Empathy everywhere all at once
Before Brie was born, I thought I had a good grasp of what "empathy" meant. It turns out I had no idea.
Since becoming a father, I've experienced the world with new depth. News stories, movies, TV shows, books and other bits of storytelling involving children have a more pronounced texture to them. More specifically, sad stories involving children, whether they be fictional or real, now act as sharp knives that break skin and draw blood when they stab me, whereas before Brianna was born they were sticks that caused an ache and usually nothing more.
Last night was a big one for "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "The Last of Us," for very different reasons. I deeply enjoyed and appreciated both stories, and while they're completely different from one another, they both feature sadness related to a parent-child relationship. And that meant that the dad version of me experienced them both a bit more profoundly than pre-dad version of me would have. Without spoiling anything, it's why tears were rolling down my face by the end of "EEAAO" (the first time that's ever happened to me while watching a movie) and why my throat tightened during that scene in the first episode of "TLOU."
Before Brie was born, I thought I had a good grasp of what "empathy" meant. It turns out I had no idea.
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Things I have thoughts about:
- "Everything Everywhere All at Once": I won't say much about this, both because I've already mentioned it above and because I don't want to spoil anything, but I adore this film. The fact that the story works – that all the strange, silly strands tie together to create a poignant tapestry that plucks deep-rooted hearstrings in the end – is a marvel. If you haven't seen it yet, get to it.
- "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania": This was very mid, though it was entertaining enough. I've read a lot of praise for Jonathan Majors, which is justified because he was easily the brightest spot in the film, but I honestly didn't think that his character was given appropriate room to spread his wings here. The MCU has definitely hit an awkward nadir with its films.
- "The Last of Us": Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey deserve all the positivity they're receiving for their performances in this show. I enjoyed the first season a lot, which I think is partly due to the fact that I've tried hard to avoid spoilers from the game. And the way [redacted] deals with their own version of the trolley problem leaves viewers with a lot to chew on until season 2.
- Taxes: We got our taxes done early this year...maybe the earliest we've ever gotten them done. And we finally got around to finding a local CPA to take care of them for us. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but we just used TurboTax Live Full Service the past few years. While the TurboTax service tier we paid for was fine overall, our experience with our CPA this year was far better. (It also feels nice to not help fund Intuit's nefarious lobbying to keep the tax filing process convoluted.) I feel like this was another step into adulting.
- Lo-fi Christian music: If any of you are interested in listening to some lo-fi Christian music, I've been really digging this playlist lately.
Things Brie has enjoyed lately:
- Early-morning chatter: For the past month or so, Brie has enjoyed gabbing first thing in the morning. Most mornings she'll wake up and immediately start recounting something that happened at school the day before or a random thought she has. It's adorable.
- Eating: I'm happy to report that we appear to be past the darkest days of Brie's picky eating. For the past couple months, she's been eating noticeably more of her food. I credit this in part to her ambition to be as tall as the tallest girl in her class. She's a competitor through and through.
- Reading the Bible: I'll get around to reviewing a few children's Bibles eventually, but Brie has been all about "The Beginner's Gospel Story Bible" lately. It's a good one, and each story ends with a question for the reader.
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