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Tag: Helena Bonham Carter

Helen Keller, The Bartimaeus Sequence, The King’s Speech, Motivation2Study, and an African Proverb

Sunday Supplement #136 (December 17th, 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:

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.”

– Helen Keller

Book of the Week:

The Bartimaeus Sequence – Jonathan Stroud

The Bartimaeus Sequence is a fantasy series set in London in the late 1900s/early 2000s and set in an alternate history where the effects of magic, magicians, and demons have altered changes through the past of cities, countries, events, and technology.

Magicians are trained to summon demons to do their bidding. Throughout history, various individuals and empires have used demons to obtain power. The most recent nation to dominate is the British Empire, where a ruling elite of magicians holds all the power.

Jonathan Stroud’s first book in the original trilogy follows a young magician’s apprentice as he tries to take revenge on a magician who humiliated him by summoning a powerful demon to steal the magician’s magical amulet.

The apprentice and the demon then uncover a plot of espionage, murder, blackmail, and revolt to seize power and overturn the government.

I highly recommend this series. I’ve only read the original trilogy (the fourth book being a prequel), but it’s one of my favorite works of fiction and has a story that stays with me. The growth of the main characters throughout the trilogy is one of the best I’ve ever read.

Movie of the Week:

The King’s Speech

Tom Hooper’s The King Speech tells the story of Britain’s King George VI, his unexpected ascension to the throne, and the speech therapist who helped him overcome his stutter.

I don’t know how historically accurate the movie is, but it is a masterfully executed piece of storytelling in the medium of film.

David Seidler’s script, Danny Cohen’s cinematography, Tariq Anwar’s editing, Jenny Beavan’s costume design… everything in this film is from the top drawer.

Colin Firth as King George, Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth, and Geoffrey Rush as speech therapist Lionel Logue steal the show in their respective roles.

The story is quite simple at its core, but it won Best Picture at the Oscars for a reason. That was one of four wins, and it had eight additional nominations. Check it out if you haven’t yet.

Brainfood of the Week:

Elon Musk Motivation Speech 2022 | Motivation2Study

In this video, Motivation2Study compiles a number of different Elon Musk interviews and speeches around perseverance and asking the right questions.

Whether you like Musk or not, there are many things in this compilation video he says that are worth listening to.

Motivation2Study is a YouTube channel with over four million subscribers and over three hundred million video views.

Their mission is to inspire, educate, and help students of all ages with both lack of motivation and mental health awareness. Check out their YouTube page if you enjoyed this video.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“There are no shortcuts to the top of the palm tree.”

– African Proverb

I like the simplicity of this proverb, but it also fills my imagination with different scenarios of how one could climb to the top of a palm tree.

Having been a tree climber for most of my youth, I still smile and try to give it a go when I find myself with the urge and the time to climb. 

But now I find that I have to think about the best way to climb the tree. Sometimes, it’s not straightforward, and I imagine that some kind of tool, shoe, assistance, or great strength would be needed to climb a palm tree.

At the core, the proverb shows that to climb to the top of the palm tree, you have to keep climbing. You can always give up and climb another tree, but if you persist smartly, you should be able to find a way.

Keep pursuing the goals you want to achieve, be smart about it, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Abraham Lincoln, Roadwork, Fight Club, Psych2Go, and a Japanese Proverb

Sunday Supplement #66 (August 14th, 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:

“If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”

– Abraham Lincoln

Book of the Week:

Roadwork – Richard Bachman

After the early success of Stephen King’s work, the author decided to publish a few books under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman.

In the Bachman books, King describes in an introduction why he created the pseudonym. The short of it was that he wanted to see if he was lucky with his first books or if lightning could strike twice.

Roadwork follows a grieving father and husband as he deals with the news that a new highway expansion project plans to demolish his workplace and home through eminent domain.

Dawes, the husband and father, begins to unravel and is unwilling to turn his house over to the government.

Most of the King books I’ve read under his pseudonym Bachman explore much darker areas of society and humanity.

Roadwork isn’t a book that should be carelessly read, but if looked at in the right light, questions about what’s important in life are there to be explored.

Movie of the Week:

Fight Club

Fight Club follows an anonymous narrator working for an unnamed car company as a product recall specialist.

The stress of his job, compounded by frequent business trips and jet lag, brings on recurring insomnia. A doctor tells him to visit a cancer support group to see what real suffering is like.

The narrator’s journey to find release and peace connects him with a fellow support group poser Marla Singer and an extremist Tyler Durden.

Fight Club delves into the themes of meaning and connection, masculinity, identity, order, and chaos.

Edward Norton plays the narrator, Brad Pitt plays Tyler Durden, and Helena Bonham Carter plays Marla Singer in the film. The cast is brilliant.

I’ve seen many people view the movie as toxic and self-aggrandizing. However, the story shows the dangers of both sides and has a Buddhism-like message of balance underneath.

The book by Chuck Palahniuk and David Fincher’s adaptation are both worth checking out.

Brainfood of the Week:

10 Signs You Lack Self Awareness | Psych2Go

This Psych2Go starts by discussing metacognition— a higher form of thinking that gives you the ability to be aware of how you think.

The video highlights how self-awareness by reflecting and evaluating your thoughts and feelings are vital to better understanding yourself.

Ten different methods are explored as indicators of a lack of self-awareness. The signs include lack of emotional intelligence, self-serving bias, and difficulty making realistic goals.

While these are worth being aware of, I thought the utility of the video comes from learning about the signs and seeing how you can incorporate or increase the inverse in your life.

Psych2Go’s mission is to make psychology and mental health more accessible to everyone. 

They create lighthearted content about psychology, mental wellness, and relatable stories, and have interviews with psychologists, professionals, and experts. 

Psych2Go’s YouTube page has just shy of 10 million followers, and their videos with over one billion total views are worth checking out.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“A frog in a well does not know the great sea.”  (井の中の蛙大海を知らず)

– Japanese Proverb.

This Japanese proverb reminds me to be aware of perspectives in my life. Just because I’m viewing something from one point of view doesn’t mean it’s the right one to look at.

The frog in the proverb can speak only from the second or third-hand experiences of life outside its well.

I’m personifying the frog in this case, but I still think it’s important to view the proverb from different viewpoints and see what meanings connect with you.

The frog can refer to oneself or others. It reminds me not to stay stuck in a well and to take the opinion of a frog in the well with a grain of salt.

This Japanese proverb was another timely reminder for me to work on my awareness of my thoughts, surroundings, and actions.

Be aware of your thoughts and actions, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Steve Maraboli, Frankenstein, Sweeney Todd, Kati Morton, and Proverbs 17:9

Sunday Supplement #21 (October 3rd, 2021)

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:

“The truth is unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”

– Steve Maraboli

Book of the Week:

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a classic tale that has been retold many times over the years. None of the adaptations of her work that I’ve seen or read comes close to the original.

Frankenstein tells the story of a young scientist, Victor Frankenstein, and his experiment to create a sapient creature. He is horrified by the result and must come to terms with what he made. The novel is written in epistolary format and has points of view from both Frankenstein and the Monster.

Shelley came up with the idea for Frankenstein while on holiday with her future husband. She and Percy Shelley were in Switzerland with the poet Lord Byron and writer John Polidori and had a competition of who could come up with the best horror story. History proved that Mary Shelley won that competition.

The novel first came out in 1818, anonymously published, but was later attributed to Mary Shelley in the second addition in 1821. I first read this book in high school and wasn’t expecting a book from the 1800s to be readable or enjoyable. It turned out to be both. The prose flowed easily, and the themes of creation, injustice, and alienation stuck were striking.

I’m clearly not the only one who finds Frankenstein a masterpiece. If you haven’t decided to read it yet, I highly recommend putting it on your to-read list.

Movie of the Week:

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd has a rich history. He first appeared as a villain in the penny dreadful series The String of Pearls in 1846. The tale of Sweeney Todd has been told and expanded upon over the years. Before the 2007 Tim Burton film, the most famous rendition was the Tony award-winning Broadway musical written by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, adapted from Christopher Bond’s play Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Tim Burton’s film tells the story of Benjamin Barker (played by Johnny Depp) as he returns to London fifteen years after Judge Turpin falsely convicted him. The judge, played by Alan Rickman, lusted after Barker’s wife and exiled the barber so he could have her. Barker returns to Fleet Street as Sweeney Todd and plots his revenge. He teams up with baker Mrs. Lovett (played by Helena Bonham Carter), creating a sinister partnership.

Sweeney Todd is a pretty grisly film. The horror genre is not one I’m particularly fond of, as I explained in Sunday Supplement #4, but if a story is well-done, I’ll give it a chance. The acting is superb, and the music is wonderfully crafted. Screenwriter John Logan adapted the musical for the screen, and the result is a dark but brilliantly crafted tale brought to life by Tim Burton.

Brainfood of the Week:

Kati Morton – Why is it So Hard to Forgive Ourselves?

Kati Morton is a licensed therapist, author, and podcaster who makes mental health videos on YouTube. Her following is over one million people, and she specializes in family and marriage therapy.

In this video, Morton goes over some of the reasons behind why we continue to replay incidents in our heads and how we can move past them.

One of the causes of getting thought in a negative feedback loop is a form of self-punishment or a way to self-sabotage. We can go over an incident, again and again, to give ourselves justification for current feelings, which, left unchecked, can become a harmful habit.

The key to moving on is forgiving ourselves or others and breaking that habit. A method that Morton goes over that has been helpful to me is “thought-stopping.” I first came across this concept from Michael A. Singer, who I highlighted in Sunday Supplement #12. The idea is to start to catch yourself when you have negative thoughts and make thinking a conscious choice. The more you catch yourself, the more it becomes a habit. Make sure to be kind when practicing thought-stopping, and choose how you want to move forward.

It can be tough to forgive yourself or others, but this is a great short video to pick up some valuable habits.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.”

– Proverbs 17:9

This passage reminds me of the times when I struggle to let things go. Those could be events in the past or behaviors of others (or myself) that hurt me. When I dwell on those times with negative thoughts, I feel cold.

Different lessons hit me in different ways at times. I think I’ve figured something out from my past, only for it to come up in another way that shows me I need to do more healing. I’ve learned to approach this with love, though.

In previous Sunday Supplements, I’ve discussed the need to be kind to ourselves, but this passage from Proverbs reminds me that the faults of others need to be forgiven as well. Mark Twain’s quote sums it up best— “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it’s stored than to anything on which it’s poured.”

Forgive yourself or someone else, and have a blessed week ahead!

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