Welcome to this week’s 5BF: 2021 resolutions, Epicureanism, couple of great movies, and more…
1: What I Read
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill – a fun, light, and
subtly great autobiographical book. Offill’s effortless way to put her life
into perspective and contemplate gives the readers an insight into writing’s
importance and power. A book I absolutely adored!
2: This Week’s Articles:
New Year’s Resolutions That Will Actually Lead to Happiness – ‘the reason we so often fail is because the (new year)
resolutions we choose don’t match our true goal of greater happiness’, says
Arthur C. Brooks in his article for ‘The Atlantic’. Although our resolutions
are different, our end-goal, greater happiness, isn’t. So, with happiness on
our horizons, we don’t we choose two resolutions that would actually make us
happy? Forgiveness and gratitude.
Why Epicureanism, not Stoicism, is the philosophy we need now – Epicureanism, named after its founder Epicurus, is the
philosophy of human pleasure. Our modern-day world can be cruel with its productivity
craze, meritocracy, class systems, and so on, and therefore, Catherine Wilson
in this article suggests that why this philosophy is more urgent to changing
our lifestyles than Stoicism, a philosophy of ‘having a stiff upper lip’.
The Art of Being Alone – for the art geeks and fans out there, this article is for
you. Its title is a literal one ‘the art of (based upon) being alone’, where
the author suggest that in these lonelier times, and with general loneliness as
well, we should turn to the great artists who tried to portray their inner
loneliness into artistic expressions, and thereby turned it into inspiring
creations.
3: My 2021 Resolutions
I do not make resolutions. But I can’t get myself to use any
other word too because I feel kind of social-pressure. Below are a list of things
that I will actually be doing, something which resolutions aren’t about, in the
next 12 months
Read around 60 books; 5 books per month at least.
Read about a specific area/genre each month. E.g.,
NF-Science, NF-Religion etc.
Get graduated.
Try writing more.
Work on your mental awareness and well-being.
Grow, change, move forward, take decisions, take control.
Be confident. And do not become a full-time smoker.
4: Great Movie Recommendations
January, more than any other month, is the time to ask me for
great movies to watch. It is now that I get to know and watch the best movies
of the year prior, and proceed towards my own list.
Another Round (Denmark) – a movie about a psychological
hypothesis that how keeping the alcohol level at 0.5% or above in your blood helps
you perform at your best. A bunch of best friends, teaching at high school in
Denmark, try out this theory and see if it actually works. A great, great movie
– fun, enlivening, and heartful, with one of the best endings ever.
Minari (Korea) – an American Korean family who move out to
countryside in order to pursue the dream of farming, and the struggles they go
through in chasing that dream, both domestically and financially. A heart-breaking
and a heart-warming movie. Just so, so good!
Soul (Pixar) – if not the best, then one of the top 3 best
Pixar movie ever. I won’t say anything else because not knowing anything about
it made watching this movie so worthwhile.
5: This Week’s Quote
'She has wanted to sleep with other people, of course. One or
two in particular. But the truth is she has good impulse control. That is why
she isn’t dead. Also why she became a writer instead of a heroin addict. She
thinks before she acts. Or more properly, she thinks instead of acts. A
character flaw, not a virtue.'
- Jenny Offill (dept. of Speculation)
PS: a tip: drop your shoulder, relax your forehead, un-clutch
your jaws. It removes instant tension.