Hubris requires that I make up a word.
Tread Lightlier.
When I move into permanent housing on July 1 (again with the foreshadowing; can you believe what a fine writer I am? Mandate #5 can't come soon enough for you), I will be doing so without a car. While shared custody of Ingrid the Gas-Sucking Swede has gone just fine, I have long harbored a desire to live in a city and experience it without the crutch of a car. Now, make no mistake, we're not dealing with unbridled noblesse oblige here. I'm about to be stone cold broke, and not having a car is going to save me a lot of money I don't have. But also? I will be living in one of the densest parts of the city, working in another, both well served by public transportation, and for the coming months at least, an easy bike ride apart from each other. What's more, when I absolutely need a car, I'll be living a few blocks away from an Hour Car station: I can buy a lot of hours for the costs of car payments, gas, and insurance.
I often hear complaints that this city isn't dense enough to support life without a car, and maybe that will prove true for me, but I won't know until I try it. I believe that we can't make the city be what we want it to be without taking some steps to make it so. This is a shaky, baby step, by only one person, but maybe my pathetic little step will join other pathetic little steps and have an impact on sustainable urban development. If nothing else, I will be forced to make focused decisions about how and where I shop, where I spend entertainment dollars, and how I spend my time. I will also get a lot of reading done on the bus (and to know me is to know that reading time is always in too-short supply). And maybe, just maybe, I'll never. have to go. to the suburbs. again.
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Moving the day after your foster-parent's wedding anniversary. How thoughtful of you.
ReplyDeleteI admire your life-without-a-car plan. Mother Earth thanks you.
Whoops. That should have been foster-parents'.
ReplyDeleteI see a book title something along the lines of The Path, the Pathos, and the Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly doable. Lived in downtown for years while attending the U, sans car. And yes, it was very easy to simply ignore the suburbs. :)
ReplyDeleteAh! But the suburbs are still available, by train.
ReplyDeleteRainbow will love you-start collecting those points(oops---they're for gas)
ReplyDeleteYour elderly neighbors are eager to lend a hand(or vehicle) when needed!
Ruth
Mandate assignment complete:
ReplyDeleteI've closeted the Docs for the summer and pulled out all my strappy sandals. We English teachers take things more literally in the summer, then return to metaphorland in September.