In Need of a Restorative

Well, that was brutal.
I got off the bus in Duluth 40 minutes before the first showing of The Public, Emilio Estevez's movie about homeless people taking over a public library as a place to keep from freezing one winter night.

"You know this is going to be upsetting", I said to myself. "Do you really want to go?"

I did, so I went, and I'm glad. I just left the theater.

In many big and glaring ways, The Public is not a good film.
Among other problems, his female characters make me wonder if Emilio has a bone to pick with women--did they let him down or something?
But it is an excellent snapshot of the current seemingly no-win situation between the enormous bare-naked need of people with nothing, and the lack of ...comprehension? will? compassion? on the part of the powers that be.

I feel flattened on the one hand, and yet lifted up on the other--the way you do when your point of view is validated.
This movie is what I see every day––at the thrift store, but also just walking around the city.
I am stepping over people lying on the ground, and I am having fantastic snippets of conversation with the same people (when they are able to stand up).

How has it come to this???

Of course human misery is hardly  a new thing in history.
Still... 

Anyway, the movie theater Zinema, where I saw the movie, is part of a nonprofit arts complex that includes a restaurant/bar, Zeitgeist.
I am there now, taking Mr Linen's advice and drinking hard liquor.
Hard, but boutique---seems fitting:
a Cedar Negroni, made with cedar vodka from local Vikre Distillery (+ Aperol, sweet vermotuh, and orange bitters).
It is, indeed, restorative. (Also, delicious.)

The Superior Team are too young––you can see Little Brother is concerned SweePo might inhale too many fumes--but they approve of the color.

Next stop--the Salvation Army thrift store, then checking into the motel. If I am not too wobbly, I will take one of their bikes for a ride. 
Maybe, though, a walk along the river would be better...