‘Schitt’s Creek’ is the balm we all need right now

Watching “Schitt’s Creek” sweep the Emmys recently, I realized the biggest appeal of this astonishingly heartfelt comedy isn’t just the brilliant writing and casting. “Schitt’s Creek” is a balm during these exhausting days when we are walking around looking like disgruntled pelicans, as the show’s Moira Rose might say.

Each day brings a new assault to decency and morality and democracy as we know it. A single week brought us 200,000 dead of the virus, new revelations that Trump knew exactly how deadly it would be in time to save thousands of lives, the death of the incomparable RBG while hypocritical Republican vultures circle overhead, and a hurricane season that had to resort to Greek letters for only the second time ever.

Is it any wonder so many of us have found a little peace and calm in the fictional town of Schitt’s Creek? Or that we’ve watched all six seasons again. And again. For many of us, the most affirming and inclusive place on earth right now is on Netflix.

We crave the unrelenting kindness of the quirky townspeople and, most especially, the riches- to- rags Rose family.

Emmys for best writing, best directing, best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best comedy ... Would this have happened in a year in which we weren’t experiencing a pandemic, a corrupt and sadistic liar in the White House and a climate that warns us daily, “I tried to tell you ...”?

Probably not.

The temperature is hot. Words are quick and angry. A fellow shopper in Costco saw my Biden T-shirt and said he should give me his MAGA hat before pronouncing Joe Biden a “demented old fool.”

I bought the $9.99 mums because they are huge and beautiful and they make me smile.

I was seated beside a woman recently who carped about having to wear a mask because “we all know the day after the election the virus will disappear.”

I’ve heard this a lot and it’s always from the Others. And what I want to ask, but don’t because I have learned the meaning of the word “cult,” is: Isn’t your guy in charge? Is he sitting on the cure? If so, why aren’t you mad about that?

In any bitterly contested election, one candidate will say something so outrageous, it would, in the words of Anne Lamott, make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.

Trump has said so many, I picture my risen Lord polishing off the airplane bottles in the minibar and looking longingly at the Nyquil.

Is it any wonder I can’t sleep until I’ve watched a couple of episodes of “Schitt’s Creek” in the dark on my Fire tablet? If you haven’t watched the show, now’s the time. It starts a little slow, but your patience will be rewarded by season three when you realize this is the way all of us should treat one another. Now go forth and ( inside joke) fold in the cheese!

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