Condofire

Dave: When I was 20 and without much cash, I decided to leave Vancouver and see the world. I had heard about the opportunity to travel on freighters – free passage in exchange for work – so I hitch-hiked down to Los Angeles and managed to get a place aboard a German vessel bound for Australia.

My day started at 5 a.m. when I made coffee for the captain, then washed dishes, mopped hallways and cleaned the crew’s quarters.

Soon after departing,  I discovered that these freighters also offered luxury travel for a few, well-to-do passengers. The three cabins aboard the ship were beautiful, spacious and very luxurious.

 One by one I met the five paying passengers on board: an ex-Governor of Texas and his wife, a couple who owned a professional sports team, and Alex Haley, author of Roots.

I was instructed by the crew not to talk to these passengers, unless approached by them first. However, I was playing darts one day, (on the ship’s beaten-up dartboard), when Mr. Haley appeared, and to my surprise, asked if I could teach him the game.

The next few hours were spent teaching Alex Haley how to play darts, a time during which our two different worlds met… He was both shocked and interested to learn that I was heading to Australia with no return ticket, no place to stay, no plan for getting back, and only $1200 in my pocket. That afternoon we explored various topics, including the way that some individuals feel compelled to seek out adventure, and also the experience of travel (or other ventures), without a plan or specific itinerary.

Right from the start, he made me feel relaxed. He asked genuine and original questions, which caused me to think, before answering. I admitted I was embarrassed because I hadn’t yet read Roots; he laughed at my honesty. In spite of our different backgrounds, we became friends.

He told me he had spent many years with the Coast Guard and being at sea helped him write. This trip he was working on Queen. I remember hearing him tapping away on the keyboard each day as I walked by his cabin.

At the end of the journey, to my surprise and delight, he gave me his address, saying that if my travels ever brought me to his neck of the woods, to look him up.

On the note he wrote:  To David, with brotherly love to a fine young shipmate, Alex Haley, Roots. And when I left the ship in Australia, he wished me good luck.

Meeting Mr. Haley made me realize that travelling was not only about seeing other places but also about meeting other people and learning of their worlds and experiences. It was a great way to start, what turned out to be a long and adventurous trip.

Tessa: I recently finished reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. Both of these books are coincidentally New York Times Bestseller’s and both of them are tearjerkers. So if you’re looking to give gifts this Christmas that are guarenteed to reduce friends and family members to tears then be sure to pick up a copy of either of these two and that should do the trick.

I’ll start with My Sister’s Keeper. Although Jodi Picoult has written several novels, I had never actually heard of her but a friend lent it to me urging me to read it so we could discuss it afterwards. Admittedly I had a hard time putting this book down. The story is about two sisters Anna and Kate. At the age of two Kate is diagnosed with leukemia. Through preimplantation genetic diagnosis Anna is conceived as a perfect bone marrow match for her sister and until the age of thirteen unquestioningly allows herself to be subjected to countless transfusions, surgeries and shots. But by thirteen Anna begins to question the trauma of these endless rounds of hospital procedures. When Anna’s parents offer her kidney for transplant to Kate Anna initiates legal action against her parents for medical guardianship over her own body. It’s clear that although a hospital would never compromise a healthy child to save a dying child, Anna’s permission is never asked. Her parents take it for granted that she will subject herself to procedure after procedure for Kate.

At the heart of this narrative is the issue of medical technology and this is a topic that Picoult navigates her way around very well. Having been a parent of a very sick child she is able to draw the reader into the emotionally charged and tortured journey that families of very sick children are forced to make. The choices clearly aren’t easy and when Anna’s mother pushes the envelope in favour of her dying daughter she at times appears monstrously one-sided and blind to Anna’s needs as a human being. In the end Anna was conceived as a donor to save her sister’s life. What her mother neglects to understand is that her daughter is a human being first.

The premise of this story is timely, as the long term implications of stem cell research unfolds in the American political arena. But like all issues, we as a society, are increasingly blindsided by ethical implications of medical technology. This book certainly has its weaknesses, namely the uneven and sometimes ludicrous characterizations of Campbell Anna’s lawyer, and the fact that Anna and Kate’s mother after years of being a stay at home mom returns to court to handle her own case against her daughter. Perhaps this is done to add levity to an emotionally charged topic that stands at the centre of this narrative. Overall, however, this is a riveting book that is sure to generate debate and yes, tears.

Next book review: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter