Editor's Note
Looking but not really seeing

February 5, 2010

The best thing about the relocation of OCN world headquarters from Kirk Hall to Innovation Place just over a year ago is not the building’s modern conveniences, like an elevator, nor the paved parking lot, nor the proximity to a Starbuck’s outlet. The one perk worth mentioning is the view.

From our digs on the fifth floor of 121 Research Drive, we can see for miles and miles, in almost every direction. We can keep an eye on traffic flow on Circle Drive, and every plane on final approach to the airport. Geese fly by at the same altitude as my desk, and we look down on frost-covered trees. We monitor thunderstorms building in the west, and steam rising from the river on cold winter days. There is always something beautiful to see.

Recently though, it has been the morning views that have outshone the rest. Being an early bird, I’m often the first to arrive and once I’ve got the coffee on, I like to wander to a window to watch the sunrise. And they have been spectacular, with the pink building on the horizon until the sun finally breaks through. I’ve been known to herd my co-workers toward the windows some mornings, telling them that nothing on their computer screen is so important that they can’t take a couple of minutes to appreciate the beauty of the sunrise.

There’s more than a grain of truth to the notion that we tend to take for granted that which surrounds us every day, a truism brought home for me when I spent time with a couple of visitors new to the University of Saskatchewan.

The visitors were from a company that is making a short video about the university and my job was to arrange access for them to the images that will capture the essence of this institution. I spent an entire afternoon scouting locations with the crew, tramping from one side of campus to the other looking, looking and doing more looking. And for the record, filmmakers do make squares with their fingers and peer through, as if looking through the lens of a camera.

Our scouting trip took us into old buildings, new buildings, public spaces and private offices, hallways, classrooms, nooks, lecture theatres, labs, shops and libraries.  What I quickly realized was that for the initiated like these filmmakers, the campus is a spectacular ‘set.’ Spots I’ve been to a million times, and apparently now take for granted, were described as “pure gold” by those with a fresh set of eyes, and I felt bad for forgetting to appreciate my surroundings.

We often tell people our campus is one of the most beautiful in Canada, maybe even North America, but we see it every day. Or do we? Really see it, I mean. I hope none of us is so busy that we can’t take a moment to walk to a window and look out.

Ed.