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Finally! I’ve made it online just long enough to post an entry. It’s been about a month since I’ve come up north from Toronto.
Granted things a little bit more peaceful here, and I’ve made some good friends, but tensions are growing over the unavailability of gasoline. As you might have heard in my audio blog: cars are just left in the middle of most country highways up here after people have run out of gas and have had to leave their cars stranded. You’d think that people wouldn’t travel unless they had to. I can’t help but feel like maybe these people desperately needed to get somewhere and simply couldn’t.
Granted things a little bit more peaceful here, and I’ve made some good friends, but tensions are growing over the unavailability of gasoline. As you might have heard in my audio blog: cars are just left in the middle of most country highways up here after people have run out of gas and have had to leave their cars stranded. You’d think that people wouldn’t travel unless they had to. I can’t help but feel like maybe these people desperately needed to get somewhere and simply couldn’t.
Life everywhere is a little difficult, but I’m worried about some friends down in Toronto. I received this e-mail very late last night from a friend. It read:
“This won’t be long. Things are scarier down here then you think. Mob mentality is everywhere, and the only incendiary in the city is not oil, but the people themselves. There are nights where I fear for my life. There are people who stalk the streets at night lighting cars on fire in protest of not just the prices but for oil in general. I know why you left… you believed that you would be part of that mob. I don’t blame you, and I know you’re scared… but maybe we need someone like you here. I see the news, I read the papers, and I know that it’s frightening in places like New York City, and San Francisco… But in Toronto, this desperation is not about oil anymore… it’s about resources. I’m beginning to believe that maybe this is humanity is good for, consuming resources.”
I’m beginning to feel guilty for being here. Yes there is my family and now the community to take care of, but do I view myself this way? I said in an earlier blog to “Keep fighting the good fight” but I’m which is the good fight: Staying up here with my family and learning to adapt, or going back down to Toronto and helping people to adapt there, where there is nothing but desperation?
Tim (My new friend who owns the Vegetable Oil fueled car) and I were speaking on our way back from the truck stop the other night. We spoke about a world without oil, and about the point of these “alternative living” communities. Tim said that over the last month I’ve gained knowledge about alternative ways of living that people in the city didn’t have. I’ve learned all that I was going to learn about it, and it was redundant for me to stay.
Once we got home we walked through the community and I expressed my concern about my family. I have elderly grandparents who are living at the cottage, the oldest of which is 85, the other has asthma. They need to be kept cool as the summer approaches. Naturally, my family comes before the city that I hold closest to my heart.
This is the part of the story where I tell you that even in a world without oil, this world is full of amazing people.
Tim pointed at my feet. I had large red marks right in the centre of the top of my foot, where (from walking too much over the last month) my sandals had created blisters which were taking a long time to heal.
“Look!” said Tim! “Stigmata!” he exclaimed as he pointed at my feet. Confused a raised a brow a looked down. Indeed the dark red marks were still there.
“Tim, you know they’re just blisters. We have to walk everywhere and my sandals bother my feet” I tried to explain to him, but he was persistent.
“No…” he said, bending over to take a closer look at them “Those for sure are stigmata. And you know what they say about people who get stigmata?” He was being testy now, and I understood the point he was trying to make.
“They’re Prophets”
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not religious in anyway. And in no way do I think that this whole oil shortage thing in like a plague from god for our overindulgence. But… there’s something seductive about prophets and prophecy. Something highly intelligible, something that I’ve always wondered was true.
Tim continued “You have the knowledge” he said before he gave me the keys to his grease-mobile (as we have affectionately called it) “And now you have the ability. Go share what you’ve learned to the people back home. You’ll feel guilty if you stay any longer, and should something really terrible happen you’ll never forgive yourself. Knowledge is power, Prophet. Go spread the good word.” He then explained that he would take my place at home, and take care of my family for me.
So here I am. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and I’m leaving for Toronto tomorrow. I’m scared with what I will face but with all the knowledge I’ve gained Tim’s right. I will feel completely responsible would anything happen.
If you can fix it, why wouldn’t you? Knowledge is Power.
May 10 2007, 00:28:58 UTC 5 years ago