some issue, it’s almost always their mom who picks up on it and helps them past that pinch point, while…

The two sons of Zeus couldn’t have been more different. Apollo, god of the sun (not to mention music, poetry, plague and disease) was a logic freak. He prided himself on his rational thinking and sound reasoning. He was forever telling younger brother Dionysus not to touch his carefully ordered record collection — because the…