If Nothing Matters

Then everything does

I’ve become almost anxious trying to avoid plastic, even in toothbrushes, which reminds me of an episode of one of my old beloved go-to shows. Angel is about a vampire with a soul, battling evil on the dark streets of LA.

Angel had just infiltrated the Main Office of Wolfram and Hart, the central hub of all the evil in the world.

After an epic Joss Whedon-style battle, Angel finally makes it into the elevator that’s supposed to take him to the heart of darkness, the so-called Home Office. He braces for hellfire, demons, the ultimate Big Bad. But when the elevator doors open… he’s right back where he started. On the same ordinary Los Angeles street. A mom yelling at her kid. A man brushing past someone without so much as an apology. Petty cruelties. Indifference. Everyday evil.

That’s the punchline.

The real horror isn’t some underworld lair (or evil corporation), it’s us. The system is powered by regular people, making everyday choices that, when stacked together, shape the world.

This is also the episode where Angel saves Detective Kate Lockley from suicide, having her own brush with “none of this matters.”

When Kate asks Angel what stopped him from giving up, from letting the darkness win, he says:

“If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

Boom.

And that’s why I’m still out here figuring out how to shave my legs without using plastic.

With love from wherever I am,
Lauren