[This Post was written on my phone on 1/9/2009 but languished as a draft for the last 4 months while I was too busy to work on any of this stuff. So I just put it up now for the heck of it!]
Watch out, fingers!
Today I’m sitting in Rioghna’s Tae Kwan Do class typing on my phone. She got her brown/red belt – SO proud. We got here in my car, which I finally got back from the repair shop this morning after three days.
So, I’ve been reflecting on how it feels to be carless in America. When I lived in Ireland I never had a car. In fact, I never even learned to drive until I was in my late twenties and already living in the States. In those days, I never thought twice about it because I did not know any different. I thought nothing of walking a few miles to get where I needed to go. (I was also fitter as a result!) of course, in Ireland, things generally tend to be a lot closer together and more accessible to pedestrians, whereas here everything is built and designed around the automobile to the extent that we take it totally for granted.
And it’s because we take it for granted that we can feel so bereft when our trusty steeds are taken from us. I can attest to feeling less adequate, more dependent, poorer. But then, I have built this busy life around being able to move around at will in these few hundred square miles of the Chicago area. Also, the Midwest winter does not exactly help either.
Or maybe it has to with the cost of auto repair. $600 lighter in the pocket can make you feel poorer too!
My kid just put her foot through a board like it was water. That’s the way to deal with things, instead of whining about it.
Still glad to have the car back, though.
