Illegal Prometheus

Dear Diary,

Sorry, had to stop typing and shiver.

Actually, I spend a fair amount of time shivering these days.  I've mocked Seattle's winters, but last night I looked back at my notes, and we got into the 30s way back in October.  You don't need winter to shiver.

There are traditional remedies for shivering, and there are modern ones.  The modern ones mainly involve going inside, which we unsheltered homeless haven't been allowed to do much, here, for over ten months now.

The traditional ones mainly involve fire.

Fear of fire is deep seated in modern urban culture.  Consider the metaphor of yelling "Fire!" in a crowded place.  Like most cities, Seattle has a Great Fire in its past.

Sorry again - my latest shiver got my right hand tangled up in a coat's liner.

So part of the agreement by which we live in this country is that fires are regulated.  In Seattle, partly by government, partly by property owners; in other places, perhaps, mainly by property owners.

Fires release carbon into the atmosphere, making them even more urgent to regulate now.

No, actually, that pause wasn't for physical shivering.  Maybe my mind is slow tonight, shivering too.

Anyway, in writing "Water and Water" I read some history of early Seattle, and it got me thinking:  The settlers had fire.  The Indians had fire.  No matter whom you admire, they had fire.  Even the natives of Tierra del Fuego, once held up as models of human devolution because they didn't use clothes much - even they had so many fires that the island is named for them.

But we who live outside today?  We do not have fire.  We aren't allowed fire.

So are we heroes?

Search ' "illegal fires" Seattle' and the top results all relate either to homeless people - one of those love letters from KOMO accusing us of them even before the pandemic - or to parks - a flare-up of neighbourhood complaints about Alki Beach last summer - or both - yes, Cal Anderson Park again, and now I know why that specific objection to the encampment bothered me so.

I don't know of anywhere we homeless can go where we can lawfully warm ourselves as our forebears did.  Dogs in Seattle get off-leash areas, in other places may not be required leashes at all.  But fire law is everywhere.

My hikes for you are over, dear Diary.  I'll tell you about them in the coming days.  But one thing I saw all over North Seattle this past year is that sign that starts "In this house we believe" and one line is "No human being is illegal".

Maybe not, but one Titan is illegal here.  And I will keep shivering.