There’s a horse in the hospital.
I came across this brilliant piece of comedy from John Mulaney which analogises the Trump phenomenon in the most surprising way I’ve ever come across. I’ve watched it multiple times now and love it more every time. Go watch it.
But the sentiment goes beyond Trump, and it actually seems to be quite relevant for the times we are currently facing.
“I think everything is going to be ok in the end, but I don’t know what’s going to happen next. And neither do any of you. Because there’s a horse in the hospital. It’s never happened before. No one knows what’s going to happen next, least of all the horse.”
It’s such a wonderfully visual metaphor for our current anxiety and uncertainty. As a world, the notion of Nassim Taleb’s ‘black swan’ rings true right now - none of our models, predictions or expertise could have guessed and persuaded us that the horse would get into our hospital. We don’t have any procedures for it, no training, no precedent for how you get horses out of hospitals. We’ve never encountered something like this before. And that is scary.
I think I’m speaking for all of us when I say that we’ve had to update our internal software to include the horse-in-a-hospital possibility in our set of possible outcomes. Before 2020, we wouldn’t even have imagined ‘horse’ and ‘hospital’ to be in the same sentence.
And as we’ve hunkered down and pressed pause on our lives, it should be a reminder for us as to how much we take for granted. So much of the good in our lives is not appreciated because it feels permanent and irrevocable. That is, until you get to a situation like this and you realise that so much of our world is incredibly fragile.
Caring friends, physical affection, purpose, good health, your job, freedom of movement, retail therapy, sport, the gym and a thousand other things. This fragility is something that we only appreciate when it’s gone. (As every cliche song about heartbreak tells us.)
So in a weird way, this time represents an opportunity for us to really take stock of how much we have to be grateful for. It’s a chance to realise how damn lucky we are. It’s rare that we get these moments of perspective and I hope that you aren’t letting this one pass you by.
The trick, of course, is to retain this reverence and gratitude long after we get the horse out of the hospital.
New Podcast Episode - The Playdough of Life
On this audio-only episode we give a brief update on COVID-19 before devoting the rest of the episode to technology, materialism and how ‘things’ affect our psychology. Add in a generous dose of documentary reviews and you’ve got yourself some audio gold for your lockdown!
What I’m Reading / Watching
Books:
I finished ‘The Undoing Project’ by Michael Lewis. I found the book inspiring and energising. I've always been aware of Kahneman and Tversky's work in the periphery as they have made such an impact on how we view human rationality, but I did not have much of an appreciation for the dedication and unique chemistry that it took to bring those ideas to the world.You can read my full Goodreads review here.
Following up on that, I’ve just started with ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman. Early days, but I know of this book’s reputation and I’m looking forward to digging in properly.
For my fiction dose, I’m still working my way through the Nigerian masterpiece that is ‘An Orchestra of Minorities’ by Chigozie Obioma.
Videos:
‘This Video Has 7,646,850 Views’ by Tom Scott. This is one of the most unique and thought-provoking video essays I’ve seen in a long time. A wonderful musing on entropy and the human condition. “Just because something is going to break in the end, doesn’t mean it can’t have an effect in the future.”
‘Jolene’ by The Ndlovu Youth Choir. One of the best things to come out of South Africa in the last year has been this choir. They rose to fame on America’s Got Talent and continue to bring joy to millions with their African takes on Western pop songs. This adaptation of Dolly Parton’s hit is wonderful.
‘The Universe in Verse’ by Maria Popova & Co. Poetry has been a place of refuge for so many of us during these trying times and this collection of poems read at Maria Popova’s annual event is a treat for the soul.
Thank you for reading. I hope that you found something of value this week.
Be kind to yourself!
Barry
