Last night I had the privilege of hosting an evening event in honor of the 15 years that Montreal's Concordia University has put on the annual Concordia Public Lecture Series on HIV/AIDS. It was an almost sad occasion - because this series did not start in 1992 expecting to continue for so long – but it was an equally proud occasion as well. The principle objective of the Series is simple: to get people talking and promote a dialogue around the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its issues. For 15 years, hundreds of people a year join together to become engaged and, indirectly, protect themselves from situations that potentially put them at risk. From there, as I’ve seen in the past, it isn’t uncommon for participants to extend the messages they hear, either by telling someone else or coming up with their own thoughts and passing those along. This is the power of discourse.

This topic isn’t always comfortable to discuss, or easy. By talking about HIV/AIDS, however, we somehow recognize the many that have lost a battle to a related sickness and help ensure that this beast does not consume us. I coordinated the HIV/AIDS Lecture Series during its 10^th year, and I learned a lot about myself. I was few years younger and didn’t really think I could be affected much by the virus. In fact, I really didn’t think much about it at all. It was that year, however, that a friend of mine, Mike, whom I’d known for a while, told me that he was HIV positive. Shocked, trying to coordinate the Series, I didn’t understand why he’d kept it a secret from me. Worse, I really didn’t know how to handle the news. I suppose, in a way, it was like coming out for him all over again.

Mike was the first person with HIV that I’d ever met AND whom I was friends. He was also the first person that made me realize that an open discourse – actively talking about things that make us feel uncomfortable – is the only way in which we can make people directly affected comfortable enough to talk to us. It’s also the only way we can actively promote and advocate safe sex, safe drug use or safe activities in general. The way I see it, you may not do all of those things but others are. Mike reminded me of that again last night… and reminded me to talk.