Book description
Although Patricia M. Boyer won a scholarship to McMaster University
with the highest mathematics marks in Ontario and graduated at age 19,
literature and languages were her specialty. She first worked as a
public librarian, next as a secondary school teacher, then as a
newspaper editor. A community leader in arts and theatre, Patricia was
devoted to human rights action in her local community and around the
world, church work, drama, the education of children with
disabilities, and music.
Each week she wrote a newspaper column inspired by episodes in the
world around her, both local and global. She rewarded readers through
articles infused with learning from literature, astute sensibility to
human psychology, and balanced insights on the tragedies and comedies
of life's passing parade.
Patricia Boyer summed up her approach to life as "optimistic realism".
This collection of the best of her celebrated columns, organized
through the twelve months of the year or "the march of
days", includes reflections on seasonal celebrations, changing
atmospheres of nature, and calendar milestones in the human cycle. A
number of these concise yet poignant writings will move many readers
with nostalgia as they evoke the happy events and tragic developments
of the Sixties and Seventies. All of them, however, convey the wisdom
of a woman whose message of optimistic realism endures like a timeless
guide to living a satisfying life in the real world today.
"Patricia Boyer believed in strongly supporting the positive
attitudes of community life and there is little, in these pieces, of
impotent grumbling at those abuses in life around her which she viewed
with concern. She was not one to grouch about anti-social behaviour:
drugs, drink, vandalism or whatever, though she saw it all around her
and was concerned about the damage it caused. Her response was rather
to give positive encouragement to all efforts to better the life of
the community: be it family life, volunteer work, education,
gardening, tree-planting, or research into Muskoka's historic
past."
-Judith Brocklehurst, community activist and
journalist, Bracebridge
Patricia M. Boyer was a public librarian, secondary school teacher,
newspaper writer, and editor. She became a community leader in arts and
theatre, church work, and the education of children with disabilities.
Both in her Muskoka community and in the wider world, she was actively
devoted to human rights and the work of Amnesty International.
