Gossip

This is the first post of this new blog, which I should have started four years ago. After all, this is my fifth year in Sointula. Later, I will talk more about what brought me here, but I would like now only to address the above topic. I went over to neighboring Alert Bay on Thursday to visit friends who were driving up from Denman Island. I had visited them last year on Denman, and we were talking about the differences in the places that we lived, for them permanently on Denman, for me for only two months every summer in Sointula. I said to them that I had never engaged in gossip as much in my life as I have here in Sointula. I soon corrected myself, however, for I do not mean gossip in the malicious sense. It is more the case that one is constantly exchanging information with others here. It reminds me of the conversations in Jane Austen's Emma, where the inhabitants of Highbury are constantly involved in conversation. I would not be surprised to learn that the novel is composed to the largest extent of conversation, even if it is in indirect discourse. It is often the smallest of small talk, and something similar goes on here in Sointula. It creates a sense of community.

 

After dinner this evening I took a walk and ran into S*******, who works at the co-op. She was on her way to the Pub for Karaoke evening. She told me her husband and her daughter were away, and she felt like she was sneaking out on her own for the evening. I am sure I will tell my friend H******* this anecdote at some point. She also mentioned that there was a pig roast out in Mitchell Bay this evening. I asked who was hosting. She didn't know, but I bet I will find out soon.

Pictures from today include the beautiful dahlias I bought from Fay and her husband, John, who are famous for the dahlias, which they sell to benefit the Cemetery Fund. The horse was a surprise. Lynn Ness's bright yellow lilies too.