A lot of weight.

Photo copyright Aji, 2021; all rights reserved.

I don't think I've ever seen the giant blue spruce so heavy with cones before. The top of tree looks entirely brown, simply because the mass of cones covers the green of the needles almost entirely.

That's a lot of weight, though.

It's a good metaphor for what everyone's carrying now. There is so much undone from this past year, so much that now can never be done, so many losses that can never be repaired or replaced. And while the vaccine gives the world cause for hope, the way colonial governments continue to botch its rollout even as they try to force people back into patently unsafe environments is stunningly inhumane. This country could afford to keep every person in it alive and well regardless of work. It simply won't.

For us, the work never ends, and I don't mean just the work of Wings's art or the work of keeping this place running, but also the work of keeping people alive and safe. Because that is EVERYBODY's work, whether they want to acknowledge it or not. And yes, it's hard, and yes, it's exhausting, and yes, it's often thankless, and yes, in this colonial culture it's always expensive. But distributing the weight is everyone's job.

And we have spent so much time on the third variety of the work that I have got to be able to devote time to first to replace it, and time is in short supply now. We've laid out between $1,100 and $1,200 cash in mutual aid in less than a week, and I have GOT to make it up somehow. My Patreon, which is all monthly our income these days, is wiped out and then some, I still have three monthly bills yet to pay, and one $65 sale in seven weeks is not going to cut it. Yes, I can juggle for now, but I've got to find it again somewhere. Part of my work involves me reorganizing the Web site and then promoting the hell out of everything again. That's on top of all the other work I need to do around here, and I have been mostly useless, largely due to the recent flurry of episodes with my health. For every episode, it takes me multiple days to recover, all while hoping that another one doesn't set me back even further. That's not good. Too many people need help, and the government remains determined to see us die. There's work to do.

Because things are bad locally. There is still no economy now. There's nothing. No vaccines for most folks dependent on the state system, either. And yet the governor has just canceled tourist quarantine (not that she ever enforced it in the first place) and reopened most of the state to limited-capacity indoor, sit-down, maskless dining for Valentine's Day, because she's completely in thrall to the restaurant lobby and is willing to let them kill us as a result. People are literally dying all around us from the government's failures, and I don't know how we keep them, or us, alive unless I can cover the bills. We have lost SO much to 2020, so very, very many people, and the gifts and the talents and the knowledge and the wisdom they carried too often lost with them. People have needed so much more help than we could give them, but we did as much as we could, even when it put us in a bind, and we will need to do much more of that this year. We have shelled out close to 2 grand over the last 2 weeks of January, including $600 two weeks ago to fill the propane tank, which I was not expecting; close to a grand last weekend for the firewood; and my Patreon remains $300 short again for the second month running. We had to help a family with heat on Sunday, and his clan brother today. I've got to make it up somewhere. So:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here (copper/metal/glass cleaners on it are needed most);
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And if you've been contemplating a purchase? This would be a very, very good time to do it; I've got to make it this staggering outlay somehow. There's even new work, here and here and now here, among other new pieces from last week, too, so please watch for them and share the links. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2021; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.