What I’ve Been Reading
“No, Thank you!” – Cyrano de Bergerac
In my online reading group last week we discussed the “No, thank you!” speech from the play, Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This was fun for me because I was completely unfamiliar with this play. If someone had said the name “Cyrano de Bergerac,” I would have responded with something like, “isn’t that a book about a guy with a big nose?” And that was the extend of my knowledge. I’ve really enjoyed our readings that are unfamiliar to me because it always opens up a whole new world to explore. Now I have the play on my list to read, along with one of the movie adaptations.
I was struck by how this “No, thank you!” speech felt so relevant to the world today. For anyone who is trying to figure out their place in the world, how to follow their passion, and create a meaningful life, Cyrano has some very wise words. It is a call to authenticity, to stop the pandering and groveling to other people, to live in accordance with your own values—no matter what other people say. As Cyrano says,
“There are some things in this world a man does well to carry to extremes.”
“Never to make a line I have not heard in my own heart.”
On Cultures That Build
This is an interesting article about the state of things in America today. It is a response to this article, “It’s Time to Build“, so it makes the most sense if you read both of them. Essentially, it is an argument that in modern America we have lost our sense of self-efficacy as a people. When we see a problem, instead of organizing ourselves to collaborate and solve the problem, we appeal to the “powers that be,” as in the established management and bureaucracies to fix it for us. Of course, these institutions are not very good at responding quickly or effectively, but we have resigned ourselves to such a fate. This is in contrast to the earlier years of our country’s history, up until the early 1900s. For the first couple of centuries, Americans were accustomed to solving problems on their own. They made their way across a wild frontier, using their own powers of ingenuity and coordination to carve out a nation.
Americans had faith that building things worked.
They made things happen. You can even see this bent towards collective problem-solving in all the organizations that cropped up, such as the Red Cross, NAACP, Salvation Army, and many more. These were groups that formed to address societal problems. Rather than petitioning the government to do something, people banded together to fix it themselves. You can see how very different our mindset is now. In the wake of the COVID-19 disaster, we spend our time blaming all these bureaucracies and institutions for their egregious failures. The article notes a very different response to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918:
When the America of the 1910s faced a national crisis, America responded by creating dozens and dozens of emergency response committees at the local level. These committees included membership of both local governments, federal public health officials, and the leaders of local business, social and religious organizations. They did this fast. And finally, they set these committees up as temporary instruments to address a temporary problem. For the Americans of 1918, this was the obvious response demanded by crisis. Crises demanded organizing at the local level to try and meet the problem head on.
The two articles in conjunction give a fascinating, although rather sad, perspective on modern America. They also address a question that has always been lingering in the back of my mind: How was it possible for us to send a man to the moon in the 1960s and we haven’t sent a person to the moon since 1972? What have we been doing since then? Of course, the ISS is a remarkable accomplishment, but from my knowledge, we’ve made very little headway with space exploration besides that. We even had to rely on another country to even get our astronauts up to the ISS for years. America hasn’t accomplished anything as spectacular as the original moon landing. It seems like we do an awful lot of research and data gathering about outer space, but what have we actually done? While maybe not a pressing question for many people, I appreciated how these articles seemed to give an explanation for the stunning achievements up until the 1960s, and the seeming stagnant advancements since then.
Stop Preparing for the Last Disaster
This is an excellent article about how to overcome our availability bias. We are inclined to give attention to things we’ve already experienced. But there are many possible disasters and problems that haven’t happened before. It is easy to prepare for something to happen again—but how we can get ready for a crisis we haven’t experienced? We cannot anticipate every disaster scenario, so what can we do? Instead of thinking of each possibility in isolation, consider what similarities they have:
But what are the common threads? What safeguards can you put in place that will be useful in a variety of situations? A good place to start is increasing your adaptability. The easier you can adapt to change, the more flexibility you have. More flexibility means having more options to deal with, mitigate, and even capitalize on disaster.
Right now there is a general consensus (more or less) about the danger of new viruses. But even this is based on a particular virus that spreads in a particular way. What about biological threats that operate in a different way? Maybe something that spreads through water? Or is more airborne than the COVID-19 virus? Or what about other types of disasters altogether? What we can learn from this experience that could help us be more prepared for an entirely different crisis?
Why You Feel at Home in a Crisis
And speaking of crises…this is a great article about the phenomenon of unity and support during disasters. Contrary to what we might expect (or what the apocalyptic movies might suggest), humans have an innate tendency to come together and help each other in times of crisis.
Helping each other survive builds ties stronger than anything we form during normal conditions. After a natural disaster, residents of a city may feel like one big community for the first time.
Our modern life is more isolated and fragile than any other era of history. It is a stark contrast to the dangerous and often hostile lives of our ancestors. There were too many threats to face alone. To survive meant you had to depend on others, to be part of a community, to band together and help each other. I think this is a critical aspect of human life that has faded away in our modern culture. No wonder we feel so alienated and lonely now. No wonder there is more depression and mental illness than ever before. We weren’t meant to live alone.
When the COVID-19 situation developed, there seemed to be a few weeks of solidarity across America. It felt like we were starting to build that unity which comes from disaster, despite being physically separated. Maybe the physical isolation made that sense of community weaker. Maybe it is difficult to sustain that level of collaboration. Maybe there were so many other variables at play which prevented us from sustaining our crisis mode. Whatever the reason, it feels like the nation is now just as divided and isolated as ever. Instead of bringing us together, we’re now even more alienated. And that is disappointing because we’ve lost the opportunity to get anything positive out of this terrible time. What went wrong? And what could be different in the future?
What I’ve Been Watching
We just watched the new 2020 “Gretal and Hansel” movie. I was a little nervous about it because I am not into gory or really scary movies, but then I saw it was only rated PG-13, I figured I could handle it! The cinematography was excellent, it was incredibly atmospheric and visually stunning. However, it felt like there was more focus on appearance than the substance. I was left impressed by the visuals, but underwhelmed by the characters and plot. Overall, it just felt rushed. It was a rather short movie, just under 90 minutes, and I think it could have been much improved by having a little more time devoted to the story. I really wanted to like it, particularly with how they imagined Gretal’s storyline, but there wasn’t enough depth to have it resonate on an emotional level. It was a brilliant retelling, but they seemed to sell their idea short by not devoting enough time to a compelling portrayal.
What I’ve Been Listening To
What I’ve Been Thinking About
Life always gives us exactly what we need. When it feels like we keep running into the same obstacles or problems, it is like a huge sign saying, “you must deal with this.” When our obstacles are minor, it is easy to avoid dealing with them. But when the time is right, life keeps throwing the same problem at us so we can’t run from it any longer.
