When I last published a book, Barack Obama occupied the White House, Stephen Harper was Canada’s Prime Minister and no one had coined the term Brexit. The breakneck speed of climate change has only been exceeded by the dizzying pace of global corruption. We’re living in crazy times.
As I embark on the promotion of This One Looks Like a Boy, I’m aware of the annihilation of so many of the boxes we’ve historically used to try to lock people in and how very different the gender identity and sexual orientation landscapes are, even from 2015. These times are both exciting and fraught with uncertainty, but positive change is happening.
Our stories make us uniquely ourselves, not our labels. Our humanity brings us into closer connection; not limiting ourselves, sticking only with our own to the exclusion of all others. In these times of ever-increasing political polarization, it will be compassion for each of our shared pain that keeps us from killing each other.
Stories. It has always been about the stories. My Grandma Shenher — the woman who uttered those words that shape this book’s title — watched every daytime soap opera on television in her retirement years. She called them The Stories; she never differentiated between each program, just lumped them all together as the stories. And she was right. Stories are all there is.
So, I’ll be out there telling the stories in the coming months. Keep a look out for excerpts of the book in Chatelaine and Daily Xtra, interviews for Room Magazine, The Georgia Straight, Global Television, CKNW Radio, CBC The Current and I look forward to sharing more news soon.
Lorimer