House Cleaning
Welcome to this week’s issue of The Jumpstack! This week, we’re getting rid of the things we’ve outgrown, and making space for merry-making. Let’s jump in!
Sour Grapes
For all the talk recently about how Canada is divided and alienated, Don Cherry’s firing from Rogers Sportsnet seemed to be the only topic of conversation in the country.
Shortly after a confused tirade about “you people” not wearing poppies, Cherry has been consciously uncoupled from Ron MacLean and Coach’s Corner, which he has hosted as long as I’ve been alive.
I know Don Cherry as the man who treated his on-air colleagues with palatable disrespect. I know Don Cherry as the man who falls back on stereotypes and imagined grievances to fill the dead air when he has run out of things to say. I know Don Cherry for the space he takes up, not only in hockey but in the living rooms of the nation: his two-minute stream-of-consciousness bluster was widely afforded the same reverence as a homily.
I know Don Cherry’s adoration of his late wife, Rose, and his deep respect for the sacrifices of our veterans. I know Don Cherry could’ve retired with tributes that he will not get now.
I don’t know a Hockey Night In Canada without Don Cherry. But I look forward to it.
Domestic fictions
Zadie Smith touches on a little bit of everything in this interesting interview with Deborah Dundas, from technology, to activism, to changing priorities as you navigate through adult life:
Two decades after her debut novel, White Teeth, she’s concerned with how the internet has since been weaponized against us:
The only thing that I’m qualified to notice is that a lot of what’s going on involves emotional manipulation, and a lot of that emotional manipulation has been done online. I think people have been pushed to extremes they would (have been) surprised to find themselves in even eight years ago.
Putting the “us” in Trust
Trust is a scary word.
It is broken; it is foolhardy; it is a weakness of the gullible, as opposed to the strength of the ones who trust nothing. But what if the untrusting among us are the ones with the weak spot?
This article examines the idea that trust is an exercise in learning, and that not trusting can lead to knowledge gaps in various areas of your life:
We don’t trust enough because the costs of mistaken trust are all too obvious, while the (learning) benefits of mistaken trust, as well as the costs of mistaken mistrust, are largely hidden. We should consider these hidden costs and benefits: think of what we learn by trusting, the people whom we can befriend, the knowledge that we can gain.
Trust is built through relationships, time, patience with yourself, and others: it’s a social exercise in an era where we place value on immediate gratification and cynicism, making us all very lonely and suspicious as a result.
And, the less we exercise trust, the harder it is to access it at all.
End times
It’s a big day in the streaming world, as Disney+ goes live. As millions of people log in for their long awaited chance to explore the Disney vault, may I suggest an alternative?
The End of the F***ing World’s second season was released last week on Netflix. Following the adventures of James—a self-identified psychopath—and Alyssa—who doesn’t know who she is—it’s a teenage love story with a dark twist: James wants to murder someone, and Alyssa is his selected target.
Don’t let the premise scare you off, however, for F***ing World is a profoundly humanitarian story, and the main actors brilliantly capture the sneers and snarls of youth on the edge of adulthood, when everyone is at their most unlikable.
I binged the second season over the weekend, and was relieved that it’s just as good as it expands and grows on the themes of the first.
As the House of Mouse continues on its quest for complete media domination, a growing concern is how Disney’s outsized influence will impact how stories are told.
I don’t know if there is space in a Disney dominated media landscape for a series like The End of the F***ing World: the only thing we can do is enjoy it while it lasts.
And that’s it for The Jumpstack this week! If you liked it, why not hit that heart and share it with your friends? And see you next week for another smoke break with your work wife.
— Jump