You might be wondering why I am posting a photo of a refrigerator?
For those of you that know us, until now have stubbornly LIVED WITHOUT A FRIDGE FOR NEARLY 25 YEARS!
Can I get a WITNESS?!
Let me ask you: do you know anyone in North America (or any “Western” nation for that matter?) who has lived without a fridge for that long?
I think we are a tiny subsection of hardcore hippies and Amish folks, from what I can tell.
But we finally decided to do the deed!
A question: If you do without for this long,
does it make you appreciate it more than other people?
I think it does.
We also spent a decade without running water, and still I marvel
at a hot soapy dishtub after dinner.
Though I grew up with the standard modern conveniences, I decided it was worth seeing if they were really necessary. After all, humans lived for 99.9% of our history without them.
After long period of abstinence, I will never again take these things for granted.
As I hit my sixth decade of life, I am again considering passage rites into elderhood.
I wonder: If you spend 25 years hunkering at the edge of the wood while the bling of the world gets real good at passing you by does your ordeal then come not by doing without, but by
giving yourself a break?
I wonder if some of my initiations may come from moving towards what slows down my heart, not what twists my desires into a bucket list.
Those dog days are done.
I wrote this POEM TO OUR NEW SILVER BEAST to commemorate the occasion, and declare some intentions.
CONGRATULATIONS and/or CONDOLENCES welcome in the comments below.
Thanks for seeing me, folks! Whew! It’s been a long road.
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ODE TO FRIDGE
We just went on the grid.
After 25 years of do it yourself or do without,
the day has finally come when I will plug you in.
25 years of hauling jugs of ice up and down country roads.
25 years of stooping low
to lay leftovers upon the cool earth
As I prepare and cleanse your body,
and unlace your long tether towards “the power”
I stand in wonder.
What you will bring towards our lives?
You
hulking beast from the lands of steel and plastic,
You have travelled far.
I want to sing you a song of welcome.
I want to pledge,
that if you,
You so-called “time saving” gadget,
manage somehow to do so,
I vow to devote those extra hours to breathing,
to soothing the inflammation which smokes our people up
taking a cue from you
hummmmming the cool into the world
soothing what smoulders.
This is the medicine you promise, dear robot, is it not?
You spread your silver wings, and I begin
to tell you a story,
but cannot get even one breath before
your new-plastic belch chokes me
You are on your knees
begging as I anoint you with sacred soaps and oils
as I smoke you with cedar and sage
and
Tonight I leave you,
wide open to the night air
pray you will be done with all that gass by the morning
and enjoy one last night without your buzz
everyone I know would freak out without you
but we share a wink because you know I’m not your slave.
then and only then
will I be able to come near you
and honestly drink cold beer
and ice cream
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