heattt

When we left Nashville last month, it was 98 de­grees F and al­most 50% humidity.

Even for the three years I lived in Hawaii, even when I’ve been sur­round­ed by met­al and con­crete in Los An­ge­les, even stand­ing in the di­rect sun amongst the arid foothills of the Sier­ra Nevadas dur­ing a drought, I have nev­er been so hot in my life. There was a wa­ter­fall of sweat down my spine. My clothes stuck to me af­ter be­ing out­side for ten min­utes. I slathered on sun­screen con­stant­ly. All I want­ed was cold wa­ter, a cold show­er, and cold air conditioning.

And I was able to have as much cold wa­ter as I want­ed. Every­where had air con­di­tion­ing, all I had to do was step in­side. I could take as many cold show­ers as I want­ed. I got to get a good night’s rest every night in a soft bed and a tem­per­a­ture con­trolled room, away from bit­ing bugs.

I’ve been think­ing about what it must have been like 160 years ago, when there was no air con­di­tion­ing. And there was no sunscreen.

What would have hap­pened to me if I couldn’t go in­side? If I couldn’t have a big glass of ice wa­ter or get in a cool bath? And, if I also had to work hard la­bor, every day, sev­en days a week, six­teen hours a day, in the di­rect sun and in­tense hu­mid­i­ty? With­out prop­er nu­tri­tion or med­ical at­ten­tion? And sleep in a cramped, dirty space with poor air­flow that did not cool down to give me any respite from the re­lent­less heat?

I’ve been think­ing about this a lot. I don’t think I’m go­ing to stop think­ing about it any time soon.
 
 

—emi­ly duchaine

Flom­mist Emi­ly Duchaine lives in the Pa­cif­ic North­west. She likes to drink mead, learn about sharks, and lis­ten to the Talk­ing Heads. She pre­tends to be a pro­fes­sion­al busi­ness­woman most days. Copy­right © 2019 Emi­ly Duchaine.

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