2011 Xmas Letter

Maggie and Hannah insist that they are the 99% in our family, despite our repeated attempts at explaining the math that they are the 50%. Their demands are varied, unfocused and idealistic. Yet, everyone in the family senses that they have a point. Carolyn and I make most of the decisions and there is massive inequity in terms of wealth and income... and so, they continue to Occupy...our house.

Maggie was part of a public demonstration in Grease – the musical, not the country.  Actors and audiences at the high school all had fun. In March the main demand was for a holiday. We capitulated and went down that slippery slope – literally. We went skiing in the BC interior. They forced me to make good on a long-term management promise to take them skiing on a real mountain. Slopeside accommodations and endless trails delivered beautifully.

In the spring the mob turned violent  - it was Maggie’s varsity ‘touch’ football where she played on the D Line. She is still in the long shadow of her Mom’s university Powder Puff football days as a star running back though. Hannah was part of the 5% briefly. She graduated from middle school with excellent grades and awards – prompting wild shouts from her grandmother at the graduation ceremony.

Maggie learned all the secret signs as a waterfront counsellor at a camp for the deaf this Summer. She viewed it as unpaid labour, we saw it as free camp.  We had a flash mob (probably organized on facebook) in Harwichport, Cape Cod.  It was a family Union (that is a one-time ‘reunion’). It was a Collective Bargain as we put 3 Solby families in one giant beach house and socialized with extended family and friends.

Hannah is very much enjoying her specialty high school, UFA. It is a lefty, liberal hotbed where the students wear uniforms, call the teachers by their first names and spend integrated Wednesdays outside the classroom at initiatives like Yoga, Skiing and Jamming with the Band. By contrast, when I started at Lower Canada College in Montreal they beat you with a wooden paddle if you called a teacher “Steve”.

In September Carolyn and I escaped from the other 50% and rode bikes in her Jumpstart charity ride in BC. The hills were as steep as a Eurozone yield curve.  We rode 500 kilometres (300 miles) in 5 days and raised funds (thanks to many of you) for the real kids who can’t afford to participate in sports and recreation.

As we head into Christmakah the 50%’s demands are growing ever more outrageous – trips, expensive clothing, electronics, a say in how the family runs (ha!). All forms of wealth and power transfer. We will do our best to appease them in the hopes that they will grow tired of protest, grow up and leave the premises in a few years.

From the top 50% and the bottom 50% of the family we wish you a happy holiday with a minimum of  social obligation and forced sentimentality. This year we might, for an instant, appreciate our outrageously good fortune to be closer to the 1% than not. The big observation of 2011 though is that there is strength in numbers. Thankfully, we have support and friendship from you, our friends and family. That’s  a gift.