Joy in this Canadian heart
Meet Diane Sims, a woman who lives, fully, beyond the shadow.
I had the immense privilege of meeting Diane Sims recently — first through her memoir, Living Beyond the Shadow, then by phone and in person earlier this week. I wrote a column about the reflection it prompted in me on what it means to be Canadian beyond the tired old chichés and the jokes about how we’re so nice and also kind of boring.
I had been mildly obsessing about the idea of joy for a few weeks before reading her book and imagine my surprise when I saw, near the end, how she quoted my favourite monk, the extraordinary David Steindl-Rast, whose Ted talk on joy, happiness and gratefulness is not just a must-watch but a must-watch-at-regular-intervals it’s so good.
Joy and happiness are two different but related concepts. I see the latter more as a state of being and the former as an action verb. To find joy, you must make a conscious decision to look past whatever irritants or difficulties life puts in your way and find beauty in struggle, glory in work, happiness in purpose.
Some days it’s really fucking hard. There are parts in Sims’ biography that are positively harrowing. What this woman endures, I can’t even imagine. Yet she’s the most joyful, and grateful human there is.
Stubborn, too. I didn’t have space in the column to discuss her advocacy for accessibility, including the years it took to make the police station in Stratford where she lives barrier-free. This critically important building for the community had been inaccessible to people in wheelchairs for 20 years. And even with support from the police chief, it took her three years of relentless advocacy finally to get a ramp.
Imagine if your average able-bodied person was unable to access the police station, how fast repairs would be made. Do you really think it would take years?
No, of course not. Diane Sims fights this and all her other battles with indomitable spirit. Including her work on medical assistance in dying for people who want to end their life on their own terms. She’s a force of nature and an inspiration to us all.