Every week has a personality, just like people (and offices). I think we ought to name them. This week felt like a Joseph. He’s got unkempt hair and an uncertain future and cologne like spring dew.
I realize that I’ve piled way too much onto my plate this semester. This week was a microcosm of that. There was class, work, late-night conversations with roommates, paying taxes, viewing apartments, a little bit of non-required reading, a lot of required reading, karaoke parties, deciphering rental contracts (did you know that “act of God” is an actual legal term used to describe a disaster that’s nobody’s fault?), band practice, poor time management, birthdays, COVID tests, X-bar theory of sentence structure, irresponsibly long Japanese practice sessions, tidying up, staying up late, dreams that should have lasted a little bit longer. The big highlight was taking Friday evening off to go see a concert that my friend Asa was performing in. Local music is fun; it feels so much more intimate to be able to go talk to the performers after a show.
I also finally got to see Jojo Rabbit, a movie I’ve been wanting to see ever since it came out in 2019. It’s a historical comedy coming-of-age film that treats one of my favorite themes: the irresistible, redemptive power of human connection. In his portrait of Nazi Germany, director Taika Waititi (who also plays the 10-year-old protagonist’s imaginary version of Hitler) demonstrates that satire need not be subtle to be biting; Waititi opts instead to magnify the fantastical. The film contains some deeply poignant scenes: in particular, a brilliant performance by Scarlett Johansson about the narratives we invent for ourselves, as well as a memorable sequence at the end that depicts the uncanny collision of war and childhood.
I really wish emotions could be kept in a jar and saved for later. The mornings where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed would be a lot more manageable if you could use a couple drops of yesterday’s Hamilton singalongs. But alas, there’s really no emotional middle ground when a week seems to contain a whole month’s worth of substance (no, Joseph, that wasn’t a fat joke). To sum up, I guess my advice to myself from last year was “speed up”, and Joseph’s advice to me now is “slow down”. Life is an all-you-can-eat buffet, and once you’ve filled up your plate, you have to keep eating until it’s gone. It’s the polite thing to do. ∎