Victoria’s Joan E. Athey is owner of Peaceworksnow Productions, curator of the travelling exhibition Give Peace A Chance, and manager of the photo archives of Gerry Deiter, whose images give the most comprehensive look at John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 Bed-in for Peace in Montreal.
Athey is involved with Slow Food Vancouver Island and the Move Adapted Fitness and Rehabilitation Society, giving those with physical disabilities a safe and encouraging place to move their bodies and and improve their quality of life in a specialized fitness centre.
Victoria News: What have you learned as you mature that you’d like to share with a ‘younger you’?
Joan E. Athey: Find ways to maintain your confidence, no matter what. When challenges come in business or personal life, have a few joyous and successful memories embedded in your brain like a life preserver.
VN: If you weren’t in your current career, what would you be doing?
JEA: Writing mystery books involving treasure, magic and synchronicity.
VN: What do you like about being a woman?
JEA: The natural ability to want to meet others and find out about their lives. It used to be called gossip.
VN: The one thing you’d like to do better?
JEA: Business administration
VN: Your guilty pleasure?
JEA: Cocktails and small plates.
VN: What is your proudest achievement?
JEA: Penetrating Yoko Ono’s bureaucracy to get her to write an essay for my book Give Peace a Chance.
VN: For what traits would you like to be remembered?
JEA: Generosity of Spirit
VN: What do people look to you for guidance about?
JEA: How to navigate the stormy waters of human relationships – work and love. Both men and women seem to find something to cling to in my words.