Ice falling from the sky is, to me a near native Californian, confirmation that there is no God. That, my friends, is what we have today in the often aptly named Illadelph. If it isn't too vain to hope that someone sees this at all I pray you won't be disappointed by the broader consideration of the blog than the name might suggest. After moving here, Philadelphia for those not down with the hip-hop, about six years ago I have suffered any number of weather related indignities. I fall. Spectacularly. Charley Brownesque if you will. It wouldn't deserve mention and might even be seen as cute if I wasn't 41.
Philly is also a city of garbage. My God, there are enough dead tires here to make tree swings for every citizen of Kansas. Late fall exposes all the plastic bags stuck in trees and the early spring melts the snow to reveal all that we forgot was rotting underneath. The wealth gap is boggleing. It's amazing how little 400,000 will get you these days and that is just down the block from one of the rougher nieghborhoods in town. Not that I can come close to thinking that way. I think there is a chip in my brain that if I thought of a number that high with anything less than sarcasm my head would explode.
It's been a long road to get here, Cali, Georgia, Florida. Despite everything above I have to say I do love it. I mean, it more than gets on my nerves at times, but it's real. That's not to say that suffering is any more real than happiness, or (my favorite thing to hate about youth) that happiness is insipid, rather that beyond the bags the city is gorgeous and hopeful. It's a true city, not like L.A. and Orlando, so segmented that they avoid character rather than characterization. Or S.F., lovely as it is, that seems to get off on resting on it's laurels. Philly needs work and for all the people out there who throw shit out the windows of their leased Excursions there are bunches working to get it right. There's also amazing architecture that the younger and more shakey cities lack or have lost. Public gardens are stunning. It seems to have been something of a trend for every third rich family to have left behind a garden. I'm going to try to focus on that stuff if only to keep myself from getting bogged down by the rest of it.
Bikes, eco gear and clothes are going to be other considerations. For instance, the very pants I am wearing now are Tre responsible. I picked them up at REI and they are something like 60% organic cotton and 40% recycled milk bottles. Forty something bucks might have been a bit prohibitive (I teach part-time at a bunch of Community Colleges so my idea of prohibitive may be different) but with my dividend from the co-op and a coupon I think I paid $7. They're all cargoey goodness and one less milk bottle to find in a vacant lot in my neck of the woods. All hopes of avoiding asian slave-baby labor aside.
So, occasional posts on books, bikes, beer, and all things eco. Not in that order. Now simply thanking what stands in the place of that absent God that I don't have to go out in this horror.
