Course:Homer's The Iliad & The Odyssey

When I was a kid, my Auntie Joy introduced me to many things to which I would not have otherwise been exposed. Homer's epic poems: The Iliad and The Odyssey fall into that category.

She had recently left her big-time fancy corporate job working as a Social Psychologist for a company called Harris Interactive in New York City. Shifting away from serving big corporations like Coke, Ford, Harpo, etc... she turned her skills and passions elsewhere. On the tails of her previous obsession (Elvis Presley), she found herself immersed in Homer's world. Learning the history, the content and the impacts of these epic poems inside and out.

She eventually started her own company called TellmeOmuse, an exciting and educational program that could be adapted to any grade-school age group that utilized greek myths as a lens through which one might conduct learning experiences for many different subject areas.

She workshopped TellmeOmuse with several schools and educators in and around her West Village neighbourhood.

While so much of this work was done with and for the youth and educators of NYC, as with any of her interests, my aunt looped me right in.

She would visit Winnipeg a couple of times a year and those trips would always involve spending at least one day in my elementary school classroom. Everything would be pre-arranged and my teachers were always open to having this quirky lady come in to do activities with their students. For a few years, the classroom activities she facilitated were all about Greek Mythology.

I first read The Iliad and The Odyssey when I was 10 years old. The "junior" versions, of course. Completely obsessed with these worlds of war, tragedy, love, honour, and - of course - my first exposure to the quintessential "Hero's Journey". I "re-read" these stories the grown-up way when I was 18.

To this day, so much of my time in connection to her and in relationship to these texts, stays with me. Lines like Hector saying in book 4 of The Iliad "it is a good thing to give way to the nighttime" has made its way both into poems I've written and also into my own personal approach to embracing change and transition.

These poems also, of course, gave way to Greek Theatre, leading to all that consumes my life today.

While my Auntie Joy's work is now largely focused on fighting the climate crisis, we still often connect over these passions from years ago. I can text her a line I'm trying to remember and she can remind me right away how it went, who said it and where it can be found.