The Golden Globes.  Of course, the Sunday night live broadcast on NBC is hard to walk away from.  At the end of the day with the best of my attention, effort, and quotient of energy already spent — why not be mildly entertained by the first of the entertainment industry award season shows?

I was not disappointed as the female presenters and award recipients are variously attired from the outrageously sculpted “floating” gowns of many layered fabrics, to the austerely simple cocktail dress.  Was not that alone worth putting up with the cutting-edge advertising material that periodically interrupted the program?  The big pharma ads mentioned a laundry list of possible lethal side-effects.  Why would I risk such horrific secondary illnesses unless I was at deaths door anyway?  My wife wondered out loud, ‘…and what is the cost of that medication?’  Common sense told me the drug cost enough to cover the expense of these deceptive sounding, flashy ads.

Some stirring statements were made of a political nature.  Though politics did not directly come to the surface as much as I expected.  It is clear to everyone by now that the President and his party do not care, and are not influenced in the least by anything that is said by those who oppose his policies.  I felt a mood of restraint, likely of cynical resignation. 

At the very end of the show, on the cusp of the change over to the ten o’clock news, Joaquin Phoenix came on stage, receiving the best actor award for his role in The Joker.  Phoenix acceptance speech , was delivered with more than the usual spasms of hesitation, — I wondered if he was somewhat intoxicated, or just overcome with emotion.  Several phrases were bleeped out by the network censors.  Here is what he had to say:

“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to rock the boat. But the boat is fucking rocked,”  “It’s really nice that so many people have sent their well wishes to Australia but we have to do more than that,” Phoenix emphasized.

“Hopefully, we can be unified and actually make some changes. It’s great to vote, but sometimes we have to take that responsibility on ourselves and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives. We don’t have to take private jets to Palm Springs for the awards,” the actor said.

I saw angst, fear, and anger in Phoenix’ facial expression as he spoke.  He was right. I needed to hear what he had to say. 

“We can actually make some changes…  We have to take responsibility, and make changes and sacrifices in our own lives.”  I thought how radical this will necessarily be. 

Yesterday I searched for a baseboard heater, a plug in device that I desired for our reading nook.  The offerings at Lowe’s and Home Depot were not exactly what I had in mind.  So, I went to Amazon.  I found a product that exactly corresponded to my application.  What happens to the carbon load of the atmosphere when an Amazon delivery truck conveys a baseboard heater, a pair of sneakers, a book, two lexan mounts for a display sword, etc. a separate trip to my front door for each product?  Multiply that by millions of deliveries around the world.

Australia continues to burn.