LOVING AND GIVING AND FULL OF WOE

So it's my birthday. What a strange time to have one of those. Not that they don't always seem a bit odd. But having one now, during a global pandemic with an approaching financial crisis that will most likely be worse than anything any of us have ever seen, seems a bit ostentatious. But there it is. So Happy B-Day to me and Willie Mays and Sigmund Freud and Sejong the Great and Robespierre and Valentino and  George Clooney and Orson Welles and Kaiser Wilhelm. And let's not forget that one this day the Hindenburg went down, Alfred the Great turned around in a swamp and decided to kick the Vikings out of England once and for all, and according to the calendar that hung in my kitchen when I was a kid, the ice machine was patented. And who knows what else. I'm a Taurus, with a Scorpio rising. I'm a Fire Horse. I'm Friday's Child, loving and giving or full of woe depending on which version you go with, as well as an episode of Star Trek. So yay me and May 6 and all the strange, glorious, terrible things that go with it. Now I get cake and presents, the Birthday Song sung to me, perhaps spanked, and I get to make a wish.

What to wish for in these times? Well, an end to all the death and suffering would be a good start. And a cleaner world. I do love having the skies being so very clear each day, and reading about all the animals making a comeback in this brief respite from man's bad habits. So I also wish for us all to notice how miraculous this little planet is and to resolve to treat it better, with dignity and love and intelligence. In fact, I wish for more dignity, love, and intelligence in everything we do. No more economic disparity. No more "privatization" of things like health care and prisons and national resources. More National Parks and preserves. More space exploration please. More money for schools, less tax breaks for gigantic corporations. Another season of Undone on Amazon would be nice. A World Series between the SF Giants and the NY Yankees is a must. And if I may go back to schools for a moment, more funding for arts education in our public schools. All the arts. Music, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture. All of it. And please, pretty please, get the entire current GOP out. They can all retire, and lives their lives on a little ranch somewhere. But enough is enough. And no more toilet paper in the time of the virus jokes. Please. There too, enough is enough.

As for me personally, what do I wish for? Well, a little more economic stability wouldn't hurt. I'd like  to finish the current screenplay I'm working on and have it actually produced. I'd like Lisa and I to take a long trip when this is over, a road trip all around the country. We'd first head west, visit my family in California, go to Disneyland for a month, then take another month to amble across the continent, ending up in NYC for another month to visit Ryan and Lauren, all my old friends, and take in a ton of shows on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in the Indie Theatre world. I'd like to live in a world where we could all take a trip like that. I think, if all things were equal, we could. Easily. But too much wealth is concentrated among far too few people. But I digress. I'd like to put on stage the productions of Annie, Sweeney Todd, and School of Rock that were in rehearsal when the virus struck. I'd like to go to Machu Picchu, too. I And I'd like my dog to live forever please.

So, that's my blog today. All about me. But it's my birthday, and that's what I chose to write about, because I am loving and giving and full of woe and I don't really plan m blog, I just get up each day, sit down at my computer, and write whatever comes to mind. Thank you, cosmos, for allowing me to exist. Thanks, universe, for forests and seas and animals and flowers. Thanks, Gods of Love, for leading me to the Magician on the corner of Rivington and Essex on that August night to meet my love. Thanks, world. Even now, with all that's going on, I love you.

Here's a song. It's Happy Birthday to Me, by Cracker.