Entertainment as Survival Kit

[ SPOILER ALERT: This column contains major plot points from The Handmaid’s Tale.]

While the President of the United States addressed the nation about mass shootings this morning, I was on an exercise bike, sweat running down my back, pedaling furiously as I watched a YouTube video of The Three Tenors singing in Rome.

I don’t care what this President has to say in our time of need. He is useless as a comforter-in-chief. He will never have the Bush bullhorn or Obama Amazing Grace moment. We are long past looking to our emotionally bereft President for anything resembling solace or answers.

Instead, we need to look to each other and within ourselves.

Lately, maybe the last month or so, when I’ve gone within, as they say, you know what my inner voice says? Keep seeking out entertainment, art, activities that make you feel and reflect and, sometimes, escape. This is an integral part of your survival kit.

I’m not talking about a numbing effect here. Feeling is not numbing. Reflecting is not numbing. Escaping for short periods, well, maybe that’s a little numbing.

For weeks I’ve felt a strong pull to see Pavarotti, the documentary directed by Ron Howard. All I kept thinking was, I want to sit in a theater setting and let that voice reverberate around me. This is how I…