The Power Within

I was the happy recipient of an unexpected bonus yesterday...a free ticket to attend the Power Within event at Ottawa's Congress Centre. The event happened today, and while I am rather tired and worn out from the whole thing, I wanted to blog about it before the residual effects wear off entirely.

I think what impressed me the most was the fact that not one, but three very famous figures in world politics were speakers today. First was a surprise visit from Cherie Booth Blair, the wife of Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister. Her talk started out pretty good. Kind of neat hearing someone like her talk so intimately and familiarily about a figure who is so familiar on the news. She's a lawyer and her talk was all about balancing work and home life for busy people, both men and women. Unfortunately she relied heavily on bad Powerpoint slides and lots of statistics and just bored me. So I went to the washroom.

The only other speaker I didn't enjoy was some guy named Jim Fannin...he had NO charisma whatsoever, a slightly arrogant attitude which I frankly didn't think he deserved to take and, I'm sorry to say this but he just didn't have the "look." Something about him just struck me as...mealy. Mouse-brown hair, watery eyes, stupid moustache...no stage presence. Yet he was strutting around bragging about all the thousands of world-reknowned people he'd coached into peak performance.

Bleh.

I did really enjoy the rest of the presentations though. Les Brown opened the day...great speaker. Built the energy from slow to fast and furious. Unfortunately, Mr. Fannin above was next, and dissolved all that good energy.

AFTER Fannin was my favourite speaker, Andy Nulman, a diminutive Jewish guy from Montreal in a garish black, white and pink harlequin patterened shirt. Great speaker though...very energetic, very funny, and made a lot of sense. His was the only book I bought today.

After lunch was Suzanne Somers, Mrs Blair and the Foxes of Mexico. Suzanne Somers talk was really very interesting...all about how hormone depletion really saps the life out of people who are, in this day and age, really just coming into their own and feeling they have a lot left to offer and do with their lives. She talked about a lot of things that resonated with me, perimenopausal as I am.

Kenneth Cole was there too, talking about branding and community service. I'd never heard of him before, but he seems to be a well-known name. His company designs and manufactures shoes, clothing, etc, and has a reputation for its advocacy of issues such as the AIDS crisis. I like his talk. He was very understated, which was a huge contrast with everyone else, but his talk was riveting and his attitude really charming, modest and funny. Another Jewish boy...from New York this time.

Of course, they saved the best for last, and Anthony Robbins spoke for about three hours...two hours longer than scheduled. The guy is HUGE. He reminds me of what Arnold Scwarzzenegger used to look like when he first became involved with politics. This enormous, beefy mass, awkwardly encased in a suit which, no matter how well tailored, just never looks quite right on a physique like that. Robbins has the same gaunt face as Arnold too, but on Robbins it looks almost creepy. His bones are much finer. His nose almost looks like it would cut you if you got too close. And his eyes...maybe he was really tired or had been sick or something, but his eyes almost looked dead at times. Just snake-like at others. Very creepy.

The Anthony Robbins we've all seen on TV was very much present though, more and more as the presentation progressed. His energy is incredible. He's the same age as me, but the difference between us is astronomical in scale. He really got the crowd going in a huge way. I haven't bounced around like that in YEARS. My old bones aren't used to that anymore...my right foot is a little sore this evening from lifting all this weight off the ground repeatedly this afternoon. LOL.

But it was very much worth it. A great presentation, very energizine, affirming. I didn't really take much away from there, I'm sorry to say. Came home and flopped on the couch for the evening like I always do. But I did learn a few things and if nothing else, I had a lot of fun.

An entertaining week

I should go to bed, but I can't just come home, no matter how late it is, and go straight to bed. I always need some wind-down time. So I might as well use that time well!

Tonight I went to the first of two concerts I'll be attending this week. TWO! I think that's a first for me! Tonia and I went to see the Rankin Family at the Civic Centre.

Oh my god, what a wonderful, wonderful show! Both of us were in tears three or four times through the evening. Tonia's worst was during "Fare Thee Well," which was one of her late mother's favourite songs. My worst was during "Gillis Mountain." That's not a song I'd have expected to get so emotional over, but there were some descriptive passages in it that gave me a powerful flashback of driving down along Bras D'Or Lake on Cape Breton Island after a few days in Sydney. The sun sparkling off the water of the huge lake far below on my right, the tree-studded mountains rising up high above me on the left. Everything looking so perfect and right. The song made me feel intensely nostalgic for a place I've only visited a few times.

We both cried during "Rise Again," which is my all-time favourite Rankin song. I can never sing along to it without crying. It's just so moving to me. Ironic, as I never wanted to have children.

It was a real goose-bumpy moment during the first song when the three girls finally opened their mouths and started to sing. It's always so amazing when you finally hear a band live that you've only ever experienced electronically. There's an incredible fullness to the experience that can never be duplicated, even on the best sound system. Even if you close your eyes and just listen, it's better.

Jimmy Rankin has a nice voice and he lends a great texture to the group's sound, but it's the girls who really make the sound shine. There's something so perfect about their voices. Each of them alone is stunning, but together they sound like one voice with an impossible depth of tone and texture. Listening to them, it occurred to me that if the sound of someone like Barbra Streisand can be compared to a rich, smooth red wine, then the sound of the Rankins is a pure, crisp white. Cleansing, refreshing, invigorating. Goosebump-inspiring.

And there's a new Rankin! The daughter of the late John Morris Rankin, who died seven years ago in a car crash on Cape Breton. I'd been expecting to see Molly Rankin on the stage tonight, having read on their website that she has written some music for the group, and performs herself. Well.... what a voice! What a delicious new sound! She sounds like a Rankin, but there's this fantastic newness about her sound. Like old and new melded together into something completely unique and wonderful. Both Tonia and I felt this different sound reminded us of some other singer, perhaps Billy Holliday (sp?)...which is odd, as such a new sound reminding us of a classic singer. It's someone else too though...it'll come to me eventually.

Molly is a very gifted fiddler and a step-dancer too!

I think that if I could gather a small group of loved ones around me, and if we could all open our mouths and sound as captivating as the Rankin Family does, that I would never, ever stop singing. There was sheer joy there.