A CANDY COLORED CLOWN

There's a candy colored clown they call the Sandman.

Two dreams last night, and a lot of tossing and turning. That's what I get for watching the news right before bed. I hadn't in a couple of days, but thought I should. And I'm glad I did. But wow, things are really getting nuts.

So, first dream. A Stephen King type thing. I was a writer, in this small town. Everyone was sort of quirky. And something happened on everyone's computer that took them over. The mayor of the town was in on it. And a group of middle school Salem witch trial re-enacters. It was all leading to a show down with the big bad in a quarry outside of the town. Then I woke up. My dog Padfoot looked at me like he knew I had had a bad dream.

Second dream, another theatre dream. This time, I was directing a version of Hairspray at the Barn Theatre in Michigan. It was n outdoor production with a huge cast, and we were rehearsing the big number "You Can't Stop the Beat", right there on the road. The actual Barn Theatre is on this highway outside of Kalamazoo. It's where I got my Actor's Equity Card long ago. In the dream, the theatre was smack dab in the middle of a typical suburb. The cast was huge. As we ran the number, cars drove by. The kids were exuberant, and the number fantastic. I woke up again after that dream. Padfoot was looking over with approval. Lisa was asleep, and seemed to be having a dream as well.

Morpheus is mighty busy these days.

So, on the news, good old Rachel Maddow, who I like to watch more than any other news analyst because she's smart and compassionate and funny and truly seems to care and not be serving some dark corporate agenda, was filling us in with what is happening, how states are bidding against each other and the federal government for supplies, ventilators, and so on. This drives up the cost. Makes things sit in stockpiles as the bidding wars go on, which loses us precious time. It seems like the Federal system, under our current leadership, is unwilling or unable to take this thing by the reins and do its job. Why? It seems like this will lead to needless suffering and death. If things keep up like this, and people start to die in great numbers, will the system hold? Are we at that point from the beginning of the tv adaptation of The Stand, where a freaked out Ed Harris quotes Yeats?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

I think not. But sometimes, it feels like it. And that keeps me up at night.

What to do, besides get into yet another social media argument? Call you local elected officials. Call your reps. Call your senators. Call the White House. Social Distance. Be alive. Love unconditionally. Rise up, as Hamilton told us to do.

I once wrote a stage version of the Deathly Hallows for young people, and added a funeral for Dobby, with Luna giving a little speech- I know, not in the book. But here is what she said we need to do when things get tough:

LUNA

We go on, Harry. We have to. We could spend all our time
being sad, I suppose. We’ve all seen enough sad days to do that. But I think we need to try and make the sad days stop. To try and find happy times. Times full of love, and hope, and peace. Don’t you?

Ok. Sort of a long one today. Such is life. Here's a song.