Feeling the Heat

I haven't posted for over two weeks (I'm feeling ambivalent about continuing this blog (Is it too trivial, a waste of time? Should I be doing something more serious?) and it's kind of pathetic to make my return to blogging a post about the weather.  But I just came back from running a short errand that took me outside for maybe 30 minutes tops.  I hadn't been outside since the early morning when it was hot but within acceptable parameters.  This afternoon it felt literally painful to be moving let alone breathing. 

I hate when commentators like right wing fundamentalists start blaming natural disasters on our supposed sinfulness.  But this heat spell really does feel like a punishment.  And it's so clearly one we've brought on ourselves by willfully ignoring the evidence of climate change and steadfastly refusing to do what is necessary and right to save our planet. . .if that is indeed possible.

My depressing, maybe even despairing, mood has only been intensified by reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  I was surprised to learn that it was written in 1951.  The grim and dystopian world it describes--on the brink of nuclear destruction, hostile to ideas and learning, devoid of joy and real emotion--feels way too close to the world we live in now.