I can see how it would be possible in some post-apocalyptic world to describe the way my day is unfolding today to someone and have them not believe anything could ever be so easy. Or even to describe it to my grandmother.
I am on my balcony, using my laptop on a warm May day. I am working on an article at my leisure and chatting to a few friends as they come and go on their computers in three different cities.
Two men just came and replaced my toilet. They're gone now and my bathroom's clean. There are the makings of a tasty dinner thawing out in the kitchen, ice water in the fridge and I am listening to a radio station out of Austin, TX.
Sitting in my desk chair, with an ottoman, surrounded by glass panels to waist height, at the perfect height above the ground to see what's happening in my neighbourhood and in the sky but not so high as to be in the grip of the wind and not so low as to be in the midst of the street action - it's pretty easy to be me today.
Everything's clean, nobody is complaining. I'm not rushed or worried. Life is a pretty good place to be if you're me today. Even 20 years ago my lifestyle would have seemed impossibly indulgent. Yet, by most people's standards, I lead a very modest life.
I know there will be times when this won't be nearly enough. There are already people I miss and places I want to be,obstacles to be overcome, problems to be solved. Change is in the air and it's welcome but it is nice to see this moment as the people who came before or those who come after might see it; I know where I am, I know what I want and it's feeling as though I'll be able to reach it from here without having to die trying.
That's a good feeling.
random thoughts on the passage through an ordinary life.
About Me
- Stephanie Farrington
- I figure if there's an average person, it's probably me. That is to say, I have lived in a few places, probably about average, I have a post-secondary education and an unfinished MFA - which is probably average for people who pursue and education, I'm hitting middle age, my job has been downsized and resized so many times it's safe to say I've never had any job security. I live an average life on the precarious edge of the middle class. I'm happily married to an American, I hold Canadian citizenship, for now. But I'm so disgusted with just about everything going on in Canada that I may pursue changing my citizenship to match my husband's. I am fiercely loyal to American ideals, in part because they make sense and in part because I am descended from a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The idea of an equitable democracy, a meritocracy - that appeals to me. I write, I read, talk, take pictures and worry - just like everybody else. The hopes I hold most dear are for the health and well being of my immediate family, myself included, and the continuance of my happy life with my wonderful husband. Everything else seems manageable.
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