Toronto lies on the northern third of a blue planet in the tiny Goldilocks zone of habitable space, around the only star that we know supports life. Rah-rah-rah, Sun.
In winter, the North Pole leans away from the source of all life and energy, toward the blackness of deep space.
In Kensington Market last Saturday (December 21), we marched with candles in the rain, sang, beat drums, danced around a bonfire to ensure that the Earth will move on from this dark place.
We know that our old ritual didn’t actually move the Earth. But it’s important to recognize how much a point of light in the darkness really matters.
At the end of my festive Saturday, I crawled over the glaze of ice toward Yonge Street, where a cab appeared out of the sleet like a knight in shining armour. Yay, cabbies, with your 70-plus-hour work weeks. May you finally get the control over your business that you need.
Now, ice coats the branches, slicks streets, brings down wires. As I curl up with my honey, people are working in that, to restore power to the 300,000 people who lost it during the longest night of the year.
Yay, city workers, yay, hydro workers. Sure, they make more than I do. That’s okay. They keep us alive.
We who live near the poles shift in and out of that Goldilocks zone: It’s an annual disaster we’ve learned to plan for. Look out there. Nothing can live. The few hardy birds who stand by us live off the frozen leftovers of summer. Like us.
Oddly, those of us who exist by remotes, cars and cellphones think they deserve comfort more than the next person.
Not so.
Most of us are not all that useful. Capable or not, none of us can walk alone. Any human being who turns on a switch, uses a public street, flushes a toilet is living off human ingenuity and cooperation.
Without that daily grace, any of us could someday end up dying under ice.
We need to make decisions to ensure that all have warm housing, that the country’s food supply is protected, that all who care for people and infrastructure are well paid and secure.
Thank you, all you busy bees who care for the city. We need you every day.
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