The Epistle of Q — Chapter Twenty-Five

Q #1
What do Netflix and the Ballet have in common?

Well, for starters, this weekend both art forms taught me something rather fundamental: don’t be too quick to judge what I might really like?

Saturday was a sporadic work day. I am working on a new version of an ethics course that I have been teaching for sixteen years — probably have delivered it eighteen times. It is a course on Ethical Reasoning and Environmental Health (you can check it out elsewhere on the E-Sinc website under Courses — the new version will likely be posted before the end of March). I enjoy delivering the course and while often I only make changes based on student feedback from the previous offering, this year is one of those times when a major re-construction seems most appropriate. Thus a fair amount of Saturday was devoted to that task. But I also have yet to complete the hanging of pictures in the new “craftsman-style cottage by the creek” — so that also drew my attention for a couple of hours. By the end of the day I was ready to do nothing!

After dinner, went down to the library and turned on Netflix. After going through the offerings a couple of times, I was intrigued by a film I had not heard of — the Lincoln Lawyer. It was about a sleazy lawyer who developed a conscience — that in itself seemed like a juxtaposition of terms but also potentially something I could use in an ethics course (I love showing films to students as it makes the cases more real and thus the context of a dilemma becomes more understandable). This film has a variety of twists and turns in it and a goodly number of ethical challenges. Just when you think you have it figured out, it takes another sharp turn to the right or to the left; sometimes it even turns back on itself. What started out as a way to kill an evening, turned into a very intriguing analysis of what is legal and what is ethical. Moreover, at times one is almost convinced that perhaps some things that are not necessarily legal, may in fact, be quite ethical. I had not taken Netflix invitation to view the movie very seriously. I thought it was likely pulp cinema — I was wrong. Besides, I should have known that with William Macy in it, it would be worth something (his role, as a sleazy private investigator, is itself very well done). View it all, and let me know your thoughts….

Then Sunday night a trip back to the charming village of Oliver was in the schedule due to the previous purchase of tickets to a presentation by Ballet Kelowna. Called “150 Moves” it didn’t seem to be all that compelling even though I had heard the head of the Ballet on CBC a few mornings earlier talk about the show and she certainly had piqued some interest. Nevertheless I don’t particularly like ballet. Perhaps that’s because I don’t understand it; perhaps because my body certainly can’t do any of the things a competent ballet dancer can do. However I went and figured it was a good opportunity to support the theatre group in Oliver as they do bring in a number of other acts, including some great jazz. Once again I learned something — contemporary ballet/dance, in the hands of a very creative team, can be very entertaining and at times even educational. The evening was over in not much more than two hours but there was not an act/segment that didn’t have my complete and undivided attention. The dancers were superb and the variety of presentations, from classical ballet to rather quixotic modern dance made for a most enjoyable evening. It didn’t make me a convert to ballet in the sense I’m going to go out and get a season’s pass to Kelowna Ballet; but, I will each year review the offerings of the company and try to get to at least one performance. Sunday night broadened my appreciation of the art and the music was grand — there was even a segment based on the music of Johnny Cash — now that in itself made me feel at home.

g.w.