LIFE AND DEATH

The author Susan Sontag faced multiple health challenges in her lifetime, including several cancers, once wrote, "Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick." I was reminded of this recently after several of my best friends faced serious health challenges or had family members facing these events. 

There is nothing more important in life than health because health means freedom to pursue one's wishes, dreams, and goals without limitation. Unfortunately, we often lose sight of this and take life for granted. My former Chairman of Medicine from Southwestern, Dr. Daniel Foster, was a metabolism experiment. Dr. Foster always said life is merely about generating high energy phosphate bonds to make ATP, the fuel of the cell. However, after 9/11, he changed his mind and simply said, "Life is until further notice." 

I thought about those words as I visited my friend in the hospital last weekend and as I comforted another friend whose dad died quickly after a recurrence of his cancer. My problems and stresses truly felt minuscule in comparison - a fact that I appreciated last week more than at any time in my life. 

There can be no happiness if one has never experienced sadness. Likewise, loss can make one appreciate all the things one has to be grateful for. Life is a gift, and I will do my best to remember that each and every day.

BANSHEES OF INISHERIN

Some movies are made to entertain, while others are made to move you or make you think about our world and one's place in it. I have always gravitated to the latter, and Banshees of Inisherin sits firmly in that camp.

At face value, the film is about the sudden falling out and estrangement of two men from Ireland in the 1920s, who had once been the closest of friends. The rift, at first, seems inexplicable, especially to one of the men named Padraic played by Colin Farrell. His friend, Colm - played by Brendan Gleeson - proceeds to tell him that there was no major row - just that he has become tired of him and no longer has time for him.

The real heart and soul of the film though is Padraic's sister Siobhan, played by Kerri Condon. Like Farrell and Gleason, Condon is nominated for an Oscar, and she just might win it. Her performance cuts past the two friends' falling out and remind us that - deep down - we all long to grow, find purpose, and achieve our dreams. Her salvation is books and all things literary, and books provide her a way out.

The men, on the other hand, do not seem to have the same purpose and are blinded by their perceived differences and desire for revenge. The senselessness of this is captured in a few moments of violence and self-mutilation that is an allegory for the wider conflict zone in which these characters find themselves.

I will not spoil the ending or the deeper meaning. Suffice it to say, I did not need to read a review to understand just what the director/screenwriter Martin McDonagh had intended to portray with this beautiful film. The truth was right before our eyes - in all its brutal reality.

FINDING PEAK FORM AND PIZZA IN PHOENIX

I spent last weekend with Cate in Mesa, Arizona for a weekend of soccer. The weekend was a chance for Cate's team to qualify for the National Championships for the second year in a row. However, doing so required them to win all three of their scheduled games, which was no small feat.

We started off strong, winning our first match 9-2. Cate had a beautiful goal from the top of the box and an assist, and the team was flying. We tied the second game 1-1, surrendering a late goal from a set piece. In the final game, we beat the team who had beat the top of our group 1-0. While we did not get the nine points we needed to automatically qualify, we can still get in if one of the remaining teams - who have played one game less - loses. We will hold our breaths. Our team can also advance by winning a Regional championship in June, so there is still hope!

More than the weekend of soccer and seeing Cate boss the midfield, I enjoyed spending time with her. We checked out Pizzeria Bianco, which critics on a Chef's Table episode on Netflix called the best pizza place in America. We watched the horror film, "The Menu," together, and we had some fun eating conveyer belt sushi!

These trips are about so much more than soccer. I know Cate is grateful to be able to take these trips and do travel soccer. I, too, am grateful to have these trips and bonding time. Let's hope we make the Big Dance. Even if we don't, the road to get there has already been memorable!

AFTERSUN

Leaving home and burying a parent are the big moments that define the lives of parents and children, alike. However, there are many other occasions in life that are every bit as momentous, even if we cannot appreciate their importance in the moment. That is the message the filmmaker Charlotte Wells weaves into her beautiful new film, "Aftersun."

At face value, the film is a story about a father and daughter, who are from Scotland, on holiday in Turkey. Their activities are mostly banal things that many people do on vacation - go out to eat, site see, lounge at the pool. The main characters take turns recording some of these moments with a camcorder, alerting us to the fact that our story takes places in the not-to-distant past. 

What we do not realize is just how big an impact these small moments and the memory of that trip will have on one of the main characters. That is because we lack the context of this trip until very late in the movie. In that sense, this film is like life: it is best understood backwards but must be lived forwards. 

"Aftersun" felt like a clarion call to not lose sight of the many quotidian moments in life that have the potential to be every bit as momentous as events that appear to be more dramatic. The key is to live in the present and not dwell on the past because none of us knows what the future may bring. I hope I can remember these lessons in the days and years to come and savor every moment - especially with my own children.

HOMELESSNESS

The writer Jerusalem Demsas has been chronically the issues of income inequality for some time. Recently, she joined the Atlantic and has written a series of articles about one of the biggest upshots of an income unequal society - homelessness. 

Her take is rather simple. Our current homelessness is not caused by a sudden and new surge in mental illness or drug abuse. Neither can one blame liberal, blue state policies. Rather, homelessness is simply a function of an inadequate supply of affordable housing in cities where large numbers of people wish to live and where one financial disaster can mean the end of their precarious housing situations. 

I found her arguments quite persuasive, and she cited Houston as a role model for a city that has reduced homelessness by 60% in the past decade by aggressively building more housing and placing vulnerable people in those homes. Not in my backyard (NIMBY)-ism seems to be at the heart of the housing crisis facing so many communities as local homeowners are given carte blanche to veto new construction - often affordable houses or apartments - in their backyards.

I am not sure whether we have the will to build more affordable housing in so-called "destination" cites on the west coast and the south. Perhaps the answer is to grow the economies where housing and land is plentiful in large swaths of the middle part of the U.S. We'll see if there is a will, but for now I am staying put in lovely Ann Arbor - flyover country and all!

CLINICAL

Yesterday, Cate had a pair of games to get ready for her upcoming tournament in Arizona later this month. Cate had an assist in the first game and bossed the midfield.

In the second game, one of their players committed a foul in the box. Cate, who is now the default penalty taker, was dispatched to take the kick.

Cool, as you like, she slotted home again clinically! Nice job, Cate!

THE DAY MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL STOPPED

Last week the world witnessed the collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Monday Night Football, one of the most watched sporting programs in America. It was a horrific site to behold as this 24 year-old young man stumbled backwards after what was called a "routine" tackle and hit to the chest. Several minutes were spent on the field administering CPR before Damar was driven away in an ambulance.

While there certainly have been much more violent hits in the NFL, I was struck by the fact that this injury - inflicted by two men hurdling at each other at full speed - is entirely legal and fully a part of the game of football. 

For several days, the world waited news about Damar's status. Fortunately, he was able to extubated from a ventilator and does not appear to have sustained brain or organ damage. Nonetheless, I am left wondering why we watch such a brutal game that routinely inflicts such heavy blows on every single play - all for the sake of entertainment.

I am not sure if there will be a reconning about the rules of this game and ways to make the sport safer. I am certain that many people like me were given pause about watching and supporting this game. I also suspect many players are asking themselves this week how long they plan to play Russian roulette with their lives each week. 

A full slate of games is on tap today. The NFL playoffs start next week. So much for reflection.