Umbrage and Unction

The virus is gone and summer's heating up. It's July 15, 2025.

Here in the Southland the Mediterranean heat comes like an old friend every post June gloom. Summer will swelter for a few months until October when fall will feel like a blessed relief. Why am I talking about the weather? Because the weather ain't what it used to be.

I could blame climate change, because that's the reason. Or, I could blame myself for taking an active part in the climate crisis. Which I have. Over the course of my life what was common has become anathema. Driving a car, watering the lawn, taking a bath. All very innocent. All very obtuse. In any case, it's getting hotter longer and I don't like it.

What am I going to do about it, you ask? Excellent question. The obvious answer is recycle, use less, conserve water, turn off the lights, stop combusting while you drive. All of which I do except the last. Today, for example. I had to head over to our house to open it for the fire remediation team at 9:00am. I had to close it up at 2:30pm. Two trips, two stomps in my carbon footprint. I'll have to do the same the rest of the week and it just kills me. (Maybe literally?)

As I pursue acting and writing and all things entertainment, I have little cash to spare. Would that I could get a non-polluting car, but I can't afford it right now. When I got my current 2009 Prius in very late 2008, it was the best option out there. Now I feel like a grungy old Schroeder spitting pollutants into the sky for the sake of my mobility. I know I'm not alone. There are plenty of you out there who would like to do more, get rid of your combustion engine, put solar panels on the roof, grow your own food, but just don't have the resources. It's a conundrum.

This is where faith comes in. Faith we will solve our problems. Faith the Earth won't shuffle us off its mortal coil. Faith that we can rely on each other. And, most of all, faith in God that he'll give a thumbs up to our prayers.

You and I aren't very different. We want what's best and we're not getting it. Problems seem too big to chew and what can one person do, anyway? I know I feel like that a lot lately. But, we can do something. We can be kind to each other. We can offer help to those in need. We can be human beings instead of ideologues bent on you first mutual destruction. And we can recycle, use less and conserve.

You know, I sat down to write about what's been happening in my career the last month or so and this blog sort of popped out. I guess I've been thinking about redemption almost as much as revenge. Sometimes I get so mad I at the current administration I could blow. Then I think about its antithesis and help someone eat. Because that's what we are at our very core. Compassionate human beings. Somehow the minority slithered into power and are now tearing everyone and everything apart. But that's not human nature. My virus may be gone, but this virus is still raging. We need to drink plenty of fluids, get some rest, and spit the cabal of corruption right out of our system. And we will.

As for the career, I had a little good news. A producer asked for a logline and synopsis of one of my scripts. Then asked for an extended synopsis. After I sent it he requested the script. Who knows, of course, but that's a good feeling that'll last a while.

Embrace hope. Resist when you must (50501 at www.fiftyfifty.one) and have faith.