Whatever blows your skirt up...

As a rule, I don’t wear skirts.

A self-described rough and tumble tomboy, skirts have always been considered a nuisance since childhood. Climbing trees, building dams, riding bicycles-all these activities were much more comfortable in pants.

Adulthood finally caught up with me. Though I still have my tomboy moments, there are no real constraints that keep me from wearing a skirt or a dress on any given day. For some reason, though, I always reach for the jeans, the sweatpants, the dress trousers.

I hadn’t really considered my reasons for avoiding skirts until I returned to my hometown this spring. After some thought on the matter, I came up with a list of reasons most women wouldn’t wear skirts:

1. Ugly legs. Those knobby knees, flabby thighs, and hideously scarred shins. Swollen ankles are another. Some women don’t want to expose their varicose veins and cellulite to the world. On behalf of humanity, I thank you for this.

2. Feminism. If I looked hard enough, I’m certain I could find a woman who adamantly refuses to wear dresses or skirts because of the feminist movement. That imaginary conversation might go something like this:

“Skirts? Dresses? I’ve spent twenty years trying to prove to the world that I am every bit as intelligent as a man. I’ve worked countless hours to work my way to the top. To me, frilly skirts and dresses symbolize the stay at home wife that I am trying to escape.”

Okay, so it would be less of a conversation, more of a tirade. Even more moderate feminists and independent business women might balk at wearing a skirt for equality reasons. A woman might not wear skirts because of the implication she might be using her body (feminine attraction) to get ahead in the workplace.

3. Lifestyle restrictions. Pipefitters, welders, and Olympic runners might not wear skirts or dresses because they simply can’t perform in them. January in Siberia isn’t the time or place to be wearing a cute mini, either.

4. Dislike. Maybe some women just don’t like wearing skirts. No ulterior motives necessary.

5. Past trauma. That poodle skirt you were forced to wear, the frilly bridesmaid’s dress…we all have an outfit that we were forced to wear. Perhaps the trauma affected some of us more deeply. This also takes into account sudden gusts of wind at inopportune moments.

None of these reasons really seemed to apply to me, however. Browsing through stores and shops, I found so many cute and flattering skirts this spring. I decided I was going to buy several and start wearing them.

Upon arriving in New Brunswick, my skirts were unpacked and hung neatly in the closet. There they have stayed, untouched, for three weeks, except for a shopping excursion out of town.

Why is it I don’t want to wear a skirt here? Yesterday, I finally figured it out.

Growing up in this small town, the only people who wore skirts on a daily basis were members of the Pentecostal churches. Church protocol required these women to wear long skirts, forgo makeup, and keep their hair long. I went to school with many girls who struggled through gym class because they weren’t allowed to wear pants. Some would wear baggy shorts or pants, but most would simply sit on the sidelines.

I couldn’t understand why these women chose to put such restrictions on themselves. I still don’t, not really. It is my firm belief that everyone can believe or say what they wish, as long as they are not harming or impeding the rights of others to do the same. These women are welcome to live as they choose, but they stand in my mind as a symbol of oppression.

Most of my female friends in these churches were not encouraged into post-secondary education. The majority of them came from very poor families. They were expected to find a man, marry, and produce children. Many of my friends work, but many women are also discouraged from doing so.

This is why I have avoided skirts. The long skirt is representative, in my mind, of modern day, self-afflicted oppression that these women face. The skirt represents struggle, poverty, standing on the fringes of society. Women who don’t have the freedom to be the type of woman that I choose to be. And I’m tired of my mind behaving in this way.

To be sure, there are exceptions to this rule. Though these women may outwardly appear to be oppressed, many would not consider themselves so. They consider their lives to be full and happy. That is their choice, and they are welcome to it. It is this image, however, this childhood bias that stands in my mind whether it is truth or not.

So today, I’m going to open up my closet and pull out my cute little black skirt, a trendy t-shirt, and dispel my internal myths about what my clothing means.

Left and Leaving

When it comes to these terms, I prefer to be the latter, not the former. Not just in terms of relationships, but also simply physically.

That's not to imply that leaving isn't incredibly hard. It is. I just don't enjoy the feeling of helplessness that pervades the body as I watch someone else leave.

Yesterday I left. I changed tenses. I've been waiting to change tenses for almost a year. I'd been leaving for a year, but yesterday was the big day.

Essentials in a suitcase. Guitar housed in its new flight case. Sunglasses on to hide the traces of tears. The rest of my life crammed into a storage locker. Precious dog with the best friend in the world. My little mountain town left behind.

I guess I like being both terms, in the active sense, not the passive. I need to be the epicentre of action I suppose.

An album full of joyous pictures, created by small loving hands, kept me company on the mountainous drive east to Calgary. A red Mustang kept paced with the bus, while a blond-haired beloved girl waved furiously from the passenger seat.

Some things are too precious to leave behind forever. Know that, even though you were left behind, I did not leave for good. Wherever I am, I am always there for you.

I miss you. We will meet again.

It would take an act of God to get Harper in the Maritimes...

In the world of Stephen Harper, the Maritime provinces are hapless victims of their own attitudes.

"There's unfortunately a view of too many people in Atlantic Canada that it's only through government favours that there's going to be economic progress, or that's what you look to... That kind of can't-do attitude is a problem in this country but it's obviously more serious in regions that have had have-not status for a long time." (Toronto Sun, May 31, 2002)

Visiting these have-not, hand-perpetually-out-begging provinces is therefore very low on the Prime Minister's priority list. Any visits made by the PM are usually short, perfunctory events, where you can be sure he has a list of names for all the provincial politicians. Except, of course, for Danny Williams, of whom the PM is acutely aware for job security reasons.

The headlines this morning, then, announcing Harper's planned visit to flood-ravaged sections of New Brunswick prompted my eyebrows to skyrocket. I wasn't even sure if Harper knew where New Brunswick was.

Perhaps, in a gesture of true generosity toward we pessimistic Maritimers, he'll announce federal flood relief funding. I do have to give the man credit. He really doesn't like the eastern section of the country. Dollars to donuts he has a deal with the US to sell us all to Maine should Quebec succeed with separation.

However, push has come to shove, and when disaster strikes, Stephen Harper likes to be there to pick up the pieces. From pulling together a fractious party to reassembling the country after years of mismanagement, Harper likes to see himself as a man who makes things work.

Unless Alberta decides to form its own nation. If a butcher is required to chop Canada into regions, I'm sure Harper has a cleaver at hand and divisions in mind.

Welcome to NB, Prime Minister. Home of friendly, hard-working, struggling Canadians who need your help in the face of a natural disaster. You'll probably hear more jokes this afternoon than you hear in a year in Ottawa. That's because Maritimers have a unique ability to persevere through adverse conditions through teamwork, diligence, and humour. You'll be hard pressed to find a defeatist attitude today.

If the feds can call in the army whenever it snows in Toronto, surely they can help those of us who can't help ourselves in times of true need.

More to come, once I remove my tongue from cheek.