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September 06, 2005
the world we made
i finally went back to the westy tonight. i've been feeling some irrational anxiety about my upcoming physical, and working on the van helped me work some of that out. there's something about power tools that helps me feel like i'm in charge of things.
i'm sure my anxiety is about more than just whether they're going to find some horrible disease when i have my physical. there's that awful feeling like it's the end times, too.
if i wasn't so sure that the storms were worse now and that the summers were hotter, and that global warming was behind it all, well, i'm sure of it now, and that gives me a deeply out of control feeling.
and then there's the fact that our country seems to sort of be unravelling at the same time. i've read a lot of stuff over the last week, stuff about how we have resources, but can't seem to get them to the people who are starving, dying of heat exhaustion and thirst, chronic medical conditions gone untreated, and drowning. the thing that sticks with me most, though, is this piece on how Cuba handles evacuations. The sentence about how we have "zero social capital" is what really sticks with me.
i don't have any great points to make here. i'm just sad, and i fear that our country will unravel into chaos before my lifetime is over. we made this world, and i don't know that we can fix it.
i've done as much as possible financially for the katrina rescue efforts, both for people and for animals. people in the neighborhood are talking about going down to mississippi with supplies, i don't know if i'll do anything like that, we'll see. there's some debate as to whether they will be allowed in.
in the meantime, i lead my normal life. i get to have three nice meals a day and sleep in my big soft bed. i have health care on demand. i'm quite fortunate. i do feel guilty but...
maybe we will be the next victims of nature. we have been before, and i am sure we will be again.
i think that if you have a normal life to lead, and you've done what you can for the people who don't, you should at least take a little joy in leading your normal life while you have the chance to. be happy that you are running errands and bored at work and sitting in traffic. really.
Posted by lisa at September 06, 2005 09:52 PM
Comments
Mark has been talking about how great the Cuban evacuations are for the past week. It's true--we have zero social capital in this country. We're all atomized little bubbles. We don't trust each other. We are a really crappy society.
Posted by: Lisa B on September 7, 2005 09:38 AM
A couple of things I know I need to do if there's ever an evacuation of Durham:
- knock on my neighbors' doors, especially the elderly ones, and make sure they are getting out ok.
- get Gran from the retirement home, try to make room for at least one other person from the home whose family may not come for them.
In the shorter term, I think I need to have some renewed focus on getting the propane equipment in the van working, because it would be an ideal evacuation vehicle, and I might propose to my neighborhood association that we should have a neighborhood evacuation plan similar to the Cuban plans, where people look after each other, we know who the doctors are in the neighborhood, and we try to stick together.
Posted by: lisa on September 7, 2005 11:33 AM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.