Welcome to this week’s 5BF: Maria Popova on hope and
critical thinking, the cruelty of our kindness, ‘the dawn always comes’, a bunch
of great movies, and more…
1 – what I read
Emma by Jane Austen – an upbeat, self-righteous, and self-centered
girl, Emma is Austen’s both an annoying heroine and a novel. It’s about Emma
and her finding a good match for her silly friend Harriet; a crowded novel about
marriage, match-making, and all the drama of involved therein. Something which could
possibly be enjoyable, turned irritable. At least for me.
2 – this week’s articles
How to save money @psyche – sketching longer term plans, making
new money habits, and seeing everything for its use over the long time, are a
few of the suggestions given in this title for everyone who wants to make
saving money a habit.
Richard Dawkins and luckiness of death @brainpickings – would
our parents have slept differently, would a meteor hit our planet, or the universe
cooled a little faster post big bang, you or I wouldn’t be alive right now. And
only those can die who were born. Death completes what began.
The cruelty of kindness @aeon – an article about the numerous
sheltering and rescuing agencies for stray or abandoned pet animals, and how,
given their conditions and lack of resources and some other evil motives, they
are committing indirect cruelty in the name of kindness, where a painless death
might be a much better alternative.
Status: suicidal @aeon – this article explains how the stigma
around depression and its expression is falling away through the use of social
media, and how we can save more lives by preventing suicide through people’s
confessions about their conditions online.
3 – this week’s podcasts
Maria Popova @onbeing – ‘literature is the real internet’
and ‘you are your life’, meaning what you perceive becomes your life, are two
of many beautiful and insightful take-aways from this conversation between
Popova and Tippet. Popova talks about hope and critical thinking, and how the
former without the latter is naivety, and the latter without the former is cynicism;
as well as about the recentness of journalism, the normality of evil and shock,
and about many great figures like Thoreau, Wolf among others. Definitely worth
listening.
Anne Lamott @timferrisshow – a two-hour long conversation of
goodness, kindness, love, acceptance, and of courage, Lamott does most the
talking and in a way softens you up as you go on listening. This episode is a
treat for the writers out there, and I loved this listening to it, showed me
how I can write if only I quiet my inner critic and allow myself to write
badly, and feel deserved to write what I’ve been through. But it’s an episode
about addiction and its overcoming, about anxiety and fear, about cherishing
those around you, and finding some if you don’t have. An episode you want to listen
again in future, as the bad time arrives back.
4 – this week’s movie recommendations
Subjective tastes might differ, but every movie that I am
recommending here is definitely worth watching, as always. Due to making these a short as possible,
I cannot write more about them. Thanks to ‘agoodmovietowatch.com’ for their
amazing list.
Columbus (2017) – every shot of this movie is perfect and its
story is slow and beautiful.
Monos (2019) – a Spanish movie about a group of teenage militia
in possession of a lady scientist.
The Suicide Squad (2021) – a funny, thrilling, and brilliant
sequel to its disappointing first movie.
Wildlife (2018) – father goes to fight the wildfires, mother
cheats, their son struggles to keep them together.
The Tale (2018) – a true story about a 13-year-old girl
being sexually abused by her running coach.
Death of Stalin (2017) – a hilarious satire about the death
of Stalin and the chaos and coup thereafter.
5 – this week’s quote