I started this yesterday, but needed to leave it unfinished for a day. Today is equally cold, and will be through Friday. Warmer weather returns Saturday.
It originally looked like this cold "snap" would last only two or three days, but we are well into day four, and I think it will last at least another two. My line in the sand is -20 degrees F -- if the air temperature or wind chill is below that, since I don't have a car, I don't go further than about a block from where I live. And I'm still hearing the words "minus twenty-five" and "minus thirty" on the radio, so forget about it. If a friend offers me a ride somewhere, I'll take it, but I cannot risk a ten minute walk to the bus stop then waiting for a bus, unless I have no other choice.
For years, I have been one of the most fortunate essentially "homeless" people on the planet, and in this weather, I am in an almost constant state of gratitude. Most people without secure housing risk their lives almost every day, no matter how many shelters or warm places (libraries, buses, malls) there are, particularly in this climate. Yes, there are as many "reasons" for homelessness as there are people (in my case, it is philosophical), but in the end, I see it as an inevitable outcome of a conflict-driven, "kill or be killed" system. Since we've all been satisfied to live in such a construct, we have created homelessness, poverty and loss. We have made these conditions inevitable. I guess the only good thing about increased climate chaos is that more and more people will experience homelessness "through no fault of their own" (or at least that may be their perception), and perhaps they will then yearn to create a fairer and more loving overall system.
I know one thing about a more Goddess-inspired culture: it will never be necessary to "earn" a living, or a warm roof over one's head. It will never be necessary to prove one's worthiness to come in out of the cold.
