Around 13 years ago, Magnificent and I were
receiving phone calls and the occasional email from loved ones dotted across
Canada.

Their concern? Our welfare. The Handover of HK to the
Chinese was a few days away…did we know what we were letting ourselves in for?
They told us of news stories about tanks coming down the roads, soldiers,
painting, and other disconcerting tales. Opened their doors to us. (frugal blake offered token rent).

We replied that Hong Kong’s greatest concern was the rain,
that the streets were too narrow for tanks, and that besides banks running out
of change (people were hoarding coins that had the queen’s head on them)
everything was business as usual during the day and party during the night as
HK prepared for the Handover. The media was blowing it all out of proportion.

And indeed, the Handover went very smoothly, without a whiff
of ominous communism to come, passports being revoked, etc. It was a great time
to be in HK, actually.

The other day an email was sent from Hong Kong to Toronto.
The title?

“The Media may POSSIBLY be blowing this out of proportion
but….”

And inside a plea that everyone let Charles and me know they
were okay, since we were hearing stories that G20 protesters were really
getting carried away. My friend LD’s sister had to sleep in her office on
University, our neighbour Mark had to close three of his restaurants, the
National Post reported that Sick Kids and Toronto General Hospital were closed,
policemen were sautering (I think I just spelt sautéing, but you know what I
mean) drainholes because the protesters (the 400 plus they hadn’t arrested)
were escaping through the sewers. That parts of the GoTrain and Subway had been
closed.

My geographical knowledge of Toronto is sketchy at best…I
know the four locations where you can buy SPANX and that of the two MAC counters
in Eaton Centre, only the one downstairs is in business, the one upstairs is
constantly unmanned. I could find you my sister in law’s office. If shown three
homes, I could tell you which ones my other sister in law has done a
professional de-cluttering of. But, my father in law moved last summer. I don’t
know where he lives anymore. I knew he was on his boat…. What if he had been
trying to get home? Or my sisters in law? Or brothers in law? Or nieces and
nephew?

As my heading indicated, I knew the media was likely
exaggerating, a dead giveaway was that they constantly showed the picture of
the burning police car. If there was more news, they would have shown that.
However, they didn’t, which made me feel slightly better.

So I sent the email, and God Bless Blackberry, within 15
minutes I heard from my sister in law, assuring me that they were all okay.

Later on, she wrote a longer email, and explained that
hospitals don’t close down (National Post didn’t tell me that – and it turns out four police cars were torched!!) Made me
feel much better.

Toronto and Hong Kong are big cities, but when news of possible
trauma hits, even though the likelihood of it affecting a loved one is remote,
it just feels good to reach out and make contact, just in case. Kind of like
Hercules. Every time he touched the earth, he got 10 times stronger than he was
before. Being far away, I need that earth. That pull. When you love, you need that knowledge that
everyone is good in their world, no matter how little I belong to it.