The Sunday Edition for April 12, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright:
A COVID-19 confinement chronicle: week four — Michael's essay: "Somebody in the street started the idea that each Sunday around 1 p.m., we all stand in our front yards and wave to each other. It's called The Big Wave. At first, I thought, what a cornball idea. I now think The Big Wave is a great idea — a gift almost. We can smile at neighbours we've never met. We can laugh at and with each other. We can feel for a minute or two what 'We're All In This Together' really means."
A Canadian organist in Coventry Cathedral: Rachel Mahon first got a taste for the organ when she was growing up in the west end of Toronto. She's since played at some of the world's great churches and cathedrals, becoming the first female organ scholar at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Now she's going to be the first Canadian music director at the storied Coventry Cathedral in England. She speaks with Michael Enright about the mental and physical challenges of playing the cathedral's gargantuan 5,000-pipe organ, and the sorrows of not being able to play for a congregation on Easter Sunday because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Religious holidays during physical distancing: Wednesday night was the beginning of Passover. Easter is Sunday. And Ramadan begins later in April. Each holiday is usually defined by togetherness — eating and praying together. So this is a strange season for Canadians of faith, especially those far away from the people they love. But for Sarah Weinman, Anne Theriault and Pacinthe Mattar, these holidays also have a new resonance in the midst of our current crisis.
Nursing runs in the family: Even before the pandemic, the WHO had declared 2020 to be The Year of the Nurse. And Maria Roman and her twin daughters are a remarkable family of nurses in Vancouver. Maria gave just about everything to make sure her children could become high achievers in their profession. And Maria herself realized her own dream of becoming a nurse after a long, circuitous journey from the Philippines to Canada. Jennifer Chrumka brings us their story in her documentary, "I Will Be a Bird."
Making the case for international medical graduates during the pandemic: Thousands of foreign-trained doctors in Canada have been unable to practise medicine in this country because of roadblocks to being licenced. Iraqi-born, Ukrainian-trained Ali Mahdi, his three brothers and his father are all trained healthcare workers — none of whom has been able to find work in their field in Canada. Mr. Mahdi has started an online petition asking that foreign-trained doctors be allowed to volunteer in hospitals at a time when Canada's healthcare system needs "all hands on deck" to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reprise: The Meaningful Man: Viktor Frankl somehow survived four Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Just after the end of the Second World War, he wrote Man's Search for Meaning. Part memoir, part manifesto, part discourse on human psychology, the book has sold in the millions around the world, and it continues to affect people's lives generation after generation. In the midst of such trying times — and very muted celebrations of Passover and Easter — it seems a good time to reprise our 2017 special hour devoted to Frankl, "The Meaningful Man."
Remembering Pat Capponi: Anti-poverty and mental health activist and writer Pat Capponi has died at the age of 70.
Music this week by: John Prine
