"You seem to be sort of bankrupt --morally as well as financially." "Don't they usually go together?"

It's May Day. It's also the Sunday morning after a fine and frivolous Saturday night. She and I had seen a portion of the evening's goodly musical revue at the local, and stayed for perhaps just the right moment to decide to leave, being then slumped together in affection on a bench at the nexus of the club, the very middle between those who care that there are bands playing music to the east and those who do not to the west.

Today there are business dealings - Jake Gyllenhaal has something for me to sign so his social assistance agent can draw up the papers to have me paid a regular rent in direct deposit. Melissa has a roommate who has some money for me, which will help me greatly in the effort of retaining a hepafilter for the apartment or if such a thing cannot be retained, a man to kill and remove the cat that finds it so despicable that I should be allowed to breathe once in awhile.

I do a lot of complaining. But the fact is that I live fairly well. I try to be somewhat ascetic in my lifestyle; I don't throw money around irresponsibly. But I do throw it around responsibly, and that is more than a lot of working people in this province can do. I live a life perched right on the exit sign, it's true, but I'm still in the dancehall with the rest of the haves.

It's still kind of cold out at night, and I believe the last statistics for the City of Champions stated that there are a thousand of us who do not have a home to slump drunkenly home to. Alberta's minimum wage won't be rising till after the summer, so we still have a few months to subject the working poor to starvation wages. We have a great shortage of affordable housing in this city, and we have so much goddamned money to spend on it.

I don't mean to begin haranguing anyone, least of all myself. But this is May Day, and we should all do well to remember that we are part of a community, whether we want to be or not (I believe you have to fill out a stack of forms and go to other great lengths to secede from one, and if you have, you certainly are not capable of reading this). Let us all extinguish our old hearths, and come to the town square for a share of the new summer's fire.

And for god's sake, keep your television off today. If for only one day a year.