Payday
“Throughout all the 70s I had brought many newbies to McLuhan's Monday Night Public Seminars and McLuhan expressed no interest in any of them before, during, and after the evening performance.
Then one Monday in late 1977 I brought my bride of 7 years. We sat down in the front row of the few chairs available and within 30 seconds I noticed McLuhan staring at Carolyn. He immediately halted the pre-seminar chatter among the 20 or so attendees and pointedly asked me while looking at Carolyn: "Bob, who is this?" I stated that she was my bride and he immediately shook her hand. I was surprised - this was the first time he really acknowledged anybody that he didn't know in the 6 years I had been attending. Carolyn hadn't started her practice in Toronto, yet (that would be 2 years later) - she was doing her fourth year at McMaster U. in their new experimental program for Med students. Carolyn was the first allowed to participate from another province and school - Dalhousie U. in Halifax.
After the seminar that night, McLuhan spent a fair amount of time talking with Carolyn. They found they had a mutual friend, Dr. Ross Hume Hall at McMaster. Carolyn had just read Hall's book, "Food For Nought". McLuhan had certainly been aware of the book because Hall (MM's cousin) had used a lot of McLuhan's material in the book. But MM hadn't read it, yet, even though it had been out for a couple of years. He asked Carolyn to get him a copy. Well, that started a friendship through which MM learned a lot about new developments in alternative medicine that MM was very interested in. Of course, Carolyn could eventually see that these new wrinkles in medicine supported MM's percepts as Ground for them. She became one of MM's most admired attendees (by MM) of the Monday Night gatherings. MM introduced Marg Stewart, MM's secretary, to Carolyn when Marg broke her hip in May, 1978. That led to a long and confidential friendship between Marg and Jim Stewart and Carolyn and I.
A week before MM's stroke on Sept.26/79, MM invited Carolyn to his home so she could explain the D-Cell to him (he had heard about it from Jim). The D-Cell was an obscure invention that "purified" and energized water. We had been using it since 1969 and it had slowed down our aging. MM could see that and wanted to try it, perhaps. MM decided to start using it so Carolyn gave him one a few days later. On Sat. (Sept.27/79) Jim was entering the front area of MM's Wychwood home and saw the D-Cell package, unopened, sitting on a little table in the hallway. It was, of course, a sad day and Jim was struck by how MM had just missed the benefits of the D-Cell by a couple of days.
Carolyn went on - as her reputation spread - to speak at hundreds of conferences over the next 3 decades, always introducing MM's "ideas" when she had the opportunity. She was the only doctor applying "media ecology" (I prefer to call it "paramedia ecology") to the medical discipline, as far as we knew. She even dedicated her first book (1991, of subsequently 35 or so books - many free now) to McLuhan.
As the years unfolded, I never forgot MM's first response to Carolyn 42 years ago. Even though MM had said that he found it difficult for people to project to him and for him to project to people, he had a "knowing" about people when it mattered. He had immediately picked up on Carolyn as "a person of destiny" just as he always knew he was one.
So, Ms. Sharma et al. at the new Coach House scene would be well advised to take advantage of Carolyn's "ms.-understanding" of McLuhan's work as applied to their agenda.
Meanwhile, take a look at this beginning point of the public life of one of the top doctors (now studied at Purdue University) in the world.”
“Throughout all the 70s I had brought many newbies to McLuhan's Monday Night Public Seminars and McLuhan expressed no interest in any of them before, during, and after the evening performance.
Then one Monday in late 1977 I brought my bride of 7 years. We sat down in the front row of the few chairs available and within 30 seconds I noticed McLuhan staring at Carolyn. He immediately halted the pre-seminar chatter among the 20 or so attendees and pointedly asked me while looking at Carolyn: "Bob, who is this?" I stated that she was my bride and he immediately shook her hand. I was surprised - this was the first time he really acknowledged anybody that he didn't know in the 6 years I had been attending. Carolyn hadn't started her practice in Toronto, yet (that would be 2 years later) - she was doing her fourth year at McMaster U. in their new experimental program for Med students. Carolyn was the first allowed to participate from another province and school - Dalhousie U. in Halifax.
After the seminar that night, McLuhan spent a fair amount of time talking with Carolyn. They found they had a mutual friend, Dr. Ross Hume Hall at McMaster. Carolyn had just read Hall's book, "Food For Nought". McLuhan had certainly been aware of the book because Hall (MM's cousin) had used a lot of McLuhan's material in the book. But MM hadn't read it, yet, even though it had been out for a couple of years. He asked Carolyn to get him a copy. Well, that started a friendship through which MM learned a lot about new developments in alternative medicine that MM was very interested in. Of course, Carolyn could eventually see that these new wrinkles in medicine supported MM's percepts as Ground for them. She became one of MM's most admired attendees (by MM) of the Monday Night gatherings. MM introduced Marg Stewart, MM's secretary, to Carolyn when Marg broke her hip in May, 1978. That led to a long and confidential friendship between Marg and Jim Stewart and Carolyn and I.
A week before MM's stroke on Sept.26/79, MM invited Carolyn to his home so she could explain the D-Cell to him (he had heard about it from Jim). The D-Cell was an obscure invention that "purified" and energized water. We had been using it since 1969 and it had slowed down our aging. MM could see that and wanted to try it, perhaps. MM decided to start using it so Carolyn gave him one a few days later. On Sat. (Sept.27/79) Jim was entering the front area of MM's Wychwood home and saw the D-Cell package, unopened, sitting on a little table in the hallway. It was, of course, a sad day and Jim was struck by how MM had just missed the benefits of the D-Cell by a couple of days.
Carolyn went on - as her reputation spread - to speak at hundreds of conferences over the next 3 decades, always introducing MM's "ideas" when she had the opportunity. She was the only doctor applying "media ecology" (I prefer to call it "paramedia ecology") to the medical discipline, as far as we knew. She even dedicated her first book (1991, of subsequently 35 or so books - many free now) to McLuhan.
As the years unfolded, I never forgot MM's first response to Carolyn 42 years ago. Even though MM had said that he found it difficult for people to project to him and for him to project to people, he had a "knowing" about people when it mattered. He had immediately picked up on Carolyn as "a person of destiny" just as he always knew he was one.
So, Ms. Sharma et al. at the new Coach House scene would be well advised to take advantage of Carolyn's "ms.-understanding" of McLuhan's work as applied to their agenda.
Meanwhile, take a look at this beginning point of the public life of one of the top doctors (now studied at Purdue University) in the world.”
Bob Dobbs
1 comment:
Wonderful critique of the "Mother of Ascension."
-- Bart
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