There are days that seem to conspire to make you remember how lucky you are.\u00c2\u00a0 Today I got a letter from my health insurance.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got Cobra and until this month the government had been subsidizing my payments. Today I found out that the subsidy has ended and my bill’s gone from $160 to $445.\u00c2\u00a0 I am trying to swing it as a freelance landscape architect\/artist\/writer and don’t have a steady income.<\/p>\n
When I got off the phone with the company I had my standard stressed out neck ache.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent the next few hours googling alternatives with no luck.\u00c2\u00a0 Health insurance is just expensive.<\/p>\n
I took a break from the computer to work on some Christmas projects and had just started silk screening when the door bell rang.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a man on the porch asking for work.\u00c2\u00a0 he had no front teeth and a scruffy look but he was willing to do anything- clean the gutters, rake leaves- to get a few bucks.\u00c2\u00a0 It is cold in Nashville tonight, near freezing.\u00c2\u00a0 He had on a light jacket.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve never had someone show up on my porch asking for work and my landlord pays someone to do all that work.\u00c2\u00a0 As I was telling him this my heart was breaking but I was in slightly panicked and on auto pilot.\u00c2\u00a0 No we don’t need help, no I’m sure about that.\u00c2\u00a0 He gave me a plaintive look as he asked one last time “Are you sure??\u00c2\u00a0 I am just trying to do this the honest way.”\u00c2\u00a0 Again I said no and turned to go back into my warm house where my fancy laptop was playing country music and my silk screen project awaited me.<\/p>\n
Immediately I was sorry I hadn’t come up with some small job for him.\u00c2\u00a0 Just a little raking so that I could pay him $5 and we could both have felt like we’d done something to help.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Instead I roamed around the house staring at all our stuff and feeling horrible.\u00c2\u00a0 We see poverty every day in the city.\u00c2\u00a0 Homeless people selling papers, bums on the street with a cup of change but it is profoundly different when someone is standing on your porch asking for help.\u00c2\u00a0 I am sorry that I didn’t think faster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are days that seem to conspire to make you remember how lucky you are.\u00c2\u00a0 Today I got a letter from my health insurance.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve got Cobra and until this month the government had been subsidizing my payments. Today I … Continue reading