Gratitude is real
When we listen to self-help gurus (or, as I call them, scammers), they recommend gratitude practice for a good life.
The idea, stolen from mainstream religions, is that writing down what we are grateful for reminds us of what really matters.
It's not that I disagree. It's just no one has time for it.
We are busy with work, families, news, wars, and the overall daily grind of life.
Yeah, I'm grateful for many things, but I don't always think about them.
But.
Last week, I was served a lesson with gratitude for dessert.
On Wednesday night, during sparring (last round!), I stepped funny, bending my toes to the floor with my body weight. The room started spinning, and I had to sit down—but hey, it's a kind of sport that these things happen.
I limped home and went to bed.
I woke up in the middle of the night from pain, but mid-sleep, I sprayed some ibuprofen on my foot and went back to sleep.
I only realised in the morning that my toes were swollen, my foot was red, and the big toe was turning black.
Well, that's not a good look, and after a short consultation with my mum, Paulina, and my brother's girlfriend, who is a doctor, I decided to contact my GP.
Long story short, I had it looked over by doctors, and I did an X-ray, and it turned out it was just a nasty bruise. Sorted (it will be in a few weeks).
Only at night before sleep did I realise how grateful I was for this day.
I could contact people who cared and offered help; my partner drove me to the doctor. The medical system was very professional and efficient and dealt with my case in just a few hours.
There is a Polish saying that translates to something like 'find good luck in bad luck'.
My blackened and bruised toes are a good reminder of that.
So yes, maybe the self-help gurus are onto something.
(Still, I am not buying their courses.)
WHAT AM I WORKING ON
Our supporters on Patreon asked us about the old Casefile episodes for a while. In short, we were missing the first 60 cases because we started Patreon only after Case 59, and if we added them now, it would mess up the listening feed.
So I contacted support, and to my surprise, they added a backdating option! So, I spend a few hours cleaning up the Patreon feed and adding these old episodes. I am not going to lie; looking through these took me back.
We’ve been doing this job for quite some time.
A new video is out!
It’s a video I wanted to release earlier, but things got in the way, so we cut half of it and left it as a simple list. It’s another about The Boys series.
WHAT AM I READING
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. The book was recommended by a Mark Manson YouTube video (a self-help ‘guru’ I actually like a bit). The premise is that most human motivation comes from an intrinsic fear of death—we want to leave a legacy behind because we are afraid of dying. I only started it yesterday.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. I finished the book, which offers non-mainstream views on things like minimum wage, labour unions, subsidies, welfare state, price fixing, and overall government intervention. It’s safe to say that it is a fairly laissez-faire view of the economy. However, it’s good food for thought and offers arguments that challenge the modern view adopted by the majority of democratic governments.
WHAT AM I WATCHING
Batman: Caped Crusader. I watched this series last week, and it’s a good one. It’s an animation (about Batman) where we get introduced to a few main villains from the stories. There are also some supernatural elements to it. It’s good, but the selling point to me was the animation, done in a detective/noir style, and the music, which fit the series so well. Voice acting is also good. There are some changes to the characters, which in my view work and make this Batman entry a little bit different. Overall a really good watch that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Weird Al. The parody biopic about Weird Al Yankovic, starring Daniel Radcliffe, was on my list for some time, and I finally watched it last week. It’s lighthearted and fun, just like Weird Al’s music. It’s a silly film but not cringe, and Radcliffe as Al is very good - so it's a perfect Sunday night movie.