Day 2-40 -- Remembering a Friend -- Music, Metaphor, & Philosophy

Where to begin -- early today I received news of the death of a friend, colleague and co-author.  She had been struggling for a long time with a rare chronic condition and her struggle ended last Friday.  Oddly, I had been thinking of her a lot over the past week as I was putting together materials to introduce metaphor in writing qualitative research findings. You see, she studied metaphor, once writing a wonderful piece called "What's a Meta for?" <smile>. That title alone tells you something about her keen wit and sense of humour. I was also thinking of our January conference visit to Honolulu over the past few days as I've dealt with all the snow from the latest storm. I often think of the evening we spent with two other friends from Nova Scotia at a small outdoor bar on Waikiki beach -- watching the sun set as we drank mai tais. It was 27C even as the sun set and the internet had told us it was -25C back home.  If the time change hadn't been 7 hours, I'm sure we'd have made a call to our colleagues just to say 'hi' <smirk>.

Her mind was sharp up to the end -- filled with creative ideas and deep philosophical thoughts. I loved spending time chatting with her as it was never dull. She enjoyed music and loved to socialize and discuss all those questions about life that arise with a table full of academics <grin>.  I recall discussing a research question with her and I used the term 'deconstruction' which perked up the ears of a positivist at the table who wanted a definition. I gave a basic definition which was met with a bit of scepticism and she rescued me by pulling in the philosophical underpinnings of post-modernism and post-structuralism. It was then we decided that we would write something together. I still love that piece, though it isn't easily accessible from the conference proceedings 10 years later.

The world is different without her in it.  I take heart knowing her family, friends and one of her cats were with her at the end. I smile thinking of her now having those philosophy discussions with some of those she studied. Finding a song wasn't easy -- so many ideas came to mind. In her honour, I settled on one that uses metaphor in a fun way. Enjoy!

Everything -- Michael Buble