Tag: experience

Heraclitus, Slade House, Lost in Translation, The Art of Improvement, and a Dhammapada Verse

Heraclitus, Slade House, Lost in Translation, The Art of Improvement, and a Dhammapada Verse

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on January 21, 2024

Sunday Supplement #141 (January 21st, 2024)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

Please take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“No man steps into the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”

– Heraclitus

Book of the Week:

Slade House – David Mitchell

Every nine years, in an alley down the road from a British pub, a unique someone who’s different or lonely will be extended an invitation to Slade House.

The novel spans five decades, starting from the 1970s, and the people who enter Slade House find that they don’t want to leave but later learn they can’t.

David Mitchell’s Slade House is an excellent blend of paranormal fiction with elements of horror that combine for an enthralling read.

I’ve featured one other David Mitchell book, Cloud Atlas, in Sunday Supplement #35, and though the books are wildly different, the quality of writing is of the highest caliber.

Movie of the Week:

Lost in Translation

Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation focuses on a faded movie star’s and a young woman’s experience of disconnection in their respective marriages.

The film is set in Japan, where the faded movie star, Bob, goes to promote a whiskey, and the young woman, Charlotte, accompanies her husband on a business trip.

The two disillusioned Americans keep bumping into each other on their respective trips, and an unlikely kinship forms from their search for connection.

Coppola won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Billy Murray as Bob was nominated for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for Best Picture.

Brainfood of the Week:

4 Zen Stories That Will Change How You Think About Life | The Art of Improvement

I’ve featured The Art of Improvement in a few previous Sunday Supplements. Their videos focus on self-improvement and feature a variety of topics based on various sources.

This video starts by stating we sometimes get stuck overthinking and worrying in life, and an easy way to get out of a negative thought loop can be experiencing a good story.

The Art of Improvement video then tells four short zen stories: The Farmer’s Horse, The Learned Man, The Couple on the Donkey, and The Move.

Each story is a fun little parable with a lesson worth listening to. The end of the video reminds us that if you’re in a funk, stories can help you change your perspective.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Before long, alas, this body, deprived of consciousness, will lie on the earth, discarded like a useless log.”

– Dhammapada 41

At first look, this Dhammapada verse can be a little disheartening and a downer. But looking at it a little deeper gives me much to take away from it.

The obvious lesson is that we all die one day, and we should make sure we live a full life before we do. But I think the power of this lesson comes from the idea that we shouldn’t fear failure or negative experiences.

Along with the bumps and bruises of living life, this verse points out consciousness as a significant marker of life. We often go through life with periods of unconscious behavior, and this verse reminds us to try and stay as conscious as possible.

Continue to experience life consciously each day, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Oscar Wilde, Blink, Men in Black, Sprouts, and a Zen Proverb

Oscar Wilde, Blink, Men in Black, Sprouts, and a Zen Proverb

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on February 12, 2023

Sunday Supplement #92 (February 12th, 2023)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

I hope you take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It gives you the test first and the lesson afterward.”

– Oscar Wilde

Book of the Week:

Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is a bestselling author, journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker, and public speaker.

In his New York Times bestselling book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell directs how we often think without thinking during choices that seem to be made instantly.

Blink highlights examples from psychologists who learned to predict whether a marriage will last (I featured one of their books in Sunday Supplement #69), an expert tennis coach who knows when players will double fault, as well as other intriguing cases.

The book addresses why some people are brilliant decision-markers while others end up stumbling into error.

Blink directs how our brains work in different situations and how the best decisions can appear inexplicable at first glance. It’s a fascinating book worth checking out.

Movie of the Week:

Men in Black

The 1997 film Men in Black follows an NYPD officer as he joins a secret organization that polices and monitors extraterrestrial interactions on Earth.

On the surface, Men in Black comes off as an entertaining Science Fiction Action Comedy movie. However, many deeper themes give the film an extra dimension.

The existential questions over what we assume about our world and our unconscious biases about those around us are at the core of the entertaining narrative.

The mentor figure of Tommy Lee Jones and the hero, young officer Will Smith brilliantly bring the movie’s depth to life in an exciting film for a thoughtful popcorn movie night.

Brainfood of the Week:

Experiential Learning: How We All Learn Naturally | Sprouts

Sprouts defines experiential learning as learning through experience or learning through reflection on doing and argues that it is the most natural and powerful form of education.

The video uses the example of learning to walk to show how we start out naturally doing this. It breaks down how our brain reflects on failure to help us understand how to succeed.

Musicians often perform better on most tests, regardless of what the tests measure, because of their experience of not being put off by failure.

The concept of experiential learning is pretty basic, as is the video, but it’s a powerful reminder of how we should embrace failure and see what we can learn from it.

Sprouts is a YouTube channel with over a million subscribers that makes educational videos about psychology, pedagogy, and child development.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Obstacles do not block the path. They are the path.”

– Zen Proverb

This Zen Proverb reminds me to think of the obstacles in my life from a different perspective.

Usually, when I think of an obstacle, I think of something that blocks a path or prevents someone from moving forward.

The proverb gives me the perspective of viewing obstacles as a chance to learn, deciding how to best move forward, and learning from the experience.

Sometimes obstacles can seem like hindrances, but I think in the end, they help us challenge ourselves and bring out our best.

Think about how an obstacle might be helpful, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Aldous Huxley, Love in the Time of Cholera, Seven Samurai, The School of Life, and Surah Al-Baqara 2:286

Aldous Huxley, Love in the Time of Cholera, Seven Samurai, The School of Life, and Surah Al-Baqara 2:286

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on November 13, 2022

Sunday Supplement #79 (November 13th, 2022)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

I hope you take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”

– Aldous Huxley

Book of the Week:

Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez

The Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez wrote many acclaimed works and has received much recognition for his contribution to literature and journalism.

Love in the Time of Cholera is one of Márquez’s better-known novels and focuses on two lovers over five decades, from the 1880s to the 1930s.

The story focuses mainly on an unnamed port city in Colombia and follows the lives of Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza.

They both fell in love when they were young, but Fermina eventually chose to marry a wealthy, upper-class doctor with some pressure from her family. Fifty years later, after Fermina’s husband’s death, Florentino declares his love again.

Love in the Time of Cholera has much depth in its pages. Many themes around love and aging are beautifully explored and well worth checking out.

Movie of the Week:

Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa received an Honorary Award from the Academy in 1990 for cinematic accomplishments that inspired, delighted, enriched, and entertained worldwide audiences and influenced filmmakers throughout the world.

I featured Kurosawa’s Yojimbo in Sunday Supplement #70, and in that post, I also mentioned his film Seven Samurai.

Seven Samurai tells the story of a poor village under attack recruiting seven unemployed samurai to defend the people and the town.

Kurosawa’s writing and directing, combined with a legendary performance by Toshirô Mifune, helped create a film that will forever be a classic.

The film has been remade multiple times for Western audiences, including twice as The Magnificent Seven, but the original shouldn’t be overlooked.

Brainfood of the Week:

Wisdom | The School of Life

This video starts with The School of Life describing wisdom not as a stable state but as an aspiration or goal worth striving for.

They state that there are many strands woven into wisdom. Realism is one, gratitude another, politeness, humor, and self-acceptance are some others.

The video breaks down each thread it mentions and discusses how each attribute helps contribute to wisdom.

In breaking down realism, they explain how knowing something might be difficult allows for acceptance and a calm demeanor when tackling challenging tasks.

There is much more in the full video, and I highly recommend giving it a watch. If you enjoy it, I’ve featured The School of Life in a few previous Sunday Supplements.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear.”

– Surah Al-Baqara 2:286

This passage from the Quran reminds me of how we can feel overwhelmed at various points in our lives, but we always seem to make it through those times.

These difficult moments can seem like burdens, but the more time passes, the more I can see the lessons in the experiences.

I’ve mentioned it before in previous Sunday Supplements, but many passages from spiritual texts could often be swapped without anyone’s notice.

This Quran passage seems to me like a universal message that wouldn’t be out of place in the Bible, the Vedas, or any Buddhist texts.

Know that any challenge in your life is one you can handle, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Madeleine Albright, Teacher Misery, Hidden Figures, Brené Brown, and a Japanese Proverb

Madeleine Albright, Teacher Misery, Hidden Figures, Brené Brown, and a Japanese Proverb

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on June 26, 2022

Sunday Supplement #59 (June 26th, 2022)

Below is another Sunday Supplement with a quote worth sharing, a book worth reading, a movie worth watching, brainfood worth consuming, and a spiritual passage worth pondering.

I hope you take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“It took me a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.”

– Madeleine Albright

Book of the Week:

Teacher Misery – Jane Morris

When I decided to pursue teaching, I was given Teacher Misery by one of the teachers I worked alongside.

The book compiles short stories, emails (from students, parents, and administrators), and other essays that paint the ridiculous and sometimes disheartening experience of teachers.

As I read the book, I could see and believe many of the experiences described by Morris and other teachers who anonymously contributed to the book.

I think the book can be outlandish at times and doesn’t take the other party’s perspective in many instances, but I believe the book is a warning for those who think teaching is a straightforward profession or calling.

Jane Morris is a pen-name for the teacher that authored the book. She has worked in education for decades and provides resources on her website to aid all teachers.

The book is an interesting read but not one I’d describe as pleasant. I recommend it to anyone interested or looking to enter the teaching profession.

For a more supportive guide for teachers with some phenomenal advice, I’d recommend The Courage to Be Happy, which I discuss in Sunday Supplement #22.

Movie of the Week:

Hidden Figures

The film Hidden Figures is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA.

Hidden Figures showed the segregation of race and sex at NASA and how Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan had to overcome both.

Taraji P. Henson played Johnson, Janelle Monáe played Jackson, and Octavia Spencer played Vaughan. Each was brilliant in their roles, and Spencer received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal.

The movie went on to show how each woman played a vital role at NASA during the Space Race with the USSR.

One of the strikes against the movie was the argument of a white savior narrative from Kevin Costner’s character, director of the Space Task Group Al Harrison.

I don’t think the moment referred to in the arguments was shot well, but it didn’t take away from the overall experience of the film for me.

The movie was nominated for Best Picture, and writers Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Brainfood of the Week:

Dr. Bené Brown’s Vulnerability Breakdown | SuperSoul Sunday | OWN

The video recounts one of Brown’s experiences after her TED Talk, “The Power of Vulnerability,” went viral.

One night Brown looked at the comments under one of her videos and found some scathing anonymous feedback.

While getting her mind off the internet trolls, she came across Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” quote.

The quote became a catalyst for Brown to move forward on her path. It represented everything she learned about vulnerability in her research—showing up and being seen.

Brown wanted to be courageous and daring like the person in the quote and committed to only taking feedback from people who put themselves in the arena.

Brené Brown went on to be a bestselling author, an expert on shame, vulnerability, and empathy, and has helped others through her podcasts, talks, and appearances.

I’ve featured Oprah Winfrey and Brené Brown in multiple previous Sunday Supplements. Click their tags at the bottom of the page to see other posts with their content highlighted.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Heart to heart.” (以心伝心)

– Japanese Proverb

This Japanese proverb “heart to heart” means to share your true feelings to connect with another person.

When I look at passages and quotes, I try to think about them in different ways. With this one, I believe it also means that you can only have a deeper connection with someone if you share your true feelings.

For me, to share your true feelings or to be able to achieve “heart to heart,” you must be willing to be vulnerable.

When opening yourself up to be vulnerable, there can be rejection. However, I find there is great power when being vulnerable. Regardless of the outcome, you know that you gave 100 percent.

I think it’s vital to let yourself be seen and heard by yourself as much as others. This Japanese proverb reminds me of how important it is to open your heart for genuine connection.

See and express yourself fully, and have a blessed week ahead!

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