Newly Discovered Favorite Things
A Repost that is Evergreen
Author’s note, January 23, 2021:
Sometimes we start something and it just grows. On my first official post on “Things to Realize,” I mentioned cults and politics, and I said I would write more, since I have first-hand experience regarding cultism. Well, since my last post, all hell broke loose and on January 6th, the Capitol was raided and a chain of events quite remarkable to this country took place. And so I wrote on the parallels between extreme political views and cultism. There is a lot to that. The current political environment and the cult experience in general are both complex and involved, and both demand deep treatment, which can’t be done in a single post. But I tried. So, 3,600 words later, I got to an end, but not to a clean end. It’s not right, and needs to be restructured. This is a moving target, even if the fundamentals are there. I will revisit it and turn it into a number of posts.
Meantime, our new president was inaugurated on January 20th. During the inauguration, an amazing young woman, poet laureate Amanda Gorman, read and performed a masterpiece. She is 23. Sometimes there are people we see that as soon as we see them we know they are on a different plane. Such is Amanda Gorman. She is remarkable. She reminded me of the piece I am re-posting here that I wrote in January, 2017. I think we all discovered a new favorite in the remarkable Amanda Gorman.
The experiences of the last week spawned a subject for a new post that is forthcoming. In the meantime, please enjoy this.
I ran into two things today that I had never heard of before, and both of which I am happy I know about now. The first is a song by John Stewart called "Mother Country," a song which was forwarded to me by a friend. I never heard of John Stewart, and here was this beautiful and masterful performance that just carried me along for over six minutes. I looked up John Stewart and found out he was a member of the Kingston Trio, and had been performing since I was a baby. How could this be? How could I not know about him? And then I found out he recorded a song called "Gold" in the '70s, which I remembered, and which I did not like. But, in 2007, he performed "Mother Country," and thankfully it was recorded, and now it's one of my favorite things.
The second thing I ran into was a movie. I had opened up Quora and on a list of questions was this one: "What movie can you watch all the time and never get tired of watching?" Interesting question. I opened it up, expecting the usual answers like "Die Hard," "Forest Gump," "True Romance," "When Harry Met Sally," etc. Well, one movie came up a couple of times that I had never heard of, an Indian Bollywood movie from 1971 called "Anand." Here's a movie that's been out for almost fifty years, and is such a favorite in India that there are people who would love to see it over and over, and yet it was completely unknown to me. It is the story of a doctor who was dejected in his work, who was tired of death, and tired of poverty leading to death. Then one day, a friend of a friend comes to town who is terminally ill, named Anand. Anand has cancer, and has only three to four months to live. And yet, he is cheerful. He tells the doctor "yes, I am going to die, and you are going to die. Right now, your body is breaking down, getting older and weaker, and you have only forty years to live. What does it matter as long as we are alive now?" It is a remarkable movie. I can see why people want to see it over and over.
Two favorite things in one day.
I am an optimist by nature. I look at the world, and I have to believe that we are getting better and better. I know we're getting better and better. I believe that you can find whatever you look for, but if you look at existence you have to look at the full spectrum of existence, not just slices. Oh, there are atrocities on this planet. Oh, you can't think of a way to kill someone that hasn't been perfected by someone somewhere and been done over and over. There is always something awful that we can be shocked by, disgusted by, outraged at, and fearful of. And we should do what we can to eradicate these things. But if we are to wallow in the awfulness of Man and the evils of disease and disasters, we must also contemplate the opposite: Beethoven. Shakespeare. Charlie Parker. The Beatles. We must celebrate the good in humanity: Doctors without Borders. Electrical linemen who brave blizzards to turn the power back on. The billions of small and not-so-small miracles that happen every day. I believe there is more good than evil in this world. As Fred Rogers said to do when disaster strikes: “look for the helpers." There are always more helpers than there are evil doers. Always.
When I contemplate the good that is in the world, I am constantly amazed that there are incredible things I have never seen and wonderful people I have never met. There are songs I have not heard that will be a favorite of mine some day. There are places I have never been to that will be magical places when I finally find them. There are amazing books that I have never read. And especially, good friends I have never met.
And that is true for all of us. Keep an eye out for great things, and great people, because they are out there, and they will be your favorite things some day. It makes me happy to know that.