#266 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday February 4)
Good morning!
This week brought several important commemorations. The Lunar New Year on February 1 also marked the first day of Black History Month. And then it was Groundhog Day the very next day.
GROUNDHOG DAY
I really have no stake in the game of whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not on Groundhog Day (February 2 this year). The belief is that if he sees his shadow, there theoretically will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, he presumably has resolved that there will be an early Spring. For all you east-coasters, six more weeks of winter out here means a few more golf rounds that might require a pullover sweater…
The reason I love Groundhog Day is that it is a reminder of one of the best movies in recent years, the eponymous Groundhog Day. The idea that one wakes up every day to the same circumstances and tries to make do in different ways is an intriguing one and certainly a metaphor for the quotidian life. The question every day is what we will do with that day to make it productive and special. Each time Bill Murray returns he learns something new and finds himself in circumstances where he can perform acts of kindness because of what he learned the last time he was in that situation.
Groundhog Day is the best example of a certain type of movie…where things repeat themselves until they get it right—like 50 First Dates (one of Adam Sandler’s few “crossover” rom-coms with minimal slapstick). In it, he keeps going out with the same woman, played by Drew Barrymore. It isn’t that he is in an endless loop; it’s that her condition means that each day that she wakes up, the prior day didn’t happen.
Try Edge of Tomorrow, for a sci-fi spin on the repeated time loop, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. A recent one is Palm Springs, with Andy Sandberg and Cristin Melloti, as the only two people caught in a repetition of days—it’s different in that the repetition is a shared experience.
Finally, for a surreal twist on the “repeated day” motif, Russian Doll is a great miniseries, in which the protagonist attends her surprise birthday party and dies at the end when she tries to rescue her cat from an oncoming taxi. She comes back the following morning to the same party but different experiences, yet always dying in the end.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
It’s Black History Month. I’ve thought about what to say to commemorate it this year. I would suggest not commemorating slavery, Jim Crow and racial injustice. Oh, certainly there is that, and it should be studied in schools recorded in books and editorials, and spoken of often. But it ought not be the primary purpose of a month celebrating Black history, just as Jewish history cannot be a constant relentless study of the Holocaust and antisemitism.
I think Black History Month should celebrate Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson, Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, Thurgood Marshall, Shirley Chisholm, and Adam Clayton Powell. Not to the exclusion of the challenges of the Black experience in American but to remind everyone—of every color and creed—of the contributions these people and others made to our lives and our collective existence.
CLARIFICATION
Some friends on the right observed that my Musing earlier this week seemed to indicate I thought there was more antisemitism emanating from the far left. To be clear, I would never purport to “rank order” amongst purveyors of hate. The comment in question, however, referred to antisemitism coming from whites, which I think is disproportionately represented on the far right (e.g, “Jews will not replace us,” “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirts on January 6th, and Nazi symbolism). This is not to suggest that (sadly) there isn’t plenty of antisemitism coming from the left, from people of various races. The vile utterings of Ilhan Omar and Al Sharpton are no less hurtful; however, they and their followers have yet to take up arms in pursuit of their rhetoric.
Have a great weekend,
Glenn