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(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the 1969 edition)

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As I read Roger Zelazny’s post-apocalyptical adventure Damnation Alley (1969), the relentless throbbing of Hawkwind’s 1977 song inspired by the novel along with cringeworthy lines of dialogue from the 1977 film version kept interjecting themselves into my reading experience.

First, a snippet from the song….

I’ve got the serum and I’m going to take it
All the way to Boston, oh I’ve got to get through
The going won’t be easy, but I’m going to make it
It’s the only thing that I’m cut out to do
Ride the post-atomic radioactive trash
The sky’s on fire from the nuclear flash
Driving through the burning hoop of doom,
In an eight wheeled anti-radiation tomb
Thank you Dr. Strangelove for going doolally,
and leaving me the heritage of Damnation Alley […].

Absent from Hawkwind’s interpretation that

whatever god’s yours
i ask that your prayer is
god save the people

Do you know those events that reaffirm your hope and trust in people? Those times where you think you should give up and move on, but something or someone inspires you to keep going? Those people who shake up your perspective and urge you to move forward?

I had the privilege to witness and be a part of one of those moments. I had the joy of attending the Women’s March in New York.

I have to admit, prior to going, a tiny voice in the back of my head shouted “what if it’s not as good as you think it’ll be? What if no one really shows up?”

To that tiny voice in the back of my head: how wrong you were.

Trains both to and from New York were packed with pink hats and signs. There was cheering on my train when we arrived at Grand Central. Walking into…