Excited about new possibilities
Published Saturday November 7th, 2009
When Michael Higgins' friends and colleagues in Ontario learned he planned to move to New Brunswick, they couldn't understand why.
And Higgins says he continues to encounter an arrogance from many there who question his decision to remain in New Brunswick. They have even gone as far as to tell him that living and working in this province is much akin to being in exile.
"I am here by choice. I actually very much like it."
When his upper Canadian friends ask him when he is going to get serious and come back to the city where he was born and raised, he says he is in no hurry. But Toronto is a big part of who he is and it continues to play an important role in his life. His brothers live just outside the city. He goes there often to visit them and to meet with friends and colleagues.
But as the president of St. Thomas University looks through a bank of windows on the fourth-floor of the Margaret McCain Hall, the vista he sees is enough of an explanation.
"Since we moved to New Brunswick, I have to say that one of the things my wife and I delight in doing is taking our upper Canadian friends around the province to show them what a remarkable province it is."
Higgins has spent most of his life in the world of academia. His parents valued education and encouraged him to pursue it.
"I have to say that it was in the seminary, because I studied to be a priest for a while, that my interest in higher education really took off."
In 1967 he and four other seminarians from Toronto moved to Antigonish to a newly formed house of studies. Going to this town was a culture shock for him but despite its lack of subways and skyscrapers, he came to love the place.
While there, he decided to leave the seminary. When he returned to Toronto to attend graduate school, he met a beautiful young woman who was a student and undergraduate at the University of Toronto.
He and Krystyna Higgins have been married for 36 years and have four children. The glue that's held this couple together over the years has been a deep respect for one another and their very strong spirituality.
"We are both very actively engaged in our faith. We are not pious people but we are critically engaged in our faith. It has been something we have been able to share. It has been a shaping force in our lives. We are best friends and that adds to the depth of our partnership."
Marriage, he says, has been a maturing, rigourous life commitment. It is a life of self-emptying, fidelity and commitment out of which comes a deeper appreciation for oneself because it allows you to see your deficiencies and your strengths.
"A good marriage reminds you of both. It reminds you of why you need the other and it opens you to the other."
They have also shared a passion for things such as music, literature and social justice. They enjoy entertaining their friends at home. They also like to go to concerts and will go to great lengths to do so because music is important to them.
Despite their busy schedules, they manage to catch up at the dinner table. This is a time when they come together, to share and simply be in each other's presence.
Who is the cook in the family? Not him, he says, with a rich and hearty laugh. He admits he wouldn't subject anyone to any food he would attempt to prepare. When his wife is away, he will take all of his meals out of the house because he is such a poor cook.
"My children won't eat anything I cook for fear that it will be contaminated. But Krystyna is a sublime cook."
He isn't much for sports and doesn't know the language so he relies on others to educate him about these things. He also knows he is not a handyman and is all-thumbs when it comes to home improvement projects.
He laughs as he says: "What's a hammer?"
He is secure enough in who he is to acknowledge his deficiencies as well as his strengths. He has written some plays but, he says, he is a far better script writer and narrator.
His one regret in his professional career is that he didn't explore the world of acting. While in England during his graduate studies he was offered a role in a Kevin Brownlow film.
"I had just fallen in love with my wife. I didn't want to spend a year apart from Krystyna so I didn't. When I came back to Toronto, both Krystyna and my graduate studies advisor said, 'Are you crazy? You should have stayed and done that!' So I never found out whether I could have been an actor."
As much as he has accomplished in his career, he is equally proud of what he has done in his role as husband and father. There are photos on his desk of Rebecca, Andrew, Sarah and Alexa Higgins. He is immensely proud of all of his children.
When they were born, he was there to cut their umbilical cords which was a rarity, especially when their first child was born in the late 1970s.
Being there to see all of their children take their first breath, he says, reinforced his need to an active parent and it reinforced his desire to spend as much time as possible with them.
He speaks to them by phone every week and he sees them whenever he can, even though all of them live in other cities and countries.
"I will take them to New York for live theatre. We do all kinds of things that we like. They are all fanatical about live theatre and concerts. I like to spend time with each one of them. Each child has to be treasured for his or her individual gifts."
He could continue in his role of university president but he says he is excited about the future and all of the possibilities that await him.
"I think change is really energizing. It tests your limits and you discover things about yourself of which you can and cannot do. I think to stay in the same place or the same position and to not be tested by expanding your limits is too complacent and comfortable a life. I want to go in a direction where there is energy and passion to do some new things. I think that is what keeps you intellectually and spiritually alive. Does it mean you take some risks? Yes it does. But it also means that out of that comes new life."
At the end of December, Higgins will step down from his role at St. Thomas University to concentrate on many other projects. He is the official biographer of Henri Nouwen and he will also write a CBC documentary about the same man, which is due next November. He thrives on what he calls maniacal and dangerous deadlines.
In his opinion, in life, one has an obligation to discover oneself. In a constant desire to grow, he says, he wants to learn to be more empathetic to others.
When he was a teen in the seminary, a priest taught him the importance of giving without reservation or condition to those in need. He keeps a pocket full of change in case he meets people who ask him for money. He tries to make a habit of talking and looking the person in the eye.
"It forces you into direct engagement. If you drop money into a can and you don't look at them and have a conversation then it is cheap philanthropy and it is not charity. It is not Christian love.
"That's tough and to do it all the time is virtually impossible. But it is a way of connecting with your own weakness and inadequacy as a human being.
"Developing a greater empathy is what I would really like to work on. The ability to empathize and insert oneself into the suffering of others is a remarkable gift."
Some people define themselves by what they do. This man hopes he will be defined by who he is which, he says, continues to unfold with new challenges and experiences.
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