CxD #174: Responding to War; ⛔️ Happiness; Seeing again 🤩; How not to be 😢 ; Just Start
War and its murderous cycles have always been part of what humans do and are capable of since always. Is there an appropriate response to it? Rihanna tried to use her public platform to critique “government and extremists” and beg for some kind of love to take us back into innocence; or at least to protect the innocent. Is hers an appropriate response?
Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor of media studies and urban education, thought it was severely inadequate, despite its good intentions:
What do you do in the face of overwhelming conflict and death and brutality? Do you choose sides? Do you investigate your own biases? Do you turn into a warrior or crusader? If you really wanted to be an advocate, what would you advocate for? And how?
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3. In CxD #160, I wrote about a young professional baseball player who eventually dealt with his overwhelming anxiety to perform at a high professional sports level by attempting to end his life. He lived, but lost an eye. He gained a new perspective, to say the least, in all kinds of ways, and is miraculously on his way back to playing professional baseball—trying to hit a baseball, the hardest thing in all of sports. Enjoy this follow-up full of hope and redemption and a completely new way of looking at life:
4. “The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then-to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never dream of regretting.” ~ Merlin, in T. H. White’s Once and Future King
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I really loved this week's newsletter. It felt like a direct, personal commentary on the space that I find myself occupying. Thank you!