Playing Fair and Being Kind

THE MESSIAH, THE SOLAR GAIN, AND THE

INABILITY TO FLUSH THE TOILET

In that order I have titled this piece about love, warmth, and how life is on earth. I remember how my first wife and I sat close to each other and wondered if our first child was the second coming of Christ. In our white privileged way we were certain it was a good chance that our baby boy was indeed Jesus in the flesh making a return engagement to straighten out the bullshit that had accumulated since the first coming of Columbus and others of that ilk. Our son was on a mission and we hadn’t even taken him out of diapers yet.

This was in 1962. Scot was born in January and there were newspaper accounts that many religious folks believed that the Christ was born recently and that the returned Christ was on the face of the earth waiting to be taken out of diapers and set forth on His path of righteousness. We felt so happy and hopeful that Scot was Him. That is until he (small ‘h’) became colicky and kept us up all hours. The thought faded and then faded a bit more until we no longer remembered what it was that we were thinking of when he was pre-colicky.

I do remember well how we sat close together while he napped a few feet away and the glow we felt toward our small family that day. We had brought Jesus back and we loved each other deeply and we loved our little Jesus baby and we loved life to the fullest, for a few days.

Today is the second day of there being no electric power in our little part of Boothbay. Some neighborhoods have power but not ours. The wind storm from the last Thursday and Friday has knocked down trees all over the Northeast. The electric bills should be a lot smaller this month for sure. I wonder if they really will show a decrease or if the utilities have a method of maintaining the costs so that they don’t have problems in their accounting for tax purposes and such. I’ll keep an eye on my bill next month and let you know.

Any way, today is the second day and my social network announced that today would be a sunny day and that my social network hoped that I would enjoy the day. It was good news despite the insincere tone of the announcement. The sun will help to keep the house warm. I have reconstructed the house to take advantage of the southern exposure with large glass double pane windows on that side of the house. I have also built a fire in the old Jotul wood stove to provide a bit of warmth. I have no way to heat the house without electricity. I have no way to get water inside the house without electricity. I have no way to cool my food or to cook it without electricity. Therefore I am limited to my intake of nutrients, dirty, smelly, and always wondering what it is I need to take care of before the sun goes down and the temperatures drop everywhere. I am grateful that I live alone because I could not bear to here complaining from anyone but myelf.

I cannot bring myself to describe the toilet situation. Suffice it to say with no water pressure my well cannot be utilized to provide flushing water. The toilet gathers and holds my waste from the past two days. I flushed once this morning to give me a few days more but that was the last flush. End of subject.

I hope you all are enjoying Halloween. Keep up the good fight. Remember, peace and justice is what we are all striving for.

G. M. Goodwin

Halloween 2017