Weekly Checklist 10/18/22
For Your Cultural Health:
I don’t know if you have been noticing, but Jon Stewart is taking an activist position on democratic freedom, trans-affirmative care, and the fight for freedom in Iran. In this video, parents Parents Keisha Michaels and Debi Jackson offer moving stories about how gender-affirming care starts at home:
For Your Political Health:
I do not know how much you are following what is happening in Russia and Ukraine and how the fight for democracy is playing out in Eastern Europe. This mirrors, to my mind, what happened when the world began to wake up to the atrocities happening in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s takeover in 1933. Many people in this country were, at that time, either numb or America First (where that phrase came from), and where people like Henry Ford and Charles Limburg were pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish. So it’s interesting to listen to how liberal-minded people in Russia feel about what is happening and to hear blow-by-blow news from people who have left Russia. So I call your attention to Constantin who posting almost every day on his channel “Inside Russia,” even though he is no longer in Russia:
For Your Psychological Freedom Health:
Severance is an American science fiction psychological thriller television program, that has a secret commentary on fascism as a psychological fact that is taking place not just in faraway places but in our own minds. Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives; when a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs. But the SECRET SAUCE of the movie is that Mark’s former best friend, Petey, is the person who is going to save him. So it’s a homo connection that unlocks the keys to memory and freedom. I am loving the show for this! On Apple TV.
For Your Literary Health:
Three debut novels were among the five National Book Award fiction finalists announced this past week. One of the finalists was one of my favorite authors: Gayl Jones, for her new book, The Birdcatcher, which is about a group of Black American artists in Ibiza, including a sculptor whose husband tries to institutionalize her repeatedly for trying to kill him. Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. She attended Connecticut College and Brown University and has taught at Wellesley College and the University of Michigan. Her books landmark books include Corregidora, Eva’s Man, Mosquito, and The Healing, the last National Book Award finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her latest book, Palmares, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and named a New York Times Editors' Choice and has received countless other accolades. If you have not read “The Healing” please run out and get it immediately.
For Your Coming Out Month Health:
“We Are Not Like Them,” a Novel by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza: Told from alternating perspectives, an evocative and riveting novel about the lifelong bond between two women, one Black and one white, whose friendship is indelibly altered by a tragic event—a powerful and poignant exploration of race in America today and its devastating impact on ordinary lives.