I woke up way too early this morning. Jack Layton‘s state funeral was on my mind. Yesterday, I witnessed an outpouring of love for a man who`s touched so many lives, as evidenced by all the writing in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. 
Could he have orchestrated a better final exit? I thought his final words couldn’t be topped. And yet, as I heard Stephen Lewis eulogize about Jack and the manifesto he’d left behind, I couldn’t help but marvel at how much he accomplished in his short life.
Jack Layton didn’t shy away from big problems. He tackled them all – homelessness, the environment, poverty with seniors, health care, abuse of the aboriginal children in residential schools, and violence against women through the white ribbon campaign he started in his kitchen. His daughter also mentioned the love he had for his family and the fact that he always gave his time to all of them–including on the floor teatime with his granddaughter and daily phone calls to his mother–no matter how busy he was. What a model for us all!
He would’ve been thrilled to hear it mentioned during the service that he’d even proposed sitting down with the Taliban. Imagine trying to talk to your enemy! He was all about forgiveness, saying sorry when you’d wronged someone, and embracing all of our differences.
I also wondered what some of the audience might have been thinking when the minister, Dr. Brent Hawkes, mentioned that Jack never forgot to ask him about his husband. Jack was spiritual and inclusive. He embraced everyone, no matter their race, religion or sexual orientation. And how fitting it was that the major religions were represented at his funeral. From the white feather given to Jack’s wife, Olivia Chow, by Assembly of First Nations’ National Chief, Shawn Atleo, to blessings from a rabbi and a reading from the Koran, Jack left us with lots to think about.
Someone in the throngs outside Roy Thomson Hall, the site of the state funeral, held up a sign with the word Imagine. John Lennon\’s song came to mind. Also, there were echoes of Martin Luther King’s speech I Have A Dream when Jack’s son said, “my father always said- always have a dream that lasts longer than a lifetime.”
Politics is a strange game, and Jack played it well, despite his naysayers. Even in death, there are cynical opinions, like Christie Blatchford\’s article in the National Post about Jack’s final letter.
But from what I heard and what I saw, I have hope that Jack’s dream will live on in all of us. In his final letter, he left words to live by: “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” What an exit!
