4 minute read
Media Reviews
Want to Be Happy? Be Grateful
TED Talk
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If you search on YouTube for videos on the topic of gratitude, chances are you’re going to find a video from Brother David SteindlRast, an Austrian-born Benedictine monk and interfaith scholar. He is probably best known for his 2013 TED Talk on that very topic. As of this writing, the video has been viewed almost 3 million times.
In the talk, Steindl-Rast digs into the connection between gratitude and happiness, saying that one leads to the other. Grateful people, he says, are joyful people, adding, “If you think it’s happiness that makes you grateful, think again.”
He acknowledges, though, that we cannot be grateful for everything. We are not grateful for things such as violence, war, oppression, or, on a more personal level, the loss of a friend or unfaithfulness. What we can be grateful for, he says, is the opportunity that those experiences provide us.
“Even when we are confronted with something that is terribly difficult, we can rise to this occasion and respond to the opportunity that is given to us,” Steindl-Rast points out.
“We have this saying that opportunity knocks only once,” he says. “Think again. Every moment is a gift, over and over again. And if you miss the opportunity of this moment, another moment is given to us. And another moment. We always get another opportunity. That’s the wonderful richness of life.”
But how can we live gratefully? “By experiencing,” he says. “By becoming aware that every moment is a given moment. It’s a gift. You haven’t earned it. You haven’t brought it about in any way.”
At the end of his talk, Brother David offers a simple formula for being grateful. He says it is the same way we learned to cross the street when we were younger—stop, look, and go. If we don’t stop, we will miss the opportunities around us. We must then take the time
Brother David Steindl-Rast
to look around and take in all that we have been given. Then, he says, we must go. With this practice we can transform the world and make it a happy place, he adds.
Steindl-Rast divides his time among monastic life, writing, and worldwide lecturing. He has written 10 books and contributed to many other books and periodicals. He is the cofounder of Gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 240 countries and territories. In addition to this TED talk, you can find many other videos from Steindl-Rast on YouTube regarding the topics of gratitude and happiness.
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Examining the Black Experience
With Black History Month upon us, film and television can provide windows into other lived experiences, including the Black experience. Here are five films to get us started, all of them available for streaming.
SOUNDER (1972)
The groundbreaking Sounder is all about a journey: a young man’s quest to make his fractured family whole again and for a life better than that of his sharecropper parents. Anchored by a career-defining performance by the late Cicely Tyson as the tough-as-nails matriarch, Sounder soars because of its realism and its rugged portrait of a proud family in a cruel world. It still packs a punch. Rated G
THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)
Based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prizewinning novel of the same name, The Color Purple is still, after almost four decades, a seminal piece of work. In perhaps the greatest debut performance ever rendered to film, Whoopi Goldberg leads an impressive cast as Celie, an illiterate, abused wife who slowly rediscovers her agency and her innate worth in rural 1930s Georgia. Rated PG-13
GLORY (1989)
Director Edward Zwick’s powerful ode to Black soldiers in the Civil War should be required viewing for young people. Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, and Denzel Washington (in his Oscar-winning turn) lead the charge about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, an African American unit that was an instrumental force within the United States Civil War. Glory proves that courage is colorblind. Rated R
WAITING TO EXHALE (1995)
It’s not a particularly great film but still worth considering, namely because of Angela Bassett’s spectacular, ragefueled meltdown after discovering her husband’s infidelities. Waiting to Exhale is flawed, yes, but it’s still a thoughtful examination of four successful, relatable Black women and how their friendship helps them weather life’s storms. Rated R
PRECIOUS (2009)
In a performance of startling power, Gabourey Sidibe plays Precious, a Harlem teen twice impregnated by her father. She overcomes illiteracy, poverty, and the physical and emotional abuse of her mother (played to searing perfection by Oscar-winner Mo’Nique). Not for the faint of heart, but an important exploration of one facet of the Black experience, Precious is an unflinching look at the rebirth of a battered spirit. Rated R
MOONLIGHT (2016)
A character study in three chapters, Moonlight charts the evolution of Chiron, from a neglected adolescent to a wounded adult. The film manages to be both lyrical and savagely honest in its depiction of Chiron’s sexuality, cultural identity, and self-acceptance. Driven by strong performances by an ensemble cast (particularly by Mahershala Ali as the boy’s father figure), writer-director Barry Jenkins somehow manages to find beauty even in life’s darkest moments. A modern classic. Rated R
