Caring for Each Other

Hello friends,

Yesterday morning, I noticed a car facing the wrong direction in front of our house. I commented that they must have slid there and gotten stuck. Sure enough, half an hour later, I heard the car struggling to free itself from the ice. I bundled up, zipped on my heavy boots, and went out to see what they needed. The undercarriage had frozen to the snowy street. I brought shovels. Soon enough, the person and their car were on their way, over the bumpy, frozen ruts, hopefully headed home.

We’ve had wave after wave of storms here in Portland, Oregon. There have been mass power outages, homes destroyed by falling trees, and several deaths. I know many places have been hard hit by ice and cold this month. And in other parts of the world? Well, people are dealing with far worse, still.

In the city where I live, our government seems to be in denial about the fact that we get at least one bad snow or ice storm each year and are woefully underprepared. This season we’ve unfortunately had high winds, snow, and ice storms. We’ve got almost zero infrastructure to take care of things, and a city government bent on punishing those forced to live on the streets.

As a consequence, I’ve been rallying friends to contribute toward hotel rooms so the anarchists and socialists out driving around, trying to locate people who are freezing outside, have a place to offer these people.

Why? Because in a world that is falling apart, we take care of us. It’s just that simple. Too many of us no longer have local networks of neighbors and friends. It’s time to work on rebuilding community with those around us. Yes, we can help each other online—and we need to—but sometimes we need to help the people right outside our doors.

How are things in your community? Are you finding ways to ask for and offer help?

Wishing you warmth, and safety, and a place to rest your head.

be well — Thorn

Thanks to many of you, my latest Kickstarter campaign has funded and reached two stretch reward goals! Haven’t seen it yet? Please check out Some Gathered Magic.