For the long President’s Day weekend, we decided to get away to the ocean. While Seattle was getting snow, Ocean Shores was beset with freezing rain and our power went out Friday night. We learned to live without light, the ability to cook, and most impactful: without heat. And since the road home was full of ice and snow, driving home was not an option.
While I was wrapping myself in many layers of clothing and blankets (and thankful that we had a dry place to stay with four walls and plenty of clothing and blankets), I had plenty of time to think of how awful it was to be cold and have only limited and cold things to eat. But it also got me thinking about those who live outside or those who have no or unreliable sources of electricity or heat.
I only had to live cold and unplugged for about 30 hours, but in much of the world, life without access to electricity, heat, and food is common . Even in the United States, there are families struggling to keep a roof over their heads and some who have no roof at all.
As we continue to envision a better, more sustainable future, let’s make sure we also visualize a more equitable world, where everyone has enough to eat, access to medical care, and a home with electricity and heat.
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis tells us:
[St Francis] shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society, and interior peace.
How are you helping to take care of the poor and the marginalized? Are you trying to buy less use less to leave more for others and for future generations?
Working together, we can help take care of our common home.
Paul Litwin
Saint Francis of Assisi at St John the Evangelist 