100 things, reading spreadsheet, Pluto, proposal soup, and more

Seven links to worthwhile thin(g/k)s

Hello dear reader,

Happy January! I hope the first week of the New Year has been close to what you needed it to be. Wishing you a bright 2022!

Here are seven links to bits of the world I have been exploring this week, shared with the hope that you will find them to be an inspiring springboard for deeper thinking.

1. 100 things that made my year in 2021: This is my annual list of things that stood out from the past year, done in an effort to sharpen an appreciation for the more cosmic things in life, and to remember that trying times help us chart out kernels worth being thankful for. It was particularly difficult to pen this year, because other than some of the more momentous occasions I shared in the list, the year 2021 was generally a blurred continuation of 2020 pandemic life. I took this as a sign that in this new year, I’d like to be more conscious of day-to-day decision-making and to move toward the direction of getting out of the house more, of being more discerning with my time commitments, and of pursuing more expansive activities (physical and mental). My body and mind, for example, have been feeling curled up in a corner of the couch and in desperate need of a good stretch. So, here we go :)

2. In an effort to be more methodical and disciplined this year, I’m tracking my reading with a 2022 spreadsheet, which I’ll be updating regularly. Thinking of doing the same for film/TV watched. On that note, I found the following two films fascinating due to the breadth and depth of Cillian Murphy’s acting talent:

   • Peacock, in which Cillian plays a small-town man with dissociative identity disorder dealing with childhood trauma inflicted by his abusive mother. I am stunned by Cillian’s performance. And in digging into some of his works, I came across this great rehearsal scene, in which we get a glimpse of Cillian’s process.

   • Breakfast on Pluto, in which Cillian again delivers a stellar performance depicting the brutality of the main character Kitten’s environment. His intelligence with regard to how Cillian preps for his roles shines through beautifully.

   Next, I’m aiming to dig into Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter sometime this month.

3. A lens for Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, and its ‘moral urgency.’

4. Distorting historical women and making them ‘Instagrammable’ by way of TV/film.

5. Remembering Joan Didion (RIP). Also exploring the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Highly recommend the biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

6. A searchable link containing old book illustrations.

7. The proposal soup, a sweet story ;)

Until next week!

Warmly,

Ani

P.S. I began my very first French language class this week, and it was pure exhilaration! It had been a long time since I took on a project that required me to be comfortable in novice-mode but also eager to progress into proficiency. And although I’m knee deep in pronunciation mistakes, precisely therein we find progress :)) For anyone interested, my classes are online under the guidance of Alliance Française.

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