Sunday Supplement #126 (October 8th, 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.
Please take something away from these recommendations that enriches your week ahead!
Quote of the Week:
“There’s nothing a value more than the closeness of friends and family, a smile as I pass someone on the street.”
– Willie Stargell
Book of the Week:
The Great Santini – Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini is a coming-of-age novel that follows Ben Meecham’s life in a fictional military town in South Carolina under the strict rule of his father, Wilbur Meecham.
Wilbur “Bull” Meecham calls himself the Great Santini, and Conroy describes the man as a warrior without a war.
The Meecham family struggles as newcomers to fit into the small South Carolina town, and the novel explores this dynamic through Ben’s time in high school.
The Great Santini was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, and Michael O’Keefe.
Conroy is a brilliant author. I’ve featured two other Pat Conroy books; this is the third novel I believe is of the highest quality of storytelling.
Movie of the Week:
New York Times bestseller, National Book Award Winner, and Newbery Medal-winning novel Holes by Louis Sachar was adapted into the 2003 film five years after publication.
The story follows Stanley Yelnats, a thirteen-year-old boy with a curse on his family, as he is wrongfully convicted and sent to a detention camp where the boys are mysteriously tasked to dig holes in the desert to build character.
A movie adaptation of a novel can always be hit or miss, but Sachar wrote the screenplay, and Andrew Davis brought the story to the screen with an all-star cast of legends and newcomers.
Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voigt, and Shia LaBeouf stand out in the excellent adaptation, and you’re likely to recognize some quality cameos as well.
Holes is a fun movie that has an engaging and entertaining story with a deeper core of themes around consequences, destiny, and friendship. Check it out if you haven’t seen it!
Brainfood of the Week:
The Importance of Human Connection | Simon Sinek
I recently featured a Simon Sinek video, and even though I liked to vary up the content, this video was perfect for the week’s theme.
Sinek is a bestselling author and speaker. He spoke at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in 2016 and has an imprint at Penguin Random House, Optimism Press.
In this video, Sinek discusses the shift of functioning virtually and how virtual communication doesn’t fulfill everything an in-person human connection does.
One aspect in particular Sinek highlights is trust. He talks about how building trust happens in little moments of connecting with someone in person.
The short video mainly focuses on the benefits of working in-person versus virtually, but there are good reminders of how we need human connection in our lives regardless.
Closing Spiritual Passage:
“The person who perfectly maintains the ties of kinship is not the one who does it because he gets recompensed by his relatives (for being kind and good to them), but the one who truly maintains the bonds of kingship is the one who persists in doing so even though the latter has severed the ties of kinship with him.”
– Riyad as-Salihin 322
Riyad as-Salihin is a selection of Hadith (a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the prophet Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators), in this case, by Imam Yahya bin Sharaf an-Nawawi.
This passage reminds me of how important it is to check in on those we consider family, even when it’s been a while since you’ve spoken.
I think it’s easy to let time pass by and believe that you’ve fallen out of touch with someone who was once close to you.
However, in those moments when a person randomly pops into your head, I think it’s a chance to reach out to let them know you were thinking about them. You never know if a kind word is exactly what that person needs at that moment.
Cherish the connections to others in your life, reach out to a friend or family member, and have a blessed week ahead!
