Monday March 9th.

 I’m a bit disappointed tonight. The seven o’clock news showed a story about a ‘fireball’ that lit up the sky last night, but I missed it. The meteor was a couple of meters long and eventually broke apart, landing just over the border in Germany. Luckily, no one was hurt. They showed some footage of a gutter that got hit, but the rest of the pieces landed in gardens and woods. Apparently, those small rocks can be worth a lot of money. At least it didn’t land on a pebble beach in Germany.

That was about the only ‘fun’ news. Everything else was about Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran, the possible fallout in the Middle East, the stock markets, oil prices, and, of course, the fact that people are dying.

Watching the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the U.S. is tough. I don’t like Iran because of its human rights record and support for local terrorist groups, if what we hear is true. But I’m also starting to really dislike Israel for its harsh treatment of Palestinians and any country in the Middle East that stands up to them. The U.S. seems to be losing its last bit of moral authority. Donald Trump appears unstable and is turning the country into a kind of global bully, threatening to bomb anywhere that doesn’t fit his vision. America is losing allies fast.

It’s hard to stay optimistic in times like these.

I’m a 72-year-old stand-up comedian who still does two or three shows a week, not really sure when to call it quits. I could retire, but I’m worried about the emptiness that might follow. I still love being on stage. Making people laugh helps me stay sane, and it’s a good escape from everything else.

Politics and the conflicts it can sometimes unleash are terrible. We live where the bombs don’t fall, our lives are not (yet) threatened and yet even here, people are tired. We all know that sometime in the near future, we will have to take a stand and pick sides, and then the arguments and the discussions among friends and relatives will lead to more tension and division. I’m trying to stay positive, but I’m losing the battle in my head.

Last Saturday, I was sitting in the green room backstage at a theatre with a group of other comedians. The discussion soon turned to Iran, Trump and Israel; the opinions were so divided (even between the muslim guys) that I could almost taste the latent irritation toward one another. I kept thinking, “This only needs a spark to get us literally fighting each other”.

But on the bright side, being a comedian has its perks. At least when we ‘bomb,’ we’re the only ones who ‘die.’