I’m in Alexandria, Va.  October has arrived, and the weather is suddenly a little sharper, as if in warning.   I’ve been here in the US for a couple of weeks, long enough to get my bearings.   

While I was in Germany, getting around via train, bus, streetcar and feet, my car waited patiently for me, in my stepmother’s garage in Alexandria.  When I arrived, I admired its glossy finish, its tight-fitting metal parts, and its aura of controlled power.  I got in, and my hands and feet naturally arranged themselves where they were supposed to go.  After all, I’ve been driving since I was a teenager.  Out on the highway, I realized it was all about me and the car.  It was the car that took me to the people I loved, and that allowed me to accomplish the things I wanted to accomplish.  

It took me to the people I loved, but the process of getting there was all about staying away from other people.  The essential thing about driving is to avoid other cars.  Getting too close is dangerous.  It’s better if there aren’t any other cars around, but if there are, you count on a careful, practiced formality.  

It’s what we do that makes us the people we are.  When we do it every day, we don’t notice it any more.  One good thing about my life is that I’m never entirely at home in any particular place.  I’m from the States, but I don’t live here, so I look at it with fresh eyes whenever I arrive.   

It’s what we do that makes us the people we are.  We move through common areas without hearing, seeing or touching other human beings.  When I’m in my car, I am out in the world,  but isolated from the people in it.  I have my music, so I’m communing with Aretha Franklin or Nina Simone.  I have my GPS system, Francine, who keeps me from driving around aimlessly.  But these connections are imaginary.  Aretha isn’t really singing to me, and Francine isn’t even human.   

Now in the United States, we are having a national debate about the role of government in health care.  And, much as I would like to see everybody get the health care they need, I can understand why people in the US are suspicious.  This is a country where people have learned to rely on themselves.  When it’s just you, going seventy miles an hour in a small death-defying metal box, you learn to trust only yourself, and to be wary of other people.  Who’s going to take care of you?  Nobody.  Why should you expect them to?  

Of course, there are people who drive in Europe, and people who take the train in the US.  But the US is a driving (driven) country, and in much of the rest of the world, public transportation is the norm.  In Europe, people assume that the government will provide certain basic life-needs, including public transportation and, yes, health care.  This is the role of government.  It’s about taking care of the people.  

But the US has a love/hate relationship with the very concept of government.  The current crop of Teabaggers has a great time rebelling against the government;  it’s so much more satisfying than the actual work of democracy.   It’s strange that when the government uses the people’s money to invade other countries and to maintain standing armies there, it’s not an infringement of their rights.  But when the government tries to establish a system of health care, suddenly it’s all about taxes going up.   

I noticed that the Teabaggers who came to DC for September 12 protest march were complaining because there weren’t enough Metro trains for them to get around.  Who do they think provides the Metro?    

The Teabaggers are a nostalgic phenomenon, so it’s no wonder they became more visible under a retrograde Mercury.  But as September ends, Mercury goes direct again, and so we really don’t have time to rehash the Revolutionary war.  So now can we get serious about health care?  The last new moon was conjunct Saturn in Virgo, giving it a more serious tint, but also tending to restrictions, delays and obstacles.  We’ve certainly seen that.   

The full moon of October 4 clarifies what’s in front of us.  In Aries/Libra, it’s about finding the right balance between self and other, between the needs of the one and the needs of the many.   The Libra sun refers to principles, ideals, peace, and social responsibility.  The Aries moon is feisty, challenging, and independent.  So this is not a tranquil full moon, but it can help us reframe this discussion.   

As the month goes on, the Libra emphasis becomes ever stronger, and so balanced, careful social reorganization becomes more acceptable all the time.  Mercury enters Libra on October 9, and Venus enters it on October 14.   By the time the moon joins the sun in Libra, at the new moon of October 18, the world is more progressive and cooperative, and this informs the next lunar cycle.  Social responsibility will suddenly become trendy, and I think health care reform will actually, finally, happen.  Libra is about compromise, so it won’t be exactly what any of us want.  But it will happen.   

And then Saturn enters Libra, giving even more social awareness.   We are what we do, and we’ll all be doing more things that remind us of our interconnections.   We are ready to look around at each other, and see the ways that we all fit together.   We are ready to share the road.  

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