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Weekend Butler: Reasons to be cheerful. A jaw-dropping weather report. The funniest Australian comedy. A shocking tweet. Two short books. Women who are “red wine and blue.”
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Published: Feb 10, 2022
Category:
Weekend
THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?
Let’s start with a must-watch video: Ryan Marshall, from Denver’s ABC TV station, stands in a snowstorm and melts down. (Fact check: he’s John Crist, a comedian, and this is from 2020, but it’s still a pertinent question.)
It’s pertinent because, yet again, it’s easy to feel defeated by the national news. Even discounting the February Factor, you can’t be faulted for thinking the forces of stupid are steadily advancing. Wrong answer. We think we’re doomed because we’re readers, thus inclined to armchair activism, if that.
Example: book banning. I’m guessing 99.9% of Butler readers are appalled. Maybe you donated to a bookstore that’s sending Toni Morrison novels to kids. Others are more activated. Consider Red wine and blue.Their mission statement: “Since 2016, women across the suburbs have been gathering— first to lament, but then to figure out how to change the world together. We are building on this sisterhood, and creating new momentum — with digital content, media, and tools that empower our unique voices and networks.”
Boil that down: they’re fueled more by hope than whine/wine.
The ultimate expression of hope is a book I periodically press on you, Man’s Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl walked out of a concentration camp and wrote the 192-page book in nine days. It’s been called “one of ten books everyone must read.” Frankl’s message is simple: Life can be terrible. But there is one power you alone possess — the power to decide what you think about your situation. If you think there is a point to your suffering and if you can imagine your life on the other side of it, you are searching for meaning. More, you are finding meaning, for the very act of searching ennobles you. Achievements can pile up, riches may come your way — none of that matters. The search is everything.
Another short book that would make excellent weekend reading is Mohsin Hamid’s novel, Exit West. Don’t be fooled by the plot, which is about migration in a time of war and crisis. Hamid doesn’t ask you to identify with refugees in boats or marching toward distant borders. For him, the book is about us:
“Everyone is a migrant, even those who never move geographically, because moving through time, aging, is itself a form of migration… Instead of inevitable conflict, I wanted to find a space of recognition, of mutual and shared sorrow, between the person who has moved to a foreign country and the person who has begun to feel foreign in the country of their own birth. And I wanted to suggest a future of radical migration that expressed elements of optimism, because if we can’t look to the future with optimism, we are prone to exploitation by political nostalgia, leaders who promise to make the future like the past.”
Note: Michelle and Barack Obama are producing “Exit West” for Netflix.
Let’s move on to the funniest comedy ever made in Australia. It too is about hope and optimism. It’s called “The Castle,” and if you watch the trailer, you will likely go on to stream it on Amazon Prime.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
I went in to work the other day and the man sitting next to me had picture of his wife sitting on his desk!!!
I threw it in the trash and told him how offended I was.
How DARE he subject me to his sexuality!
Then I saw a picture of a baby.
Blatant evidence of his sex life!
FACEBOOK STORY OF THE WEEK: STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
I’m on an Amtrak train. Business class from DC to Trenton.
There is a white man.
Southern.
Loud.
And important.
Let’s call him Chuck.
I’m about 8 rows behind him. He’s been on his cell phone since we boarded. He’s talking loud, as if he’s in his home office. Everyone else in the train car seems unbothered. But I’m annoyed.
“HERE’S MY CELL NUMBER. SEVEN ZERO THREE . . . ”
I write down his number.
I dial *67 then 1-703-….
“GIMME A SEC. GOT ANOTHER CALL COMIN’ THROUGH. YELLL-OOOO?”
I whisper. “Hello, this is Black Jesus calling. I’m riding on Northeast bound train 176. I hope y’all find the right interns for your search. You will make it to New Brunswick in time for that team meeting. I also think your pitch for the new project, with some minor adjustments, will be well received by the rest of the team. And I recommend either the Frog and the Peach or Steakhouse 85 for dinner tonight. But for right now, Imma need you to lower your voice while riding this train. In my name, Amen.”
Click.
Dude actually stood up and looked around frantically. I kept looking at my computer like I’m not Black Jesus.
LAST CALL
The Oldest Pub in Britain Is Closing Its Doors After 1,229 Years
IS 80 THE NEW 60?
From the Harvard Gazette: “The more you work and the more goals you set to achieve, the better it is for your health.”
AND NOT TO TURN YOU OFF OPTIMISM FOREVER…
Playing For Change
