Collaboration

by Dr. Annick Hollender  (August 2016)

Do you know Boucar Diouf? He is a Senegalese author of a wonderful book about trees. He adopted Quebec and has a radio show on Radio-Canada: Nature as seen by Boucar. “My grand-father used to say” are the words that explode out of his mouth just before he delivers his african wisdom. As for me, it is my grandmother I hear in my head : “Annick, go look in your dictionary!” a well established conditioned reflex by now. So, I learned the latin roots of words. “Collaborate”: cum= with, laborare= work. We couldn’t count on Google back then! Now it is the english language that colours our expressions. Have you visited France lately? Hmm…my grandmother is turning over in her tomb, twice more than once!!

It is quite an art to combine two languages in our daily life. I have found that Hemmingford citizens manage it quite well; they collaborate with each other without any major difficulty. Well, we do have our beliefs, our attitudes, our expectations, but here, in our village, it isn’t rare to move from one language to the other in the same sentence…and we understand each other.

To collaborate, sometimes one has to put some water in their wine. To keep a more open mind and a vision wider than one’s narrow personality allows, that’s the way to find common ground. When the goal aimed for is worth it, and is shared by the greater number, the pieces of the puzzle find their place easily.

The experience of the group EnsembleHemmingfordTogether is vivid proof of this. When you will read these lines, the event scheduled for August 20th will be imminent. What a creative journey: a shared enthusiasm, resourcefulness discovered, mutual respect and commitment and determination to revitalize our community! This project, supported by a general generosity, brings a fresh wind, and the COLLABORATION of each one is a guarantee of success: let’s harvest renewal!