Tag: meaning

Jeanne Moreau, Start With Why, Adaptation, Einzelgänger, and an African Proverb

Jeanne Moreau, Start With Why, Adaptation, Einzelgänger, and an African Proverb

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on March 10, 2024

Sunday Supplement #148 (March 10th, 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:

“Life is an accomplishment and each moment has a meaning and you must use it.”

– Jeanne Moreau

Book of the Week:

Start With Why – Simon Sinek

I’ve featured Simon Sinek in many previous Sunday Supplement posts, but mainly as a Brainfood of the Week post.

This is the first time I’ve posted about his books. I only read the book a few weeks ago, but it’s easily one of my favorite nonfiction books.

In Start With Why, Sinek breaks down different historical people and companies and how they created a lasting impact.

Sinek’s examination of how so many companies fail to act from a place that resonates with the people they want to attract is profound.

I cannot recommend this book more highly because it gives an excellent insight on where we should operate from as people and through industry.

Movie of the Week:

Adaptation

Charlie Kaufman is known for his bizarre and existential movies, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich.

Kaufman’s screenplay Adaptation is my favorite movie of his. It is excellently directed by Spike Jonze and has a brilliant cast that includes Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton, Ron Livingston, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Adaptation tells the story of a screenwriter who suffers from writer’s block as he struggles to adapt Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief.

If you haven’t seen any of Kaufman’s work, a forewarning: his stories are bizarre. The humor and satire about the Hollywood industry in this movie are fantastic.

Kaufman’s movies are hard to summarize, but if you like quirky movies, give this one a try. The final act is an interesting meta-critique of Blockbuster films. Let me know what you think.

Brainfood of the Week:

Stop Trying to Get It And You’ll Have It | The Backwards Law | Einzelgänger

This video discusses Alan Watts’ Backwards Law. It also discusses other philosophers, such as Arthur Schopenhauer and writers, like Mark Manson, in relation to the law.

The Backwards Law states the more we pursue something, the more we achieve the opposite of what we truly want and the more disappointed we feel.

Einzelgänger states the difference between external pursuits and internal desires. Wanting to run marathons and working toward it is a good thing, whereas setting a goal as a benchmark for happiness is a trap.

The video explores how the theory works in practice, not just in concept, and there are many gems from this video worth picking up.

I’ve featured Einzelgänger’s channel in previous Sunday Supplements. If you’ve enjoyed this video, check out the other posts or his channel on YouTube.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“A person is a person because of other people.”

– African Proverb

This African proverb, which Desmond Tutu has quoted, refers to the word/philosophy of Ubuntu: “I am because we are.”

For me, this proverb reminds me how important community and our own actions are to the shaping of lives.

So many things can impact our lives, but people are probably the most impactful on other people’s lives. Whether these are people in our lives, the people we see on television, or the people we read about in books, they can influence our perceptions.

I think it’s essential to filter other people’s influences on us to ensure we’re allowing the best to get through. Knowing that our actions and others can have significant effects is also important.

Make sure you see the meaning in your life, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Gabrielle Bernstein, Man’s Search for Meaning, Drive My Car, Daily Stoic, and a Kenyan Proverb

Gabrielle Bernstein, Man’s Search for Meaning, Drive My Car, Daily Stoic, and a Kenyan Proverb

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on April 23, 2023

Sunday Supplement #102 (April 23rd, 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:

“The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within us.”

– Gabrielle Bernstein

Book of the Week:

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

Man’s Search for Meaning frequently appears whenever I peruse lists for best self-help books or similar searches on the most influential books ever published.

Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist and a Holocaust survivor. His memoir Man’s Search for Meaning recounts his time in various concentration camps and what he learned.

In the book, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to cope, find meaning, and move forward with purpose.

Frankl’s theory of logotherapy (the primary human drive as the pursuit of meaning, not pleasure) is explained in the book.

Reading about Frankl’s experiences is enough for a recommendation of this book, but it also provides a perspective worth taking a look at.

Movie of the Week:

Drive My Car

The 2021 film Drive My Car won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and was nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in Directing, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi wrote and directed the film about a renowned stage actor and director who learns to cope with a personal loss after accepting an offer to direct a production of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.

Hamaguchi adapted the screenplay from Haruki Murakami’s collection of short stories, Men Without Women. Murakami is one of my favorite authors (although I’ve only featured him in Sunday Supplement #5), and this film brilliantly captures his writing.

The film explores themes of trauma, grief, guilt, and recovery in a way that honors Murakami’s writing and provides a special cinematic experience.

I highly recommend checking it out.

Brainfood of the Week:

5 Life Changing Journaling Habits from the Stoics | Daily Stoic

The intro of this video is of Ryan Holiday discussing his journaling journey and the different prompts you can focus on for journaling.

Holiday then moves on to the video’s main focus, which is a general guide of five tips for journaling.

One of my favorite parts is when Holiday discusses the Anne Frank quote, “Paper is more patient than people.” He goes on to discuss the utility of journaling in this context.

I featured Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle is the Way on Sunday Supplement #36. His Daily Stoic YouTube channel has over a million subscribers.

The video is worth checking out, and if you like it, check out more of his work.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“He who refuses to obey cannot command.”

– Kenyan Proverb

This Kenyan proverb reminds me of the necessity and value of listening to others and keeping an open mind.

I sometimes find myself tuning out when someone offers advice or tells of their experience, which I don’t think has any connection with me.

When my mind wanders, I try to snap back to the present moment and listen without judgment. It’s in these moments that I find a connection.

I think it’s sometimes difficult to listen to others with an open mind, but I think it’s worth doing so even if you later reflect that there wasn’t something to gain.

The exercise of reflecting on ideas from outside ourselves helps us continue to grow and be open to new information.

Be open to new information, reflect on how we want to move forward, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Paulo Coelho, The 4-Hour Workweek, The Birdcage, Emily Esfahani Smith, and Ecclesiastes 3:12

Paulo Coelho, The 4-Hour Workweek, The Birdcage, Emily Esfahani Smith, and Ecclesiastes 3:12

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on June 12, 2022

Sunday Supplement #57 (June 12th, 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:

“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”

– Paulo Coelho (Matthew 6:21)

Book of the Week:

The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss

I’ve featured Tim Ferriss in seven different Sunday Supplements, but they all were in the Brainfood of the Week Category with interviews he’s conducted on The Tim Ferris Show.

In addition to being a brilliant interviewer, Ferriss is famous for his “life-hack” blog posts and bestselling books on various topics.

Tim’s The 4-Hour Workweek is the first of his bestselling self-help books. It delivers anecdotes and how-tos on eliminating unnecessary work and maximizing results.

I haven’t always been a fan of Ferriss’s tone on his podcast and in his writing, but I’ve liked him more in the past year or two since his deeply personal podcast episode.

The 4-Hour Workweek is a throwback to his days when he came off out of touch at times with different audiences, but some of the content he covered was excellent.

The book’s time management and work negotiation sections were some of my favorite and had tips I continue to use today.

Read with a grain of salt, but there is sure to be something useful you add to your own routine.

Movie of the Week:

The Birdcage

Mike Nichols’s The Birdcage was adapted from Jean Poiret’s play and starred Robin Williams, Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, and Dianne Wiest.

The story follows a cabaret owner and his drag queen companion as they agree to put on a false straight front so their son can bring his fiancée’s right-wing parents to meet the family.

The film carries a comedic tone throughout but champions LGBTQ+ issues in serious moments at a time (1996) when it was taboo to cover them.

Williams and Lane star as the partners and parents pretending to play it straight. The story utilizes both actors’ brilliance to help the film shine.

The Birdcage was nominated for only one Academy Award (Best Art Direction-Set Decoration) and arguably missed out because of the movie’s story.

Nichols’s movie stands the test of time and is one to check out for many reasons, including one of Robin Williams’s best performances.

Brainfood of the Week:

TED Talks: There’s More to Life Than Being Happy | Emily Esfahani Smith

In this TED Talk, Emily Esfahani Smith discusses her journey from the pursuit of achieving happiness by achieving success to finding out how to live a life of meaning.

Smith went to graduate school for positive psychology to find out why she and others struggled despite achieving success.

Data showed Smith that chasing happiness can make people unhappy.

Suicide rates reached a 30-year high in America. Even though life has improved objectively by nearly every conceivable standard, more people feel hopeless, depressed, and alone.

Research shows that this despair comes from a lack of meaning in life. Is there more to life than being happy? And is there a difference between being happy and having meaning in life?

How can we each live more meaningfully? Smith spent five years interviewing hundreds of people and reading through thousands of pages of psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy.

Smith found what she calls the four pillars of a meaningful life— Belonging, Purpose, Transcendence, and Storytelling.

In the video, Smith details each pillar and how they affect our lives.

This Ted Talks is genuinely one of the best videos I’ve come across about the meaning of life. Please take the time to give it a watch.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live.”

– Ecclesiastes 3:12

This bible passage reminds me not to chase happiness and to look for the moments to help others when I have the opportunity.

The words ‘be joyful’ don’t describe a state achieved through outside influences. In Ecclesiastes, the words read to me of an emotion that comes from within.

I believe we can be affected by outside influences, consciously or unconsciously, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But we can always choose or work on choosing how to respond.

And when we go about our lives, I believe we have the ability to tap into whatever emotion we want. For me, this Ecclesiastes passage reminds me to tap into joy.

The other part of the passage reminds me that acts of service ‘doing good’ are our most powerful ways to contribute and experience life.

I believe doing good can come in small acts as well as grand acts, and sometimes it’s the small acts that can make a massive difference in someone else’s life.

Act from joy, watch for the moments to do good, and have a blessed week ahead!

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Viktor Frankl, The Really Hard Problem, Catch Me If You Can, Existentialism, and Dhammapada 103

Viktor Frankl, The Really Hard Problem, Catch Me If You Can, Existentialism, and Dhammapada 103

Published by Drew Alexander Ross on May 8, 2022

Sunday Supplement #52 (May 8th, 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 there is meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering.”

– Viktor Frankl

Book of the Week:

The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World – Owen J. Flanagan

Owen Flanagan has the title of James B. Duke Professor ad Duke University, which is only given to a few faculty members with extraordinary records of achievement.

Flanagan teaches Philosophy and Neurobiology and has written extensively on the problem of consciousness and the meaning of life with regard to science and philosophy.

In The Really Hard Problem, Flanagan addresses how meaning is still possible in a material world without needing a supernatural explanation.

The Duke University professor uses concepts from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology to outline his findings and beliefs. Flanagan also draws on practices from non-theistic spiritual traditions like Confucianism, Buddhism, and Stoicism.

The book outlines the concept of eudaimonia and how we can live a meaningful life through parameters like being moral, having true friends, opportunities to express our talents, experiencing beauty, and having trust.

Flanagan’s work is a brilliant insight into a human spiritual experience that doesn’t shy away from science. His books are worth checking out.

Movie of the Week:

Catch Me If You Can

Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can is based on the autobiography of con artist Frank Abagnale Jr.

The movie opens with FBI agent Carl Hanratty (played by Tom Hanks) escorting Frank Jr (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) back to the United States.

Various meaningful moments of Frank Jr’s life are revisited to show how the young man became a notorious check forger. Along his journey, he took on the alias of a pilot, doctor, and lawyer as he conned millions of dollars with forged checks.

The story brilliantly explores honesty in interpersonal relationships as well as the upside and downside of wealth and fame versus being seen and loved for who you are.

There aren’t many movies that delve into moral themes deeply while having an adventurous and entertaining story as the vessel.

Catch Me If You Can didn’t win any Oscars and was only up for two categories at the Academy Awards in 2003. Regardless, it’s worthy of remembering and watching years later.

Brainfood of the Week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDz7xZkaoFk

Existentialism: Finding Meaning in Suffering | Freedom in Thought

The video opens with the question, “What does suffering mean to you?”

Viktor Frankl’s life and beliefs and Existentialism become the focus of the video to answer and find meaning in the question.

Frankl is an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He famously wrote the book Man’s Search For Meaning, chronicling his time as a prisoner and his psychotherapeutic method of logotherapy.

The video discusses how essentialism was a widespread belief before World War II. The belief states that we are all born with an essence and a purpose.

However, many questioned this belief after the atrocities of WWII. It was hard to believe in a predestined meaning if all experiences were suffering.

Existentialism then became a wider spread philosophy. Its core concept is that we are born without a purpose and are left to define our own.

Some people believe this to be a depressing viewpoint because there is no ultimate or objective meaning. Others see it as a beautiful and liberating philosophy where we can have infinite amounts of meaning.

Frankl’s philosophy allowed him to find meaning in his suffering.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation – just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer – we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Life isn’t about avoiding suffering or stress at all costs. Finding meaning in suffering or finding something worth suffering for is a worthy goal.

The video delves into more positive sides of Existentialism, and I encourage you to view the whole thing. If you enjoy their breakdown of philosophical concepts, I feature another Freedom in Thought video in Sunday Supplement #27.

Closing Spiritual Passage:

“Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men is he who would conquer just one— himself.”

– Dhammapada 103

The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings from the Buddha and is one of the most widely read and known Buddhist scriptures.

This verse reminds me of the true power of having control over oneself.

There are many external obstacles and achievements to navigate in life, but one person is always with you along the way.

I believe some of the most important life lessons are learning to be happy with yourself and being fully conscious of your actions.

The Dhammapada verse reminds me that personal growth and well-being are two things worthy of a lifetime commitment.

Catch yourself in the moment, and have a blessed week ahead!

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