Blog 2 – ‘The Importance of the Written Word and the Visual World’.

Title: The Importance of the Written Word and the Visual World. Blog 2

My background and why I started writing

About a year before I retired, I started reading articles and books on retirement. For more than 40 years as a practicing lawyer, long working hours became a way of life. It was important, during retirement, to find interests that would keep my mind and me active. I had acted on behalf of numerous institutions, industries, businesses and government agencies. Much of my time was spent sitting on federal, provincial and local boards and agencies as well as being involved, at all levels, in community projects in sports, the arts, political campaigns, and fund raisers. In addition, I had the privilege to take a leadership role in a number of successful community mobilizations that required the organization and recruitment of community assets to meet a specific challenge or goal. There was not a lot of time for hobbies. 

All the books on retirement emphasized the need to find interests that you would enjoy and keep you busy and your mind active. I thought that writing would provide all of that. However, my only experiences in writing were legal briefs and articles on my fields of law. A lawyer, who decided to pursue his doctorate after retirement, wrote one of the books on retirement. Pursuing a doctorate would be challenging, provide experience in formal writing and provide an experience completely different than the practice of law. 

Being sixty-six years of age, the thought of going back to school full time didn’t really appeal to me. I wondered whether there were other options. I made an appointment with the president of Algoma University to ask for advice. She advised that there was a special program at the University of Bristol in Bristol, England that accepted twenty students per year from around the world. Two of the professors at Algoma University had received their PhDs under this program.

With the assistance of these two professors, I prepared a proposal and submitted it to the University of Bristol. Because of my experience in community mobilization and being familiar with many of the community’s leaders, I made the following proposal: Study the successful community mobilizations that took place in Sault Ste. Marie by interviewing thirty-one community leaders, who had been involved in successfully mobilizing the community. I learned later that you would be accepted into the program if a professor from the University of Bristol was interested in your research. There were two such professors interested.

Here I was at sixty-six years of age entering a program with nineteen other students from around the world, who were all in their thirties. In the next four years I visited Bristol, England seven times for three weeks at a time. For the first two years, I took courses and researched and wrote papers on numerous subjects as part of the program. In the third year, I was able to start my research in Sault Ste. Marie. I interviewed the thirty-one leaders compiling hundreds of pages of notes on their experiences and their opinions on the reasons for their successes. The fourth year was spent writing my thesis outlining my arguments under the supervision of my two supervisors. Thankfully, Skype could be used for the monthly supervision of my latest writing. 

In July 2013, I attended in Bristol to defend my thesis in front of two experts who were renowned in their fields and had numerous works published. One was an expert in community development and the other in leadership. The two and one half hours of questioning and defending my arguments was fun. They asked me to leave the room and wait for their decision. Approximately an hour later, they invited me back in. The chairwoman shook my hand and said: “Congratulations Dr. Sarlo”. The four years of work ended successfully. The experience had been amazing. It was now time for new adventures. My thesis was published as ‘Community Mobilization in a Small Canadian City’?

 One of those adventures would be writing about things that I knew and loved. I always felt extremely fortunate having been born, raised and lived in Sault Ste. Marie most of my life. There is a genuine feeling of home providing familiarity and love. I think the first time that I started to believe Sault Ste. Marie was a special place was at an early age, experiencing the spirit of warmth and community, which I found in my mostly Italian neighbourhood. We were loyal to our local hockey heroes, who made it to the National Hockey League and the Italian achievers from our hometown, who became doctors and lawyers. In fact, we cheered for any sports heroes that were local or of Italian descent. I still cheer for achievers from Sault Ste. Marie and those of Italian descent. It provides a special pride. 

Although spending my post high school years in Windsor and Toronto, and offered more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, there was always something pulling me back. I wasn’t alone in feeling the pull of place. While in university, I noticed that students from Sault Ste. Marie wanted to return home after graduating, while so many others did not look forward to returning to their hometown. This strong attachment to place was made even more evident when Sault Ste. Marie hosted a Homecoming Event. More than 10,000 people registered and returned to their hometown. This included a large number of achievers from all walks of life and from all over North America. A number of these achievers contributed their written thoughts on the ‘spirit of SSM’, which was part our coffee table book for Homecoming, ‘Sault Ste. Marie, Naturally Gifted’. 

This feeling for Sault Ste. Marie is evident in the books that I have written. ‘Community Mobilization in a Small Canadian City’, ‘Hound Town: One of the Best Hockey Towns Anywhere’, ‘Hound Town Revisited’, ‘A Special Place: Sault Ste. Marie’, ‘The West End; A Magical Place Created by Giants’ and ‘The Thinking Chair: Mobilizing the Community to Create Positive Change’.

All of the books can be ordered on line at www.tagonapress.com. They offer free delivery.