SNAFU

I think if politicians took public transit where they live it would make a big difference in their understanding of what a housing crisis actually looks like. As a citizen who depends on it to get around I can attest to the fact other citizens are depending on it for housing. I bring this up because context matters and having to "sacrifice" a family vacation because the interest rate for the mortgage on your half million dollar plus property has increased is not a crisis. Nor is being unable to afford a mortgage at all.

And if you can afford to pay your rent you're doing just fine. Rent is higher than it should be for sure but it's only a crisis if you can't afford to pay it.

Looking for an apartment in Toronto was always a nightmare. In the 80s we were lined up competing with each other for anything decent. I once had a landlord ask, "How tall is your boyfriend?" When I answered, "About six feet", he shook his head.

"Too tall", he said, and closed the door.

The couples I knew buying homes were double income boomers born in the 50s not 60s. And they were doing it when mortgage rates were closing in on 20%. Certainly my boyfriend and I couldn't afford a home in Toronto in the 80s. Not downtown where we always rented and why live in Toronto if you're not living downtown?

Lots of rose-coloured glasses looking back these days. Not that I don't think it's self-defeating as a society, high rents and the stress of having to compete with each other for a decent apartment. If only politicians had to do it, although I guess they're making six figures now like so many middle-class people and can afford to buy.

Ferfuckssake people have so much money now we have to put adjectives like "uber" in front of rich when discussing our co-citizens we think should have to pay more taxes.

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Yesterday I shared public transit with someone I'm pretty sure has to live on it. I watched him get on the bus then mime searching for the fare in empty pockets while the driver looked on. I was about to get up and pay it for him - I even had the exact change (you can't use your Presto card to pay for someone else because once you pay for yourself it's on a timer until you have to pay again) - when I saw the driver give him the nod to sit down.

Nothing like a free ride on OC Transpo.

That's a joke for those of you who've never had the pleasure. Although I have to say, lightrail has worked well every time I've taken it. Sure you have to say a prayer and cross your toes every time it creaks around Derailment Corner, and there's the eye watering stink permeating through a couple of stations, but it's a dream compared to the bus.

Ottawans, so pampered.

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But I feel for politicians trying to sort it all out in the wake of the pandemic we're still in. Repeat after me: Everybody and Everything Everywhere is f*cked up. This is how it is. The new normal. So my advice to us all is to make the best of it by mustering patience.

I used to read a book to my kids, Betsy Goes to the Doctor, and there's a line in it: "Be patient, patient." So be patient, although try not to be a patient.

By the way and not to add to it all but I noticed the stress level of my doctor, who I was lucky enough to inherit when my real doctor retired mid-pandemic, and who I've seen twice, was significantly higher on the second visit. Ditto the surgeon who repaired my wrist. I'd put them both in their 40s.

But speaking of kids back there, my son sent me a book recently, "Unmasking Autism" by Devon Price. I can't recommend it enough. Aside from identifying very strongly with its chapter 4, it way upped my empathy quotient for all of us and really brought home the message to be kind because you never know what someone else is going through.

We really need that now, empathy. It's all too too too much. 

Anyway, I'm currently unemployed (there are supposedly jobs going begging but if that's the case then why was I laid off mine?) and so can afford to be patient and will try to set an example for my co-citizens with less time. Nobody is at their best right now. Nobody. We're all struggling in various ways. Our collective anxiety right now is through the roof, never mind our anxiety about the future.

By the way, the next apocalypse forecasting boomer who says "glad I'll be dead" re climate change gets unfriended.

Die now. More oxygen for my grandcat to breathe.

Oops, kindness and patience, this is going to be harder than I thought.

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