"lumbering our minds with literature..."

"Somewhere between prayer and revolution....:"

"This is what we were all doing, lumbering our minds with literature that only served to cloud the really vital situation spread before our eyes...I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning. This, then, was the difficulty, this sweet dessert in the morning and the assumption that the sheltered, educated girl has nothing to do with the bitter poverty and the social maladjustment which is all around her, and which, after all, cannot be concealed, for it breaks through poetry and literature in a burning tide which overwhelms her." -Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House







Sunday, February 6, 2011

Warm





It is winter and cold. We try to keep the heat pretty low, to save resources and in solidarity with our neighbors who can't afford their gas bills or are on the street. Honestly, we feel guilty heating an entire house for two people.

Sometimes I get really cold and annoyed and turn up the heat.

Sometimes I get really cold and annoyed and think about Thoreau, who said that the rich aren't just warm, they're unnaturally hot. And I keep the heat down.

Today, I came into my office and found Asher shivering in front of the turned-off space heater I use when I am working at home.

We aren't planning to have kids any time very soon, but it is probably our next big step and we spend a lot of time thinking about and researching things before they actually happen. When I saw Asher staring up at me reproachfully with her big, crazy dog eyes I felt horrible. I realized that when we have kids, we are going to have to make our house warmer.

Why does Asher deserve to be warmer than the street cats, that I also name and worry about? She doesn't, and I don't deserve to be warmer than Ed or Bill or anyone on the street. But she is MY dog and I love her and I want her to be safe and sheltered.

What else will have to change?

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