LETTERS TO HIS GRANDKIDS
Environmentalist writes a book aimed at his grandchildren so they won’t have any questions once he has gone
Environmental activist David Suzuki’s new book shares lessons he’s learned about life, celebrity, sports and family.
All of his accomplishments and accolades can never outweigh the love that David Suzuki feels for his family, or his pride in being a grandfather. At 79, the environmentalist, scientist and television personality decided to write a book for his six grandchildren, looking to answer questions they might have about him and share his thoughts about the world around them.
The result is Letters to my Grandchildren, a book that Suzuki said was spurred by a trip he took to Japan.
“For the first time, I decided to track my grandparents down,” Suzuki said. As he did that, he realized how limited his knowledge of them was.
“As I approach that time when I could kick the bucket at any time, I don’t want my grandchildren to say: ‘Oh, damn, I wish I’d asked Grandpa this,’ ” Suzuki said.
Compiling letters to his cherished brood, whose ages range from 24 to seven months, seemed like a solution, he said.
“I just threw down a bunch of topics and then started writing in the same way you have a conversation with someone. You know, it kind of loops out and you may go off on a tangent and then come back in.
“But I wrote it very much as if I was talking to them.”
Suzuki has been giving a string of interviews as he sets out on a multi-city tour to promote his book. He spoke to the Times Colonist this week in advance of two appearances in Victoria on Saturday to talk about Letters to My Grandchildren.
Suzuki said it is important for the older generation to pass along what they have learned.
“We’re the only group in society that has already lived an entire life and we’ve made mistakes, we’ve suffered failures, we’ve had a few successes. Those are life lessons.”
With his scientific career already well-chronicled, Suzuki said he doesn’t dwell on that in the book. The work of the David Suzuki Foundation is also not an area of emphasis.
“It’s other things,” he said. “I’m very disturbed how kids today seem to feel fame is something so important. They follow celebrities. Who gives a [darn] about Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton? I mean, really. Nelson Mandela, OK, but Kim Kardashian?”
Suzuki said he wanted to explain in his book that fame by itself is “absolutely nothing” and not worth pursuing.
In one of the book’s lessons, Suzuki weaves a tale of his regret at not playing sports as a boy. At first, it was the result of not having organized sports at the Japanese internment camp where he and his family spent the Second World War, but later it was due to his father’s emphasis on chores and work.
“I deeply regret that my father felt sports were frivolous. My cousins were great athletes and he just felt: ‘Oh man, they’re wasting their time.’ Your time was to work, or do your homework and your school work.”
Still, his father loved outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and fishing, which fed a young Suzuki’s wonder at the world around him.
“Now, as an old man looking back, I wish I had tried out for teams in high school, because I think I could have made them,” he writes. “But I didn’t have a clue how to play the games or what the rules were.”
He tells his grandchildren how much he enjoys watching their athletic pursuits.
“I can’t imagine a more pleas- ant way to spend the last years, I’ll tell you,” he said.
Suzuki said he hopes his book allows people to see him as a regular guy.
“The one thing I hope they come away with from the book is I’m not on an ego trip. I’m not on a journey to make more money or to gain more power. I just hope they understand I’m doing it for one reason only, and that’s my children and grandchildren.”
He said he would like people to think he has spent his time well.
“At then end of my life, I hope they will look at me and say, ‘He did the best he could.’ That’s all I can do. I ain’t going to save the world, I’m just one person.”
Being a father and grandfather has been an incredible journey, Suzuki said.
“Every child for me has been an absolute joy,” he said. “I thought: ‘Parenthood, wow, is that ever great.’ Then I had grandchildren. Holy cow, is that completely different.”
A big part of that difference is your grandchildren don’t generally see you on a day-to-day basis, as your children did growing up, he said.
“They don’t see the warts or the problems you have. They just adore you. I love the relationship, I can take them and do all the things I didn’t do with my children. I can take them to the candy store, just load them up with junk and then hand them back to Mom and Dad.”
Suzuki will be at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney on Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12. He is also scheduled for a 4:15 p.m. appearance on Saturday at the Vic Theatre to talk about his book and for a screening of his 1982 documentary Windy Bay, about the fight against logging in Haida Gwaii. Tickets for the Vic Theatre event are $15.