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Winter Drama

 If I were to write a TV series, my model would be "Melrose Place," and my title would be "Back Road."


I share a Back Road with approximately forty families; the dramas do not concern adultery, murder, evil secret twins.....but the dramas exist, and they evoke thoughts for me....and one thought I have is: "seething cauldron of resentment."

In Maplewood, it's illegal to leave your sidewalk unshoveled, after snow, but if you complain in a public way about neighbors who have shirked their duty, you get a self-righteous reply: "Not everyone is physically capable of shoveling snow. Before you judge, you might just want to offer thanks for your own health, and to recall that nothing is a given, in this world...."

All this happens like clockwork, but recently an unanticipated Third Act unfolded, on Facebook: "To the neighbors who scold me for judging lazy-snow-hoarders: I have photos of residents who took time to shovel their own driveways, but then IGNORED THEIR SIDEWALKS. Do you want to talk about HEALTH right now? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT?"

The unofficial "mayor" of the Back Road has certain political skills, but he drew fire, a few weeks ago, when he neglected to hire a "salting" company. His enemy--my neighbor, aggrieved over a real-estate dispute from 1998--quickly wrote to all forty families: "It's a shame that, after the snowfall, salting didn't occur....and now my life is in my own hands, every time I want to drive down our perilous little hill...."

The mayor quickly replied: "SALTING IS INEFFECTIVE BELOW 25 DEGREES." And this sentence seemed to recur, and recur, as if it would gain "oomph" through repetition. But--truthful or not--it was an impotent sentence. You may be innocent of murder--but once the accusation has surfaced, you will always, always bear that particular Mark of Cain.....

As the planet warms, and resources become scarce....I shudder to imagine what might transpire.....here, among my neighbors....
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