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Weekend Butler: 2022 thoughts, prayers, fears… and resolve. Must-see weekend movie. A tasty condiment. And more.
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Published: Jan 06, 2022
Category:
Weekend
SURVIVING/ENDURING THE PANDEMIC: A checklist, again.
WELCOME TO 2022: THOUGHTS, PRAYERS, FEARS…AND RESOLVE.
From R, a close friend and Butler reader: “I have noticed that your blog is often about self-improvement. I guess that is natural when we live in an era where we have so little control over our external environment, like looming climate catastrophe. As a result, I think many of us tend to turn inward and work on ourselves because it is the one canvas that we have some control over how to apply the paint. As Confucius taught, if each person perfects himself, then each family is better. And then if each family is better, the city is better. And if each city is better, the country is better. Of course, Confucius didn’t know about North Dakota or West Virginia. Not much perfecting going on there…”
Almost, R. Almost. I’m obsessed with self-improvement because I’m scared. Not of dying — I’m seriously senior, and a recent birthday puts an exclamation mark on it — but of violence. I live in New York City, where residents don’t own rifles (for long-range targets) and pistols (for close-up targets), so this isn’t a pressing concern. But when you read the news and see the polls, it seems tragically sensible to worry about right wing true believers, lone crazies, racists, incels, conspiracy freaks and even Facebook non-friends.
I asked a therapist if her patients are more scared of violence than Covid. Yes, they are.
A friend who is connected to government at the highest levels called to wish me a happy birthday. Within 90 seconds, we were comparing anxiety levels. “My darkest fear is that someone will show up at my door with a gun and say, ‘I’d like your apartment… now,” he said.
To a degree, a sensitivity to danger is a good thing. I once entered a theater behind Mick Jagger. The first thing he did was look for the emergency exits. I was later told: all celebrities do.
My interest in personal improvement goes beyond concern for my safety and survival. In real life, I can be an idiot and act impulsively. In crisis, I’ve been smart and solid. No matter how urgent the danger, my mind can process the information and produce a good strategy — for myself and others. In a word, I can lead.
I keep a file of good leadership examples.
Recently, on Butler, I showcased Dave Grohl taking charge at a concert.
In a Daily Beast piece about January 6, I found this:
At 2:38 p.m. members started evacuating. The banging on the door intensified to almost battering. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), a Harvard-educated Marine who served in Iraq, hopped up on a chair and began taking charge. He told his colleagues they needed to remember to breathe when they were wearing the escape hoods, otherwise they were liable to pass out.
Decades ago, in a conversation with an MIT professor, I learned that one reason the 1980 rescue attempt to free American hostages in Iran failed was because the helicopter unit hadn’t done simulations in sandstorms. The team that killed Bin Laden prepared for every possibility.
This is why I try to walk 7,000+ steps a day and encourage you to do the same. And take my meds and vitamins, and dust my unwatched TV periodically, and avoid most of the books and movies The New Yorker recommends and work hard to finish a novel about a kid who finds himself in a leadership role he never asked for. And why this is my motto for the year, from piamist and displomat Ignacy Jan Paderewski: “If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.”
So… thoughts and prayers for 2022. And then… self-improvement. May we all end the year better than we started.
GRAN LUCHITO’S CHIPOTLE PASTE
The Times: “The dense, jammy condiment packs smoky heat with a whisper of sweetness to elevate all sorts of dishes — mix it with oil or melted butter to brush on shrimp before grilling.” My take: it’s a nice change from Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp Sauce With Roasted Chili Pepper Flakes. [To buy the chipotle paste from Amazon, click here.]
OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO WOMEN: IS THE ANSWER TO DEMENTIA ACTUALLY IN THE AIR?
From the Daily Beast:
A growing body of evidence over the last few years has demonstrated that air pollution is a significant risk factor for developing dementia in old age. It shouldn’t be much of a shock. “When sensitive people breathe in polluted air from outdoors, very small particles can penetrate the lungs and get into the circulation system,” Jiu-Chiuan Chen, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, told The Daily Beast. “These ‘toxic’ responses can make the blood-brain barrier leaky and cause damage to the brain.” It’s not all that different from how other risk factors like smoking can negatively impact human health, leaving it more vulnerable to degenerative conditions like dementia.
The big question scientists have had in the last few years was whether the impact of air pollution on dementia risk was permanent—or whether this was something that could be reversed. New findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences bring good news: Improved air quality over several years is associated with a reduced risk of dementia in elderly women. The findings bolster suspicions that external pollutants can contribute to accelerated aging in the brain (which is effectively what dementia is). But more critically, they also show that this aging can be slowed down if exposure to those pollutants decreases.
What does this suggest? A LEVOIT Air Purifier. It’s effective for 200 square feet — that’s essentially one room. Maybe you’ll need more than one?
THE TENDER BAR
I’ve seen the movie. It’s light years more credibly human than the wildly overpraised X and Y and Z. The adaptation is funny and poignant in equal measure, Ben Affleck gives the performance of his career, Ty Sheridan is flawless as J.R., Lily Rabe and Christopher Lloyd and the cream of New York character actors fill out the cast, and eight-year-old Daniel Ranieri comes close to stealing the movie. George Clooney directs with the lightest possible touch — you almost feel you’re watching a documentary, which is to say you’re watching real life as it happens, and isn’t that the highest praise you can give? “The Tender Bar” is in theaters and now, as of January 7, on Amazon Prime. [Here’s the preview. To rent the stream from Amazon, click here. To read about the book and buy it, click here.]
