
Because of complications in my injured leg, I've been to the local hospital 10 times in the last week (and not always in a vehicle I was proud of, because I couldn't drive our little standard car with a broken ankle).
These visits have had me pondering green health care, "building health instead of hospitals" (a slogan I saw somewhere), how sick and injured people can't be expected to focus on the climate change emergency (this blog was about all I could manage all week), and whether it's all worth it. (A little existential angst to go with my life-threatening blood clots.)
So here's what I want to share with you. I'm almost out of my cast, and thought out loud today that it might be nice to get a pedicure when this whole fiasco is over with, as a treat and a sort of celebration. (And to help my left foot look normal again!) I've never had a pedicure or a manicure before.
I then told my husband that I probably wouldn't go through with it because I'd feel guilty about getting a pedicure when there are people in the world who don't have enough food and water. A pedicure seems obscene and decadent in that light.
Well, he pointed out, unless I then give the money that I would have spent on a pedicure to a charity that feeds the poor, it's an empty gesture. My guilt would be useless. And I would still have one foot that looks funny.
So, Oxfam, you'll be getting my cheque in the mail. And maybe my girlfriend and I can spend a fun afternoon soaking our feet in the lake and talking about how we're going to save the world. So ... yeah. I feel better now.