Forgetting the pain, Olympics heartbreaks, and holding two opposing emotions

3 short ideas

Hi friends, Happy Curated Friday! Here are three thoughts, meditations, and quotes for this week.

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Thoughts

1.

I pulled my back muscles last week while playing basketball. For a few days, I walked funny and lopsided and had difficulty doing basic things like bending my torso, picking up something on the floor, or twisting my body while driving.

"How nice it is when the body just works!" I thought.

I've fully recovered now. One thing I notice, though, is how quickly I've forgotten about the pain. It reminds me of the many times I have had a sore throat and thought, "I would pay anything to get rid of this sore throat!" Then, I don't think about it again—until I get it next time.

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2.

One heartbreaking Olympics moment this week was the Spanish badminton Carolina Marin collapsing on the floor with almost a two-game advantage in the semi-final. Unfortunately, she likely tore her ligament and had to withdraw from the game.

One interesting observation was that while the Chinese athlete signaled help for Marin, the Chinese coach was more concerned about her being distracted. He told the Chinese player in Mandarin, "Focus on your game first. Steady yourself!"

The Chinese athlete won silver in the event at the end. While on the podium, she held a Spanish flag pin to honor Marin. That's a wonderful display of sportsmanship. After all, few people other than your rivals can truly understand what it takes to compete at that level.

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3.

I watched a portion of the Netflix comedy show by Patton Oswalt. I was surprised the story turned into him becoming a widower. He said the second worst day of his life was his wife's death, but the worst was the day after when he had to break the news to his daughter.

"I looked at my daughter and destroyed her world," he said. "That's going to be longer for me to recover from my wife dying."

Then he made jokes about loud Armenian and Chinese families in the cemetery when he tried to have a deep conversation with his wife at the grave.

The comic work was poignant and remarkable. To intertwine comedy and tragedy while retaining the power of both, Oswalt must have made a tremendous effort to process the grief of losing his wife and the hope of seeing his daughter grow. Holding these opposite emotions within him simultaneously must be hard, but being able to do so made his story so powerful.

It reminds me of what Stephen Cobert once poetically said when Dua Lipa asked him how his faith and his comedy overlap:

"If there is some relationship between my faith and my comedy, it's that no matter what happens, you are never defeated. You must understand and see this in the light of eternity and find some way to love and laugh with each other."

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Meditations

1.

the most important change is often invisible

nothing seems to have changed
when an ice cube warms from -10°C to -1°C

but the crystal transforms
when it goes from -1°C to 0°C

it’s like a bamboo
that stays dormant for years
while building its complex roots underground

when it is ready
the bamboo grows seventy feet in a few weeks
it is long and flexible
yet strong and steady

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2.

bad things happen to bad people
good things happen to good people

good things happen to bad people
bad things happen to good people

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3.

the enjoyment of a song
lies in the passing of its notes

imagine a song
that doesn’t end

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Quotes

1.

“Lo barato sale caro.” (Cheap things turn out expensive.)

—Spanish expression

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2.

“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”

—Sebastian Junger

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3.

“A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.”

―Elbert Hubbard

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Have a great weekend!