Are We There Yet? vol. 69

On Sunday, our family went to our first church service inside the church since March 2020.  After the service, many of our fellow congregants noted that they thought we were a new family because they didn’t recognize our kids.  My sons have grown 8 to 10 inches in the past 16 months.  When I got home, my wife and I were remarking, with fond recollection, about how much our family had changed over the years and sometimes how we miss those times.  In this past Sunday’s New York Times, Lauren DePino wrote about how difficult it is to let go, sometimes of things and sometimes of memories or missed opportunities and what might have been. She noted that her husband has a fascination with letting go.  She writes that “he embraces what I hate – the fleetingness of our dreams and achievements, of endeavors that take lifetimes to build . . .” Her husband loves the universe the way it is where eventually, everything, including us, is gone.  She went on to note the beauty in not knowing how things will turn out and the corresponding hope that we possess. “And if we knew exactly who we would become, would our lives turn out so beautiful?”

We all know somebody (maybe ourselves) that can’t let go of something and often, as an outsider, we can see that if they would just let go, that freedom might allow them to flourish.  Ms. DePino writes that “Someday we must let go of all that is precious to us – our loved ones, dreams that never materialized, and what we made in and of this world. These truths birth our common pain, our collective grief.” So, if we can acknowledge this eventuality, why not embrace our future while letting go of what slows us down.  We’ve only got one life to live.  There aren’t any mulligans or do- overs and there’s not a clock to tell us when time is running out. We should try to learn from the past but not dwell on it and let go of that which doesn’t move us forward.

This week’s selection is:

VIDEO:

Ted Lasso (Apple TV)

Jason Sudeikis is Ted Lasso, is an American football coach hired to manage a British Premier League football team despite having no experience with the sport.  But what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for with optimism, underdog determination, and . . . biscuits.