The sidewalks are clear again (except in our estate), and the world once more accessible. At least for today. It’s clear right now, so it may get cold enough to freeze the moisture on the roads and turn everything to black ice again tomorrow morning. Hope not, though.
I am thinking tiny shy thoughts about swimming a little more than a kilometer a day next week. Dunno. Possibly that would just make me sleep all day, which would be a bother.
Low writing day, only 1200 words. Finished up a chapter, though, which in *theory* puts me in a position to just write a chapter a day 5 days a week until the book is done. They’re short chapters, mostly around 2600 words, so this is not an insurmountable task. I really should pursue it. It’d make everything much easier.
I do not know how much money individual Americans have thus far donated to the Haitian earthquake relief funds, but this story says the median donation from American citizens for tsunami relief was $50. I don’t know if that’s of people who donated alone, or the amount spread out amongst every American (though I think that would be the average amount, not the median amount), and I’m sure some of those were phenomenally large donations by extremely wealthy individuals. But that’s not the point. The point is, don’t get me wrong, I am glad and grateful that every single person who has donated has done so, but I cannot understand the hypocrisy of a nation which willlingly opens its pockets for aid in the face of a crisis, but cannot be convinced to implement a national health care system in order to improve the quality of life of its own citizens, and who as a whole apparently regard such a beast as an impingement on their own happiness. Ted says it’s that Americans (and perhaps people in general) don’t see beyond their own front door very often, and that Americans in particular have been indoctrinated to believe that you are to fail or succeed on your own, with no support from the state or indeed the community; that you are, in a nutshell, Somebody Else’s Problem. I don’t know what it is. All I know is that I just flat out, fundamentally do not understand it.
And that damned climate change trilogy is niggling at me again. I need a two-year time out, please. Where’s the Doctor and his Tardis when you need them?
The Road Home: miles to Isengard: 41
ytd km swum: 9
ytd wordcount: 22,400