| |
Shorts | Service
Articles | Reported Features | Essays
Polls, Quizzes and Tips | Reviews | Profiles | Q&A | Roundups
Essays:
Freelance writer Heather Boerner writes essays, usually
humorous, on travel, romance and other topics for magazine,
print and web publications.
"Confessions of a Reformed Worry Wart”
Whole Life Times/Common Ground/GAIA.com, 04.09
As a child in suburban southern California, I used to lie in
bed with the covers pulled up to my chin, wide-eyed, listening intently
as fighter jets practiced nighttime maneuvers at the nearby Air Force base.
I’d done the calculations and was convinced: given our proximity
to a military target, my small town would be among the first blown off
the map when Russia attacked.
I still remember my body tensing with each swoop and tear overhead.
My attempts to coax myself to sleep were hopeless. I was an eight-year-old
insomniac.
Decades later, I have outgrown the sleepless nights, but I
remain suspicious that all of this — our cushy lives, our modern
amenities — could be snatched away in an instant. In quiet moments,
I tick off a list of the essential life skills I lack, I inventory the
ways I am dependent on so many others for my continued wellbeing. The daughter
of a woman with both a serious pioneer spirit and intense anxiety, I’m
always waiting for the bottom to fall out.
With the economy in tatters and our planet getting steamier
by the day, you’d think I might be one of those people squirreling
away bottled water and canned food, planning a Transition Town or preparing
for 2012, the end date of the Mayan calendar that predicts major societal
shifts. But I’m not. Here’s why.
Read the full article here.
Download a PDF of this article here.
 back
to top
|
|
