Cousin Charles and His Oversexed Girlfriend

Its bitter cold in New York City these days, single black gloves litter the pavement, people walk by with the knobs of their noses peeking out from parkas and pashminas. I go to sleep profoundly grateful for the blankets, still charmed by my embarrasingly late in life realization that the blankets themselves are not actually warm, I turn to Billy and remind him-- its us! We make the warmth. I wake up and remember all the houses I have lived in that were heated exclusively by wood, and those terrible freezing moments blowing coals back to life, or staying in bed until I got the all clear from whoever else was blowing on the fire, or putting all my clothes in bed until at least the clothes got warm and then building a fire in the ashes - avoid wet hair no showers until spring.

Here in New York the radiators just spit heat, there is a hot spot on the floor near the bed where I stand to get dressed, the wood practically glows red, the warmth spreads up through the bones of my feet. How are we all staying so warm? All that electricity, all that heating oil.... those boilers..its staggering. Less absurd than discount shops blasting their air conditioners through open doors in the dog days of summer but still, 8 million people need to stay warm at night...thats alot of warm. Then again just think of the heat 8 million bodies generates, hey! maybe we can get a grant!

A couple of weeks ago our boiler was broken and we turned on the oven, a  last resort.  It took the edge off but only just. Of course I thought of the many, many, many people for whom the oven, even stovetop burners are a regular heat source, on account of aggressive landlords, run down buildings, lack of funds etc... its the smell of the oven that gets to you after a while, a slow flat burn. Fire seemed just about as predictable as a hangover.

These are hard times -- 6 million Americans say they have NO income except food stamps. When I was in college I used to buy foodstamps off my roommate, I paid her 75 cents to the dollar -- but thats because I knew her (and she had a kid). Years before that (when I was a kid) in San Francisco I only had to pay 45 cents to the dollar and I think thats probably more like the going rate, so anyway you do the math, a couple of hundred dollars a month in food stamps doesn't get you anywhere.Go try and buy gas with a food stamp, or print a resume, or get new laces for your kid's boots. Hell, try buying a condom with  food stamps.

I also read that middle-income households made less in 2008, after adjusting for inflation,  than they did in 1999. Thats a bad feeling, for those who are fighting to survive and those who are doing ok but have tied their sense of self and place in the world to their economic progress, their net worth. I can't remember who it was that said he doesn't mind getting poorer as long as everyone else is too.

Here at the East Campus of the Church of Life After Shopping we are experiencing enough financial insecurity to get the jitters, pinch, save and contemplate our options but thats just the way it is now, and it might be that way for a long time. The real test is how we respond? Are we going to draw black lines down our calves and go out dancing even if we don't have dinner or silk stockings? Will we make plays out of sheets and thin air? Will we take in Cousin Charles and his oversexed girlfriend? Are we going to hunker down and get conservative or are we going to use the last of our dough to invite strangers and aliens to the new revolution. Here's to being a radical American in the New Year.