Erin's Journals

Hello My Friend: 

I had hoped to post a new written journal for you here, but some extenuating circumstances (such as two missing suitcases) prevented me from doing as good a job as I would like. Besides, I (okay, we) have about four loads of wash to do!

In its stead I have a link for you to a little video (very brief) shot in the incomparable Rhine River Gorge, with a shot of two castles in one moment…and a whole lot of peace. What the world, and our souls, need now more than ever.

Be well, have a safe and happy weekend and I’ll be back with a full journal – and lots of photos – here on Monday!

Erin

Just a thought… Teach your children to dream big, that the sky is the limit and that anything is possible if they want it bad enough. [Billy Cox]

You can watch a video version of this journal (and you’ll want to today) on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Hey there and hello from somewhere on the beautiful Rhine in Europe – likely in Germany, where we spend most of the week. I have for you today a video that I’m just so thrilled to be sharing.

It’s not our two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter Jane playing Mozart. I mean, I’m sure she could if she wanted; the way she runs for the piano the minute she gets in our front door is a joy to behold! (Okay, maybe not.)

Colin? Well, let’s say that seven-year-old Colin doesn’t have Jane’s musical enthusiasm. We had fully hoped that with Lauren’s and Phil’s talents, we had the makings of the next James Taylor or Taylor Swift. Nope…that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Maybe LeBron James or Jonathan Swift, given his skill set, but probably not a musician. So that’s why one of his answers here came as a surprise. I did suppress my laughter; who am I to question his ambitions? Our job is to encourage, enable and applaud. Or gently usher into another lane, if the opportunity or need arises.

Anyway, enjoy this candid lunchtime conversation and I’ll be back one week today with a new journal for you. Monday we’ll be flying, so I know you’ll understand me missing one. There WILL be a new Drift with Erin Davis sleep story on Tuesday June 7^th. I love this one: it’s called The Necklace, which I’ve also titled, “The Jewel of Denial,” about a woman who just can’t be happy with what she has, and oh, the price she pays! It’s a good one. Take care, my friend, and have a lovely weekend, won’t you?

Just a thought… Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. [Neale Donald Walsch]

As always, you can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Before I get going, I’ll tell you that even though I’m out of the country, there IS a new Drift with Erin Davis sleep story coming tomorrow since it’s Tuesday, for free, wherever you download your podcasts. Appropriately, given my coordinates, it’s The Good Ship Rover about a little boy who’s ailing, but finds hope by the seaside. A lovely tale.

Thanks so much for joining me here – even though I’m not even “here.” As I write this, I’m on an AMA Waterways river cruise with my dear friend and recent birthday boy Mike Cooper and several dozen former listeners, many of whom were with us on our last trip three years ago during tulip time in Amsterdam.

We didn’t hit our goal of taking over the entire river boat this time; there were people who had to cancel as the trip got postponed and rescheduled again and again. I was to the point where I didn’t know if we would actually go, or if I wanted to, for that matter, but bless Gerry Koolhof and New Wave Travel in Toronto, they actually made it happen. We’re stepping through Covid; not over, but through, and treading carefully. And the best news is that we’re meeting a whole lot of new friends who signed up after seeing what a great time we had the last time around.

I hope to post pictures or upload to my social media sites on Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Instagram, as we slowly sail along, but honestly, I don’t know what the internet on board will allow and how successful I will be, so I can’t make any promises. I am writing and remembering so I have stories to share with you.

We’re seeing the sights along the Rhine and the spots on the map here.

The whole bunch of us will talk and laugh, walk and cycle and gather, hopefully safely, day after day. Rob and I fly home from Switzerland on Monday with an awful four-hour wait at the end in Vancouver for our little flight to our island home. It’s such a short flight that we can practically swim home from that airport where we’ll be stuck. Anyway, then we’ll catch our breath, adjust our body clocks and dive into another busy week.

This Thursday, I really want you to come back because I have a very special little video of a chat I had with Colin. It’s so perfectly adorable – so very HIM – and it broke my heart to watch it again and again as I thought of families in Texas in the light of last week’s tragedy.

We live in gratitude and in the moment; we try not to let fear lead the way. I promise you I was masked on the flights no matter who looked at me sideways, and Rob and I will be as safe as we can be.

We’ll be back here Thursday with that video. May these last two days of May be peaceful and nothing but smooth sailing.

Just a thought… Sunshine is said to be the best of disinfectants. [Louis D. Brandeis]

As always, you can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Where to begin? What a week! From all of the emotions here in our home about a seismic revelation in Toronto radio to yet another horrific, senseless shooting in the US – this one of children about the same age as our beloved Colin. I have no words, because there are none. Until action is taken, they’re just words and they’re worthless.

We’re not blameless in Canada. There are murders and tragedies and hate crimes and insane people fuelled by nothing but bigotry and the darkest of intentions. But please, for the love of our children, don’t allow politicians and other people who feel they need more “freedoms” here, in one of the world’s freest countries by official and any rankings, any oxygen. We do not need more guns, better access and fewer regulations and steps. Just, NO.

Plenty of our systems are in need of repair, but this week, one is starting to see at least the illusion of change. I’m talking about the industry that gave me my life, my husband and, eventually, our daughter, and everything that we have: radio.

You’ve undoubtedly seen the fallout from the Jennifer Valentyne video I linked you to here on Tuesday. The man to whom she referred, John Derringer, has been suspended pending an investigation of allegations; any trace of him is gone from the Q107 website.

I had the opportunity to do an interview with The Canadian Press yesterday. I could write a book about the behind-the-scenes garbage that went on – and goes on – in radio to this day, but I had just a few minutes to talk about my experiences.

In that brief time, I said repeatedly that I’m in awe of Jenn’s courage in coming forth with this complaint to the Human Rights Commission and even opening this discussion. And of my CHFI successor, Maureen Holloway, as well as Andrea Rooz and Jacqui Delaney – all powerful women in their own right – and countless others (including men) who have added their voices to the outrage this week about how this 2,000 pound gorilla allegedly had his way with the people around him for over 5,000 shows. “Why?” people ask. “Why did it go on for so long?” It’s SO simple: he made the company money. A lot of it.

Countless women have written to me this week and shared their own stories of discrimination in all walks of life: of not being listened to or told not to upset the applecart. Until two decades ago, that was my job: shut up, do the show and don’t make waves.

Well, the waves are here and it’s a tsunami. I like to imagine there are a lot of people these days nervously thinking, I wonder if my name will come up. The good and decent ones – managers and talent alike – have not lost any sleep. The rest? Well, they should ask themselves why it is that when chickens come home to roost, they’re never good chickens?

We’re not chicken anymore.

I’ll be back with a journal on Monday. Thanks for sharing this with me, as you have so many momentous events in this life. I’m grateful. And I’m really REALLY grateful to Jennifer Valentyne.

Just a thought… What you think of me is none of my business. [Anonymous, but I first saw it in a magazine interview with Dini Petty]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Today, May 24^th: a love letter. No, not to Queen Victoria, although it could be if you had a good long weekend. Looks like a lot of people in Ontario and Quebec did not, thanks to some very wicked weather. I do hope you fared okay.

No, my love letter is to this guy.

Michael S. Cooper (self-professed “blond-haired, blue-eyed Adonis of the airwaves”) today turns 70 years old. He won’t mind me saying that I’m sure, but I’ll find out when I see him this weekend. I can’t wait!

I was mentioning Mike on social media the past few days because of something that came up that you’re likely to be hearing a lot about. Oh, I sure hope so. A piece posted by Jennifer Valentyne, our friend formerly of Breakfast Television and then all-too-brief stints on the morning show on Q107 and then Global TV in Toronto.

Jenn’s story – which is a big one – is not mine to tell, but it happened to more women than you can imagine at the hands and mouth of this man; stories that are coming out now but have only previously been shared with a therapist or on a tear-stained shoulder. You can find Jenn’s story here or just Google ‘Jennifer Valentyne news.’ It’s a long bit of video by today’s attention span standards, but well worth watching.

I admire Jenn’s courage more than I can say. There’s a very good chance she worried this would put a cap on her career as the people who might hire her will see she’s been a “troublemaker.” It’s exactly why I stayed quiet through so many incidents early in my career and many still do. Because this is still going on.

So how does Mike Cooper tie in with this? When the person of whom Jenn is speaking came after me, relentlessly, cruelly, for years and years on the radio, I was lucky to be shielded from it; most of his barbs I never heard about. (Obviously before most of social media.) But I’ve received a heartfelt apology from a woman, who worked with him at the time, for not standing up for me. How could she? She needed that job. It’s what the bullies always count on.

In Kelowna last week, I met up with my cousin Cliff, whom I hadn’t seen in 30 years and who lived in the GTA. He listened to Q and asked me what was going on all those years between me and Derringer. I told Cliff, in all honesty, I had no idea and couldn’t even tell you what he had said. Cliff responded that I was lucky to have been shielded. I guess I took to heart the saying above.

But Mike Cooper heard about those comments. This guy looked up to Cooper. And I don’t know if he listened when Mike told him to knock it off, but I’ve always loved Mike and admired him for that. Same as when Ian “The General” went toe-to-toe with one of the bully’s on-air gang. I sure couldn’t defend myself. And I’m actually very nervous today even telling you about this. His minions will come after me on social media because they count on me not fighting back.

Mike is a friend you would want to have. Someone who will make you laugh ’til you pee (and somewhere there’s an elevator at a Disney World hotel that will attest to that, I’m afraid), be there when you are at your deepest low and proudly celebrate you when you’re at the highest pinnacle. You couldn’t wish for a better friend and I’ll never get over the gift that working with him for the final happy chapter in my career, was to me and to Rob.

Here’s the best part: we get to spend an entire week with Mike starting Sunday when we host a river cruise together for AMA Waterways along the Rhine. We’ll pick up where we left off, with a great big kiss, and a whole bunch of talking.

Will we be discussing Jenn’s revelations and the floodgates they opened? Oh, you know we will. As a lot of people will be, too, this week.

But most of all, I’ll be expressing again and again my gratitude for his friendship, his loyalty, his love and his just being here. Oh, it’s gonna be fun.

Happy Birthday, Mike Cooper. You’re not just one of the good ones, you’re simply The Best.