Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

As spoken by Yul Brynner as King Mongut of Siam in The King and I, a role he played in film and extensively on Broadway. The Russian actor and dancer was born on this day in 1920. Died 1985.

I saw Brynner play the King on Broadway back in 1977. Yes, they were nosebleed seats. I didn’t care. It was Yul Brynner. It was Broadway.

I can’t recall the exact price, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t get out of single digits. Forgive me if that makes me a tad smug thinking about those who paid some $20,000 a ticket to see the last performance of Hamilton with the original cast.

Don’t get me wrong, I really want to see Hamilton. I’d just rather keep the house.

It’s Monday, and I don’t think I’m seeing any theatre this week. I did manage to see both Merchant of Venice (Quill Theatre) and The Boy from Oz (Richmond Triangle Players) last week.

See them both. Don’t argue.

It’s another Monday. Another new week.

All week long the interwebz were buzzing with the stories of last week’s shooting. Half of the people were calling for peace and love, and the other half was pointing fingers.

Sometimes that was the same half.

Facebook memes and pretty pictures and quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. are all nice and sometimes they’re comforting.

But if each of us isn’t willing to change individually, none of that will really help.

Think about that before you post the next meme, or copy the next story, or go off on the next tangent.

That’s about as brilliant as I can get this week.

All I’m saying is stop pointing fingers. Stop blaming others. Stop blaming the NRA, or Black Lives Matter, or Police, or Republicans, or the President.

We live in an evil word. Evil abounds. And most of the time we don’t have to look any further than our own hearts to find it.

Yes, I went there.

The best way to combat that is to take care of your own house and love those around you.

Go on, hug a police officer. Hug someone of a different color. Hug someone who’s voting for Hillary. Or Donald. Or Gary (they might have brownies).

And do us all a favor, don’t post it on Facebook.

Instead, get to know someone.

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