President Steenkamp: Celebration and connection during COVID-19

This was not a typical year for anything, and it’s the same for the holiday season. However, even an altered holiday can still hold some joy.

As Dr. Bonnie Henry recommends, we can open our virtual windows on the world and “get together” with friends and family through Zoom or Skype. If you’re a tad tired of looking at people through screens, this article by our own Assoc. Prof. Jaigris Hodson in The Conversation offers great digital connection alternatives that are not like Zoom. In my video message this week, I suggest a few more ways to connect with those near and far.

I’m looking forward to relaxing at home in front of the fire listening to some of the jazz greats (on vinyl of course) and trying some of those fine red wines I’ve been hoarding. I’ve also bought three new novels to read: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (a Glasgow-born, New York writer and fashion designer), This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga (a wonderful Zimbabwean writer and playwright), and Lampedusa by Steven Price (an author and acclaimed poet from Victoria). If you read any of these, let me know what you think.

I hope that you will spend some time doing (or not doing, as your heart desires) something that truly nourishes your soul.