Yes, we're usually late, fashionably late. Not so late that people wonder if we are coming or not, just late enough that they can get that last thing or two underway. I always appreciate when I get a spare five or ten minutes - I gift that to our friends as well. I HATE when people are five or ten minutes early for social engagements - what are they thinking? Are we all they have in life? Thank you? Sorry?
It's the holidays, nearly, and our family is gathering more. My husband is on his nearly one month vacation that he looks forward to each year (sigh...) where he watches videos, plays computer games, doesn't shave or get out of sweat clothes, but does occasionally take my suggestions on fixing this, finishing that, running an errand, making me tea...without a complaint. It is just a long time to have a spouse in the house when one is used to running a business mostly from home, essentially free of distraction from 7AM to 3:30 PM. Now, well, it is more complicated.
We had our first fabulous Michigan snowstorm today and the kids already know they have tomorrow off from Saline High School.
I ventured out late to pick up the decongestant we were out of, a video, some snacks, plus our daughter and her cat from the University of Michigan campus where one final on Tuesday stands between her and vacation. The first big snowfall of the season merits an escape. I called Blockbuster before setting out and had them put aside "An Inconvenient Truth". We might be the last people on the planet to not have seen this Nobel Prize winning production. It was simplistic and insightful. My kids were far more interested in the science of the feature while I was more interested in the politics of why this isn't front page news. We are more likely to go down in defeat from global warming than from terrorism, despite realizing the more imminent, possible dangers of the latter. We cannot ignore one for the other. There is no political spin that can refute the scientific evidence, no matter how the media plays it to America.
This movie really made me think, as it surely is meant to do. What happened to 
us? My husband and I married in the 70's, subscribed to Mother Earth News and dreamed about what we would do when we could do what we wanted. He was in the US Air Force and neither of us had finished our college degrees yet. We agreed that our ideal would be an earth-bermed house, looks "normal" from the front but buffered on three sides by earth. The years passed and we are so far from that ideal I am embarassed to admit it.
We hung in there through the college years, trying vegetarianism for a short while - I could have succeeded, he was starving.... We did forgo beef though; read Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet" and it won't take you long to reach the same conclusion. The grain for the cattle could feed many times more than the cattle ever do. We should be ashamed of the great American steak religion. It surely helped us cope when our counterparts were struggling during the mad cow epidemic while we lived in England in the late 1990's.
It was during that time that we witnessed an entire other way of livng, the European way. There is excess in the upper classes as always, but the bulk of the UK is practical and ever resourceful. We lived one mile outside the boundary of London and every woman I knew, employed and otherwise, hung her laundry out to dry. Their wardrobes were sparse but good quality and replenished every year. Their homes were comfortable and compact, stylish and affordable. Their disposable incomes were spent on many holidays away since the system encouraged time away from work for replenishment of the spirit. I WISH our country valued that here.
Back once again to an inconvenient truth, why are we living in a 3500 square foot home, with a 1500 square foot lower walkout when there will only be three of us here by September? For one, I am unsure I coul
d sell my property for what I owe on it, in this market. Second, we don't know if my husband will retain a job in the auto industry much longer, given his age and trends. Better to wait it out and see what happens than to sell low, buy low, only to sell again. It is an inconvenient truth that we are stuck here at this point in time. What we can do is reduce, reuse, and recycle. We can swap our vehicles for energy efficient hybrids or electric cars - my husband is dying for one of those. We can install wind and solar equipment, fluorescents, extra insulation,low flow everything. We can save money and help save the planet. We can start now. We can hope for a return on those investments when resale time comes around. Then, we can invest in that earth-bermed house we dreamed about. Life is about choices; ours have not been the best so far. Change...is good.
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