Skunk envy

Last night on my way home I rode through a potent cloud of skunk odor that lasted about a quarter mile, and found myself overwhelmed with compassion for the poor creature who'd released it into the world. It was either dead (hit by a car, most likely) or felt so threatened that it had lifted its stripey little tail and blasted someone. I know how it feels to be that anxious!

I myself was on my way to dinner, and hungry. So I imagined the skunk out and about, looking for its dinner – insects, larvae, frogs, mice, or maybe a nice little plate of cat food left out on someone's back step. Suddenly, an obstacle appears. It could have been a curious dog, or a man with a flashlight, or a kid in a pickup truck who thought it would be funny to run a hungry little skunk off the road. The skunk tries to back off, escape, get away ... and is unable to.

Somehow I don't find this moment half so poignant when it's my curious dog who's backed the skunk into a corner, and I spend the next six months smelling skunk again every time the dog gets wet. But last night for some reason, my heart kind of went out to the little guy.

I also spent some time imagining what it might be like to have Skunk Power myself – the ability to instantly make people want to get as far away from me as possible. I can see how that could come in pretty darn handy at certain times.

In other news, I'm dipping a toe back into town life tonight by attending a community meeting on health care. It's being held at the request of the Obama-Biden Transition team and is number three on the agenda – right after "revitalizing the economy" and "ending the war in Iraq," and ahead of "protecting America" and "renewing American global leadership." This last item I have mixed feelings about ... but I guess you've gotta give the capitalists something to chew on. Personally, I don't care so much about leadership – why do we always have to be ahead of everyone else? My needs are small, and as long as they're being met, I'd rather have the surplus go to increasing social justice and economic security for everyone on the planet. This is partly altruistic and partly pure self-interest on my part, because I believe (as I've said before) that as long as there are people with unmet needs, there's going to be more violence and conflict in the world, not less. All the way from shoplifting, burglaries and muggings to full-scale global war without end.

Anyway, health care is huge for me right now and I'd love to contribute to figuring out something that's going to work better than the for-profit system we have now. My confidence that my job will continue is not strong, and if the company goes under I won't even be able to get COBRA benefits – those are only for people who are laid off from companies that still exist.

Right now I'm paying about $300 a month out of pocket for insurance that doesn't cover ANYTHING unless there's some kind of catastrophic event that shoots my health care cost to over $6100 in a calendar year ($3600 + a $2500 deductible). Sometimes I wonder if it's even worth it to pay that $3600 a year – but just a few days in a hospital could easily cost more than $6100, and I guess that's why they call it "insurance." It's like a huge lottery where everybody pays and only a few people can win. And you only win if something really crappy happens to you. Nice system!

I've talked about all this before. Tonight, my goal is to find some friends to sit with, and meet some new people, and speak up about my own experiences with the health care system and hopefully learn from what other people have to say. That should be pretty easy to accomplish, eh?