While the world today may be more chaotic than ever before, a Salmon Arm writer’s upcoming presentation aims to encourage people to face that chaos head-on.
The Vernon Public Library will host Calvin White for an evening presentation March 14 on staying positive and actively engaged amid times of global challenge.
White is a prolific writer, having penned more than 130 essays that appeared in major Canadian newspapers on a wide range of topics, from the Dalai Lama and Canadian politics to the war in Ukraine, the tragedy unfolding in Gaza and the needs of teenagers.
White is the author of two non-fiction books, the most recent titled Letters from the Land of Fear, which is about the year he spent with Doctors Without Borders as a mental health specialist.
During that mission, White helped people suffering from multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). He was tasked with keeping them in a positive mindset, thereby helping them to stay alive despite their medical condition.
For White, staying positive and connected with others at a time when there is so much hardship and negativity in the world is a challenge worth taking up.
“It has become increasingly stressful to face what seems like an ever-intensifying flow of sad or frightening events in our world as well as issues closer to home such as homelessness, drug addiction, and economic pressures,” White said.
He acknowledges it can be difficult to stay aware of the news without feeling despair. “Too often, people simply want to turn away and tune out.”
But according to White, when people tune out the chaos in the world “it not only ensures that we have no say in the forces around us…but we actually decrease our own sense of wholeness.”
White says his presentation will be “an intimate evening of affirmation of our human capacity to stay compassionate and robust despite the world’s stresses.”
The presentation will include an audio-visual component, applicable readings from White’s two poetry books (Facing the Sweating Horse and The Bodies), and a commentary that addresses “the innate human spirit.”
The free presentation at the Vernon Public Library will take place at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 14.
White thanked the Canada Council of the Arts through the Writers’ Union of Canada for their financial support for the presentation.
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