STAR TREK OR ROAD WARRIOR

Riding home from work last night was scary. Not because of the traffic on 36. Not because it was so warm in early March and seems to be yet another sign that Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever you want to call it is racing towards up at the speed of light. Certainly not because I'm worried about Inflation, which seems to me to just be the greedy raising prices because they can and to keep the downtrodden downtrodden.

No. 

I was frightened because I was listening to reports about the biggest Nuclear Power Plant in Europe being set on fire after getting shelled by whatever you want to call the Russian Army.

That's some scary shit.

Some China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl meets Strangelove kind of scary shit.  

I think most of us like to think that the threat of nuclear annihilation is over, that the possible end of the world due to our own stupidity went down with the Berlin Wall and now we are headed to the future promised to us all in Star Trek.

But we ain't there yet.

First off, we still have all these missiles. And by we I mean: USA, Russia, Chine, the UK, France, and Chine.

Oh, also North Korea, Israel, India, and Pakistan.

Maybe more.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait. I know. You could have a total asshole who seems kind of crazy be in charge of at least one of those countries.

It really feels like we are at this moment of do or die. Either we get our collective shit together and start living that Utopian Star Trek existence, or we go down the path of Mad Max and the Road Warriors of Doom.

I remember having a conversation about this long ago, right after 9/11, on a balcony with an old friend, in Mid-Town Manhattan. 

Star Trek or Road Warrior.

Life or Death.

I happen to think we need to aim for Star Trek. Seems like that would be a. more enjoyable future to live in. Transporters. Space Exploration. The Holodeck.

Bring it on.

I know it's hard to do. I watch the news and I think, let's just go into Ukraine and fuck shit up and wipe out the Russian Army and then march on to Moscow and kick Putin's ass. Right in the middle of Red Square.

If it weren't for the threat of all out nuclear war and mutually assured destruction, this would be choice number one, violent as it may be.

But that threat is real.

And now, Putin the Fuckface shells a huge nuclear power plant. 

So what to do? 

I have no idea. But I think whatever course we take, right now and in the the future, has to involve changing our whole idea of how the world works, how finance happens, what worth there is to having rich and poor, haves and have nots, and all that.

Like what Jesus tried to talk about before the powers that be said "Fuck that guy" and nailed him to a tree.

I wonder if this is what happened to Atlantis.

We need to stop this. We need to start loving more. Listening more. Giving more. Striving more.

We need so much more, spiritually.

So I write blogs and screenplays and teach theatre and produced shows. 

Hopefully it makes people have a little more hope, a little more compassion, a little more determination to make the world less likely to blow up.

Here's a song. It's Untitled by REM, but I usually call it This World Is Big.

PS: I am co-producing a new play, and we are doing and Indiegogo camapign. If you can, please donate. If not, please share the link:

 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/higher-ground-presents-puerto-rican-nocturne/x/3385268?utm_campaign=contribution_receipt&utm_content=receipt-campaign_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=lifecycle#/

PPS: Please take a moment to breathe. Right Now.