Climate of Our Future

We would like to welcome Cheryl Kaye Tardif to Climate of Our Future!

I must say that Whale Song is just what is advertised to be. I ordered my copy from Amazon.com and read it the day it arrived. It is a must read. It made me laugh, and yes it made me cry. This story is one that should be shared by all people everywhere. It will help in healing broken relationships and as Cheryl puts it below, help in inspiring a different kind of global warming.

When Climate of our Future first asked to host me on my ‘Touring the World’ virtual book tour, I hesitated. Not because I don’t like the site (I DO!), but because I was trying to think of a way to segue their theme into Whale Song, writing or my other suspense novels. I’ll admit, it was a challenge at first. However, anyone who knows me knows that I don’t shy away from challenges.

So today’s topic is Global Warming. But a different kind of ‘global warming.’ One of racial and cultural acceptance. It really is time that we (as in those living on Earth) embrace each other in tolerance, understanding and acceptance. We spend so much time and energy fighting each other in various wars, murdering our fellow man, hating people of different race, skin color or religion, and then we teach this to the next generation so that they can continue our legacy. Hatred is pure energy and that energy has to go somewhere. Some people spend their entire lives focused on hating … and it’s that energy that grows within them and becomes pure evil.

What we need is a wake up call. And if all of the tragic natural disasters in this new millennium have not done enough to move us to change, then the Universe will continue to fight back with a vengeance. I know you’ve heard all about it—how our environment is shifting, changing, evolving. You’ve heard about the polar icecaps melting at alarming rates and how this could affect the actual sea level, completely submerging some of the world’s cities and towns. We’re being warned about the impact of our environmental decisions, gas emissions, other pollutants, garbage disposal issues, our oceans’ health, etc.

What are we waiting for? Now is the time to make changes—on a global and personal scale. I think that we need to look at societal issues that prevent us from truly caring for each other as equals—as human beings. You can’t pick up a newspaper or turn on the news without seeing at least one tragic event that is based on racism, bullying or intolerance. It runs rampant through our society, infecting each generation and often propelled into action by a thoughtless act or word. Just look at the tragic deaths in our schools and universities. And when I say “our”, I mean anywhere. These problems occur to some degree in every country, every city and small town.

When I started writing Whale Song, I had to dig down deep and extract my inner child. And she wasn’t very happy about it at first. My inner child had been bullied and tormented in school, off and on from grade 4 to 12. I was the white girl in a native-dominated area of British Columbia, Canada. I was also a military brat. Two strikes against me from the moment I stepped off the seaplane. I had other strikes against me too. In high school I was ten pounds overweight, had red hair, freckles and was very shy.

Some of the bullying situations in Whale Song are inspired by actual incidents in my life, ones I had never thought I’d dwell on again. Yet, I found writing about it, even for a fictional story, very therapeutic. I was looking back at my troubled childhood, examining it from an adult perspective and thinking about the people involved.

My most vicious adversary—we’ll call her ‘Sally’—seemed to derive great pleasure from tormenting me. She would kick me, punch me, pull my hair, call me names, and it went on for years, in school and out. In my mind, she had grown to six feet, two hundred pounds of solid muscle. I grew to fear her. And I hated her with a passion.

I saw ‘Sally’ years later. She was a single mom of two or three kids, short, overweight, no education and no job. In fact, she was actually quite pathetic. And I’m not saying this spitefully. She looked as if she had lost all hope. Some people would call it Karma. I also call it reality. When someone expends that much energy on hating others it is bound to eat away at one’s very soul. Now I have a deeper understanding of why she did what she did. When she had bullied me she was carrying on a deep-rooted tradition, one that condemned all white people for generations for stealing land and setting restrictions on their fishing practices and general way of life. Now that I’ve read some articles about broken promises and past treaties, I can understand the need to protect what they hold dear. I’d like to say that I reached out to ‘Sally’, forgave her and now we’re friends. But I can’t. I have forgiven her though. Life is too short to waste on hating someone.

Why can’t we just ‘forgive’ people for being different? Respect them and move on. Perhaps if we could stop our thoughts long enough to ask why people act the way they do, why they think the way they do, maybe then we’ll grow to understand our fellow humans. We don’t have to agree with everything. We are intelligent beings, which means we can educate ourselves about other cultures and then make decisions on what to apply, if anything, to our own lives. That is the blessing in diversity. So the next time you see or hear the words ‘Global Warming’, I want you to remember that it doesn’t have to be a term we fear. By ‘warming’ to each other, we can affect a positive change in the world—one of acceptance and caring.

These are some of the themes you’ll find in my latest Amazon bestseller Whale Song, a novel that is being grabbed up by book clubs across North America. This is a “haunting, beautiful” novel that is perfect for any book club or reading group because it explores real life issues and situations that we have all probably encountered at one point in our lives. Bullying, racism, cultural acceptance and forgiveness are wound together with legends of Seagull, Whale and Wolf in a novel you won’t soon forget. I am hoping to have a discussion guide for book clubs within the next few months, but trust me, if you read Whale Song, you will have plenty to talk about. It has opened conversations between mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, and women in general of all ages and race. Whale Song will change the way you view life … death.

In closing, I’d like to say this: What kind of legacy do you want to leave your grandchildren? If there is energy in hatred and we’re seeing the results in our world, what would happen if we all simply learned to accept and love each other, for who we are individually? I invite you to undertake a different kind of global ‘warming.’ Open your eyes, embrace a neighbor, learn about another culture, and experience the truth—’that forgiveness sets you free.’ I guarantee it.

~*~

©Cheryl Kaye Tardif

During my virtual book tour I am giving away some books at specific stops. This is one of them! The first email I receive after August 20th that correctly identifies the name of the New York Times bestselling author who loved Whale Song will win a copy of my novel. Email the answer to cherylktardif (at) shaw.ca. Thank you and I hope you will visit my website and sign my guestbook. http://www.whalesongbook.com

Order Whale Song now!