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What would you do if you knew it was the end of the world? OK that's a dark way to start a blog post on a site about Joy. But, here me out.
In these days of heightened global anxiety, it's something that's crossed my mind occasionally. It seems like world leaders like to play 'chicken' with each other threatening annihilation if they don't get their way while the rest of us sit on the sidelines and engage in political discourse that wouldn't mean a thing if a couple of superpowers got in a Twitter war and ended up pushing a few buttons as they tried to prove to the other who is the 'bigger' man. Sure, in this country, we should vote them out, but there are times lately when I wonder if we'll even make it to those all important November 2020 elections.
For me, this is a topic that gets real every year around now during the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What would YOU do if you knew that the bombs were coming in 24 hours and there was no way to stop them? I know the military would have ways to divert them/shoot them down in that time, but let's just imagine - you know you have 24 hours to live - the bomb is coming for your town - how are you going to spend them?
For me, living in New York, I'm competing with a few million other people who would be trying to get out of town and I don't realistically think that I could get far enough away in those hours to 'get away from' the devastation - not with a few million other people trying to do the same thing.
I think that I might not try. I think that I might simply stay here and make my peace.
I would certainly get mad at leaders who screwed it all up (this is not directed at only one political party, by the way). I would lament the things that I, like we say in Church, have done and things that I have left undone. (And I would throw the biggest "let me speak to the manager!" fit EVER. :)
And then, once that was all finished? I would be sad. I would lament the waste and the missed opportunities we had to make a better world for ourselves and the generations to come. I would mourn how much beauty would be forever lost - souls, vegetation, culture, creatures, knowledge - and I would cry until I had no more tears left to shed.
And then I think that I would party. I would take my laptop up to the roof of my building and I would throw a dance party for whomever wanted to join us - and we'd drink and do whatever else we wanted to do.
I might try to skype with friends far away, I might try to see friends who live in other parts of town; I wouldn't want anyone I loved to spend their last moments alone.
Ultimately, I think, I'd want to spend the last few hours in peace in Central Park. I think there would be thousands of others there too. Those that would want their final moments to be in nature, surrounding by all that is green and good and full of life. We would certainly pray for a better world to replace the one that we, collectively, had messed up.
I would miss all of you and our rantings - talking about our failures and our successes- and our jokes and our stories, and I would hope that everyone faced the end in a brave, humane manner doing exactly what you feel it is right for you.
I would hang on for the last minute.. because, truly, a country that can send a nuke halfway around the world surely can have a way to divert at the last minute.... and wouldn't you want to be here for THAT moment? (I think I may have just created an HBO show... 'what happens the day after the bombs don't fall? What is the world like THEN?" I expect a 10% cut thankyouverymuch).
But, right here and now (and here's where, I think, the Joy part comes in), I hope that we can find a way out of our present circumstances; that we can retain the hope that most of us cling to for a better world and a better society; that we can see that we still have time to right the wrongs, fix the problems we face, and see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is such beauty in the world, there are so many things to be proud of; so much happiness to be had. So many wonderful things here for us to live for.
I know. This last bit sounds very Pollyanna-ish, but I can still find hope and that's given some things that I've been through in my life. And, if I can do it, so can you. I have to hold on to that.
As Kate McKinnon as Hillary said on SNL "I'm not giving up and neither should you". Those are pretty great words to live by -- as are the below. Peace.
You know how it is when you have a little time - maybe you've been moving at a million miles per hour for weeks and your brain just needs a bit of a rest. Or maybe you have time to kill between things and it's not really enough time to pick up a book. If you are like me, you start to surf Google. Sometimes Google takes me in weird and wonderful directions, and this happened just a few days ago.
I had just seen Jean Smart on an episode of FRASIER so I thought I'd look at what she's been up to.
That led me to the Wiki about DESIGNING WOMEN, and, specifically, the infamous fight that Suzanne's portrayer Delta Burke had with the producers which got her canned from the show.
A couple years later, they all made up and spun her off into her own show, WOMEN OF THE HOUSE. I forgot that the show even existed (although not too many people knew it existed at the time which is why it got cancelled after one season).
But I was looking through the cast list and noticed actor Charles Frank. He had portrayed Dr. Jeff Martin on ALL MY CHILDREN. I watched from an early age with my mom, my sister, and our housekeeper Mrs. K. My mom's mom Thelma stopped watching the show after the character of "Little Charlie" mouthed off to his parents. Thelma was born in 1904 and did NOT suffer mouthy children! But I digress.
Anyway, I loved ALL MY CHILDREN and that led me to the character bio of Phoebe Wallingford, as portrayed by the actress Ruth Warrick. Such an amazing character actress who played this arch matriarch with such precision as to be supremely horrible and utterly loveable at the same time. Ah, those were really great days of classic soap. :)
Did you know that Ruth Warrick played opposite Orson Welles in CITIZEN KANE? I did but was reminded of it in my Google-quest (and yes, I find it funny that one of her Phoebe signature lines was "that KANE woman!").
So, it appears that the line from Jean Smart to CITIZEN KANE is fairly easy to trace. As it should be, Jean Smart is awesome (except I didn't care for her character on FRASIER, but that's a topic for another day).
As a side note, I once knew a drag queen here in New York that could (and would, unasked) recite the entire "and THAT'S the night the lights went out in GEOR JAH!" speech from DESIGNING WOMEN's first episode. Verbatim. So that's something to note.
Happy Tuesday!
Other blog posts you may have missed:
Johns and Marys 5: Boys Don't Kiss Other Boys
Good morning and happy Monday.
While we collectively try to figure out a solution to yesterday's brain teaser, thought it might help (in my own small way) to offer this up:
It's never too late to say "thank you" for anything. There is no expiration date on well wishing and appreciation.
Thank people for help, for gifts, for their time. Even if it's six months. 2 years. 10 years later. It matters. To them. And to you.
That's it. Nothing really headier to it than that.
It's been a difficult weekend for many of us that wonder how in the world can we continue to be OK with mass shootings.
Seems half the country is understandably upset and the other half doesn't seem to care at all. I don't think that's sustainable, do you?
I certainly understand the feeling of being "topped off" by bad news and the need to smile with clenched teeth hoping that people will stop being impolite to bring up such issues in polite company... this comes, primarily, I think, from the feeling of helplessness to change things.
But....
Ignoring the problem isn't working.
Getting mad about the problem isn't working.
Posting on social media isn't working.
Electing people to change things isn't working.
Think pieces aren't working.
Hectoring brown people isn't working.
Selling automatic rifles isn't working.
Telling people in red hats that they're stupid isn't working.
I really DO care... don't you? But what do we DO about it?
Good morning!
When movies are approaching $17 in Manhattan, one does everything that one has to do to enjoy the current flicks without going into debt. So it is that recently I've begun to spend Saturday mornings at the movies. First couple showings (before noon) of the day are usually much less and, sometimes, sparsely attended. I once saw a morning 'matinee' in a theater with only one other person. It was heaven.
Yesterday, I caught THE FAREWELL, an indie movie about a Chinese family lying to the matriarch about a cancer illness. It seems implausible, but the flick is actually based on a true story. Anyway, it was spectacularly good in a way that indie movies are usually best at - theater-style writing (by Lulu Wang) and understated acting. Unlike a few other things I've seen recently, the story doesn't treat millennials like entitled brats and baby boomers aren't treated as shrill idiots. That in an of itself is refreshing.
The flick stars rapper turned actress Awkwafina, who I've now seen in three films (CRAZY RICH ASIANS, OCEANS 8) and think is not only hilarious but has a great future as a lead in comedies - she's got great comic timing but can also pull off a dramatic role.
On top of a moving story, there's a killer soundtrack (composed by Alex Weston) that I purchased from Itunes the minute I got home, highlighted by a version of Air Supply's "Can't Live Without You" that is just exquisite and a jazz version of Pathetique that gave me chills.
Let me pause here and say a few words about Itunes, for all of it's downsides (and we all know them), it's not like it would have been 30 years ago where I would have rushed from the theater to the music store (remember those?) and tried to hunt for the cassette (if it even would exist for an indie movie).
But let me tell you, if you want to feel old, check out the artists in the New Release section. I know a couple of the names but 90% of these people, who are they? I'm such a dad (without actually having kids). Back in my day (said in the crotchety old man voice) I'd turn on the radio and always hear the latest releases. Now I turn on the radio and all I hear is talk with a song thrown in there now and then. If someone more agile on these things than I am is reading and can recommend places where to just turn on random music while I'm working, please let me know. I tried that with You Tube, but once you start down a path of someone you know, it just offers everyone else that you already know. That music is awesome but I don't want to be stuck in 1995, 1985, 1975, etc.
Anyway, with regards to THE FAREWELL, it's so good that I may go again. And pay full price. Now you know how good I think it is. :)