by Iain Reid
She is smart beyond the cliché of emotional intelligence. Intelligence is so often perceived and explained in blunt, rudimentary ways. We decide someone is astute based on a certain career choice or educational path. We call some people bright and others dim. We say someone is logical or mathematically minded, while someone else is creative or imaginative. We deem some “book smart,” others “street smart.” Sometimes we speak of positive attitudes and admire those who are able to look on the bright side.
Grandma’s disposition can only be fully appreciated after moving beyond those basic platitudes. Hers is a rare intelligence, more complex than a positive outlook, obsession with reason, or comprehension of complex principles. It is neither masculine nor feminine. It’s not forceful, pretentious, or judgemental. It’s subtle and modest. It’s outward, not inward. Grandma’s is a practical aptitude, a salient social dexterity. It is a compassionate toughness. She knows and accepts both happiness and sadness, how each is reliant on the other.
She’s comfortable with all that is unintelligible. Her mental currency is reality, not abstraction or invention or apprehension. She just knows how to exist in her world. At ninety-two, Grandma is very old and she is very alive. She lives.
I can see the single maple tree on her lawn as her red-brick house comes into view.
“Well, well,” she says. “After all that, and here we are.”
Here we are.
Acknowledgements
Thank you:
Samantha Haywood and Janie Yoon, for all the indispensable contributions.
Everyone at House of Anansi, my sister for her editorial eye, Mark Medley, Peter Norman, Kenneth Anderton, and the Ontario Arts Council.
My family, for continued encouragement and support.
Grandma. For our chats and everything else.
About the Author
Author photograph: A. J. R.
IAIN REID IS the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning comic memoir One Bird’s Choice, which was published in several languages and sold internationally. He was named by the Globe and Mail as a top five up-and-coming Canadian author. He writes regularly about books and writing for the National Post. He lives in Kingston, Ontario.
About the publisher
HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS was founded in 1967 with a mandate to publish Canadian-authored books, a mandate that continues to this day even as the list has branched out to include internationally acclaimed thinkers and writers. The press immediately gained attention for significant titles by notable writers such as Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, George Grant, and Northrop Frye. Since then, Anansi’s commitment to finding, publishing and promoting challenging, excellent writing has won it tremendous acclaim and solid staying power. Today Anansi is Canada’s pre-eminent independent press, and home to nationally and internationally bestselling and acclaimed authors such as Gil Adamson, Margaret Atwood, Ken Babstock, Peter Behrens, Rawi Hage, Misha Glenny, Jim Harrison, A. L. Kennedy, Pasha Malla, Lisa Moore, A. F. Moritz, Eric Siblin, Karen Solie, and Ronald Wright. Anansi is also proud to publish the award-winning nonfiction series The CBC Massey Lectures. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Anansi was honoured by the Canadian Booksellers Association as “Publisher of the Year.”
