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Tag: MacArthur Fellowship

Antonio Brown, The Way of the Superior Man, Garden State, Angela Lee Duckworth, and a Quran Passage

Antonio Brown, The Way of the Superior Man, Garden State, Angela Lee Duckworth, and a Quran Passage

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on January 8, 2023

Sunday Supplement #87 (January 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.

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

Quote of the Week:

“The journey is never-ending. There’s always going to be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.”

– Antonio Brown

Book of the Week:

The Way of the Superior Man – David Deida

I almost didn’t check out this book because of the title, but a friend whose recommendations I trust put The Way of the Superior Man on my radar.

David Deida’s book is a mixed bag for me because some of the language he uses is dated and oversimplifies certain topics.

However, many excellent takeaways from his book share wisdom for communication, relationships, and life purpose.

I recommend The Way of the Superior Man with a grain of salt, but it’s worth the read and has some moments of excellent insight into how to show up and be your best self.

Movie of the Week:

Garden State

Garden State follows a young man who returns home for his mother’s funeral after being estranged from his family for a decade.

The movie has wonderful performances from Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard.

Braff wrote, directed, and starred in the 2004 film Garden State during his run on the ABC show Scrubs.

His writer/directorial debut earned a spot at Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury prize.

Brainfood of the Week:

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance | Angela Lee Duckworth | TED Talks

Angela Lee Duckworth is a MacArthur Fellow, New York Times bestselling author, and psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. 

In this TED Talk, Duckworth discusses how she left a consulting job when she was 27 years old to teach seventh graders in a New York public school.

Her experience as a teacher led her to study psychology and search for the qualities that separate people who succeed in their various fields.

Duckworth explains how her studies and analysis led her to the findings that grit was a determining factor in successful individuals.

The six-minute video is certainly worth a watch, and it goes into more detail about the findings of Duckworth’s studies. 

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Do not lose heart of despair— if you are true believers, you have the upper hand.”

– Surah Ali ‘Imran 3:139

This passage from the Quran reminds me of the importance of belief. 

Belief doesn’t have to be religion, but faith that things will work out can get you through tough times.

For me, belief and faith don’t have to be blind, but they should be there even in dark times. You can accept the situation and look for opportunities to move forward.

The ability to believe is something truly powerful. It can be misused, but a healthy faith can be one of your best allies.

Give yourself the support you need, cultivate your beliefs, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Sterling K. Brown, Kindred, He Got Game, Oprah Winfrey, and Dhammapada 21

Sterling K. Brown, Kindred, He Got Game, Oprah Winfrey, and Dhammapada 21

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on June 19, 2022

Sunday Supplement #58 (June 19th, 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:

“Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms.”

– Sterling K. Brown

Book of the Week:

Kindred – Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler was a bestselling author with multiple Hugo and Nebula awards. She became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995.

Kindred is a standalone novel telling the story of a young African-American woman, Dana, as she inexplicably finds herself forced back and forth through time from present-day 1976 California to antebellum Maryland.

Dana’s first trip back in time puts her in the situation where she decides to save a drowning white boy from drowning. 

Dana’s subsequent trips back have her encountering the same young man. Her trips to the past become longer, and she must face difficult choices to ensure survival and return to her own time.

Butler’s Kindred brilliantly traverses race and gender issues, the history of slavery, and prospects of future egalitarianism.

Kindred is one of Butler’s most famous books and well worth checking out.

Movie of the Week:

He Got Game

Spike Lee is a legendary director and writer. His output as a filmmaker is phenomenal, and his Spike Lee “Joints” catalog contains many brilliant films and powerful stories.

Lee’s love of basketball is prolific, from the sidelines of New York Knicks games to commercials with Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s documentary Kobe Doin’ Work.

However, one of Lee’s most prolific contributions to basketball might be his film He Got Game.

He Got Game tells the story of Jesus Shuttlesworth, the number one high school prospect in America, as he contemplates what college to ply his trade.

Jesus’s decision is preyed on by almost everyone who knows him. An unexpected influence comes from his absent father, Jake.

Jake Shuttlesworth is serving a long-term sentence for the death of his wife. He gets released on parole for a week to try and persuade his son to play for the governor’s alma mater in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.

The story is beautifully told with standout performances from Denzel Washington as Jake and the young Ray Allen as Jesus.

Lee’s themes of acceptance, family strife, and the struggles of Black families living in the projects shine throughout.

There is much to appreciate in Spike Lee’s He Got Game, and it should be on any film lover’s or basketball fan’s watch list.

Brainfood of the Week:

Oprah Winfrey: The Secret of My Success

Oprah Winfrey spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business’s View From The Top speaker series in 2014. This is a clip of Oprah answering a question about the secret of her success.

Oprah begins by explaining that her doing comes from her being. Compassion, willingness to understand and be understood, and wanting to connect make up her being.

Later, Oprah talks about the importance of her work on consciousness.

The video finishes with Oprah explaining that the core of her success was in the connection and understanding of her audience.

These are brief highlights of the video. The clip is five minutes, but the full video is worth checking out as well.

I’ve featured Oprah Winfrey in a few other Sunday Supplements. Her SuperSoul Sunday program is an excellent source of information on self-care and self-improvement.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Watchfulness is the path of immortality. Unwatchfulness is the path of death. Those who are watchful never die. Those who do not watch are already as dead.”

– Dhammapada 21

This verse from the Dhammapada reminds me of the importance of being open to view outside your own narrative.

Often we find ourselves filtering all our experiences through our own perspectives and passing judgments based on our viewpoint.

Keeping an open eye and observing without judgment is the key to welcoming a fresh perspective and leaving room for growth.

Our judgments and perspectives are often used to protect ourselves from foreign experiences and can be dangerous.

However, we are limited to our surroundings when we stay in our shells. We don’t let in any new sights and lose opportunities to grow.

The Dhammapada verse depicts how watchfulness allows us to love, experience new things, and continue growing—closing ourselves off does the opposite.

Observe without judgment, be open to new experiences, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Theodore Roosevelt, Being Mortal, Kingdom of Heaven, Simon Sinek, and 2 Timothy 2:15

Theodore Roosevelt, Being Mortal, Kingdom of Heaven, Simon Sinek, and 2 Timothy 2:15

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on August 8, 2021

Sunday Supplement #13 (August 8th, 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 this post that enriches your week ahead!

Quote of the Week:

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Book of the Week:

Being Mortal – Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a professor at both Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and a bestselling author. A quick Google search shows many other awards and associations Gawande is connected with, including the MacArthur Fellowship (“Genius Grant”).

In Being Mortal, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Gawande explores how the advancement of modern medicine doesn’t always sync with human and spiritual needs, especially in the later years of life. The breakthroughs in medicine and surgery have allowed humans to live much longer than previous generations, but Gawande poses that the cost is often overlooked.

His father’s experience with cancer prompted Gawande to research and write Being Mortal. Often, a medical condition requiring surgery can be viewed as something just being broken, and the solution is to fix it. However, what happens if the surgery isn’t wholly successful is often overlooked. Is an additional couple of years of life worth it if that person is bedridden because of a partially successful surgery?

Gawande goes over many different scenarios often misjudged in modern medicine and provides insight into how best to handle doctor visits and surgery decisions. It is an invaluable book that should be read by anyone looking to understand healthcare and how to best advocate for themselves or on behalf of others.

Movie of the Week:

Kingdom of Heaven (Director’s Cut)

Balian mourns the death of his wife and child when his estranged father shows up with an offer for Balian to join him and find solace and salvation in Jerusalem. Balian’s intended journey is thrown into chaos when his estranged father, the lord of Ibelin, passes his title to his son. The lordship comes with power and land that puts Balian at the forefront of the Crusades. He must decide what kind of ruler he will be in the face of enemies and adversaries.

I highlighted Ridley Scott’s The Martian in Sunday Supplement #7 and briefly touched on his poor run of films in the eyes of critics. Kingdom of Heaven fits in that time period but shouldn’t be considered a flop because the movie Scott made never received a theatrical release. Instead, a considerably edited version of the film became the movie that most people saw or passed over.

In the Director’s Cut introduction, Ridley Scott explains how his three-hour movie was cut down to just over two hours. One of the consequences of the cuts was a diminished storyline for a crucial character. Eva Green’s Sibylla becomes a side character that comes off as weak with no purpose in the theatrical version. In the director’s cut, her story is fully fleshed out and excellently explores the conflict of a woman in her position. Sibylla’s character was crucial to the story, and the theatrical cut suffers for her diminished role. 

The original film is truly a masterpiece of Cinema and thankfully was released as a director’s cut. The depiction of Christians and Muslims in the movie is beautifully explored, and the full story should be a classic in film history. The cast is full of brilliant performances, including Liam Neeson, Eva Green, David Thewlis, Alexander Siddig, Ghassan Massoud, Jeremy Irons, Edward Norton, Brendan Gleeson, and Orlando Bloom.

I highly recommend this film.

Brainfood of the Week:

A Simon Sinek clip on “The Paradox of Being Human – Individuals and Groups”

This is a quick clip where Simon Sinek talks about the paradox of putting the individual or the community first. There is no definitive answer because it’s a paradox, but Sinek explains how to be in touch with both in this short clip. It is an interesting way to view a relationship predicament that is prevalent across society.

Sinek is an inspirational speaker and bestselling author. He spoke at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in 2016 and later launched a new imprint at Penguin Random House, Optimism Press. The Press aims to find authors from the business world, the nonprofit world, the military, politics, education, the clergy, and elsewhere to offer direction on building a more optimistic world.

Simon’s YouTube page is a fun place to start to get an idea of his work. If you enjoy his content, his books are a great next place to look.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

– 2 Timothy 2:15

When I break this passage down, I think of holding oneself accountable without shame— to be satisfied with one’s presentation.

I believe this happens when you fully accept yourself and can honestly say you’ve done your best. For me, part of that comes from being in touch with my emotions. I believe that feelings can be an internal compass and a way to know when you are in line with your purpose. That doesn’t mean I let my emotions control me, but I do my best not to shut anything out. 

We might not always be at our best, though. And the quote from Theodore Roosevelt at the top of the page reminds me of that— “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” I believe if we live by this principle, we can speak without shame.

This is a work in progress for me but something I will always strive to align with.

Be easy on yourself, and have a blessed week ahead!

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