Why is the Cat Wet?

So, on a fateful morning last week, the cats were being weird even before we got out of bed. They’re cats and sometimes they get that way for completely unexplained reasons, so we just sighed, got up, and started breakfast. Then Rusalka came racing up from the basement and I stooped down to give her a pet. And her entire belly and her paws were wet.

Oh. No.

Our basement was full of water and a few hours and a plumber later we determined the cause was a cracked water softener and a drain that had completely failed (though we didn’t know about the drain until we tried to do some laundry and experienced a second flood). It’s been a long week of roaring fans, a remediation team trying to dry everything out, and dealing with insurance. The good news is that we’re mostly facing a very expensive plumbing bill with the insurance covering the damage to the house, which is the much more expensive part. The bad news is that our basement is a disaster and will remain so for at least a few weeks. It’s times like these that I cling very hard to the routines that I can still carry out — books and writing about books being important ones.

A Rare Thing

Every once in a while, a book or a film or a play comes along and it really touches you in a way that you keep feeling the reverberations of as you go forwards from it. For me, Inherit the Wind was one of those works. It is a fictionalization of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” trial that pitted a teacher trying to teach his classes about evolution against a backward state law. Inherit the Wind is a three-act play in which a lawyer named Henry Drummond defends Bert Cates, a teacher that taught Darwin to his students and now is facing jail time if prosecuting attorney Matthew Harrison Brady and the entire town have anything to say about it.

Lawrence and Lee make a powerful statement about what it means to stand up for what is right in the face of an overpowering multitude fixed on carrying on in the wrong. It is also about truth and the resilience of human ideas and humanity in general.

The Play

Make no mistake, this is definitely a fictionalization of the Scopes trial, not an exact factual accounting of events. Lawrence and Lee use a basic idea of what happened to build on various themes — including what the title quote is all about: fracturing families and creating discord by trying to exert complete control over the minds of others. Those that seek to control the thoughts of other people, deny them the right to disagree, and distort or control the truth and who knows it, will inherit nothing but emptiness as the world leaves them behind.

The play has some great lines and moving monologues that will stay with you long after you close the book. It may be a bit pathetic but Drummond’s monologue about Golden Dancer still makes me cry. The disappointment and heartache of a child finding out that the world isn’t what it appears to be is captured perfectly. And that final exchange in the courtroom is the best piece of drama I’ve ever seen or read. It’s so perfect and timeless.

The Film

You cannot discuss the play without discussing the unforgettable and classic film released in 1960 and starring Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond and Fredric March as Matthew Harrison Brady, directed by Stanley Kramer. It’s one of Tracy’s best performances in a career of very good performances, and Fredric March does a fantastic job bringing the Brady role to life and giving him humanity to go along with his political ambitions. Gene Kelly as the jaded, sarcastic journalist EK Hornbeck is the perfect cherry on top of the film sundae. So many talented people made this film and put their hearts and souls into it — that’s what makes it so powerful.

If you haven’t seen it, put it on your watch list immediately!

At Least the Fans are Gone

For the last seven days, we have been at the mercy of the noise level created by a truckload of industrial fans and three huge dehumidifiers, but yesterday our basement was finally declared dry and they were all carried out. Now the silence is a bit deafening, but I can finally think again and get to my thoughts without going through a humming, vibrating barrier of constant sound. The cats are much happier too!