9 things to embrace at end of October
Every nowand then Imake a list of 9 things I like. Here’s one for the season.
1. “Borgen” ThisDanish drama makes for some first-rate bingewatching. It focuses on the fictional female prime minister of Denmark whose high-minded intentions are constantly challenged by the realities of politics. Meanwhile, her job intrudes on her marriage and family. The other characters, mostly journalists and politicians, arewelldrawn andwell-acted. A friend described it as “House of Cards” meets“WestWing,” meaning it offers political intrigue but with a moral core. It’s onNetflix and iTunes.
2. “The End ofOctober” by LawrenceWright. Wrightwon a Pulitzer Prize for “The Looming Tower,” his nonfiction account of events that led to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Nowhe’s written a novel about a pandemic. Published this spring, just as the real pandemic began, it’s been hailed as eerily prescient.
A clear, graceful writer with a journalist’s taste for facts, he stitches science and politics, past and present, into a compelling yarn of a doctor namedHenry, who early in the tale leaves his family in Atlanta to help contain the new flu abroad. As the pandemic ravages theworld, Henry spends much of the novel trying to get home, while wrestling with the recognition of theways humans brought this calamity on themselves.
The audiobook is excellent.
3. The real end ofOctober. Is there anyone who doesn’t love October? Variety is part of its charm. An unexpectedlywarm evening. Then a chilly, wet morning. Thunder in the middle of the night. Sandals one day. Sweaters the next. The sun shifts, the light changes, the leaves drop, but the colors are still bright. The flowers are bedraggled, but still in bloom. Beauty.
4. Aflu shot. You knowwhat’s worse than a flu shot? The flu. Never more than during a pandemic. Just do it.
5. Keith Jarrett. Jarrett, who’s 75, may be the most famous pianist alive, so itwas big news a few days ago when TheNewYork Times reported that, after two strokes that have left him partially paralyzed, he may never perform again.
Jarrett plays jazz and classical piano, solo and with others. I saw him at Chicago’s Symphony Center in 2010, and the experience of watching and hearing him, a man alone with a grand piano, was mystical.
The news of his health inspired me to pull out his contemplative 1999 solo album, “TheMelody at Night, with You” and listen for the first time in a while. His tender, spare renditions of songs that include “Shenandoah” and “Blame it onMy Youth” break your heart while they soothe your soul. Perfect consolation for anxious times.
6. Ordering on the app. Why would anyone order coffee or anything else on an app? I felt thatway before the pandemic. NowI have a couple of coffee apps onmy phone and can’t imaginewhy youwouldn’t order that cappuccino before you get to the coffee place so that it’s ready for your quick, masked pickup.
7. Virtual Songs of Good Cheer.
Lots of Tribune readers have reached out to me andmy colleague Eric Zorn asking about Songs of Good Cheer in this pandemic year. Thiswould be the 21st year of the holiday singalong we put on at the Old Town School of FolkMusic with a band of great musicians. In recent years, we’ve done six sold-out shows, and it’s become a tradition for many people, including us.
Unfortunately, group singing is taboo during the pandemic. But!
We’reworking on a virtual show. Oncewe have the details pinned down, we’ll let you knowhow you’ll be able to sing along in December.
8. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his coronavirus team.
Iwasn’t enthusiastic about the idea of Pritzker as governor. But through the pandemic madness, he has been clear, calm, tough, compassionate and useful. Unlikemany politicians and pontificators, he has relied on science and experts in seeking the right level of social restriction needed to contain the virus.
One of those experts is Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, who made an emotional plea Friday, as the coronavirus surges again.
“If you’re talking about COVID fatigue fromhaving to keepwearing amask,” she said at the daily briefing, “think about theCOVID fatigue for health careworkers, respiratory therapists, who are going to have to go through this whole episode again, of trying to fight for people’s lives, because we couldn’t figure out howto control this virus, by doing some of the simple measures that have been prescribed.”
9. “Let America Be America Again” When Iwalkedmy ballot to a voting drop-off box the other day, I remembered this poem, which the African American poet LangstonHughes wrote while on a train in October 1935. It’s a long poem about themythology of the American Dream. Here’s a verse:
O, letAmerica beAmerica again —
The land that never has been yet —
And yet must be— the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine— the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME— Who madeAmerica, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.