Dr Matt’s Newsletter January 4th – the “Crazy” New Year edition
Supporting healthy social interactions and diversity of health choices
This newsletter has a fascinating research section describing a few of the many failed “predictions of doom” over the past 30 years that I have lived through, several of which I bought into before “seeing the light”.
One definition of the word, “crazy”, is believing falsehoods despite obvious evidence to the contrary. This means being crazy is a part of human nature, since we all do this regularly, including myself. However, we can learn to manage this “craziness” better and I find that accepting and sitting in the present moment with the emotions that drive it allows me to adapt, and brings some peace to the middle of the craziness.
One unhealthy way we humans react to these emotions is to join in “predictions of doom”. Many times respected “experts” are the main purveyors and one of the newest ones is Wikipedia, with invisible and anonymous “experts” who are incredibly biased in group-think fear stories. The old saying, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” comes to mind…
Below are some interesting items I like to share each week and please feel free to send me ideas of your own for the newsletter. Today’s newsletter sections include:
Humor of the week – Saturday Night Live finally gets some covid humor: a refreshing change is in the air :-)
Inspiration of the Week - Accusing others of being irrational, blind, and fear-filled brings to mind a famous quote from the Bible
Music of the week – Musicians tend to be a bit crazy, and some more than others. Erik Satie, Bud Powell, and Brian Wilson were gifted in different styles of music, and all struggled to keep grounded in our reality and adapt to the fears that drove them “mad”.
Health and community building – I am not sure why I keep getting voted in as one of Northern Virginia Magazine’s “Top Doctors”. If they had a “Top Crazy Doctors” edition then I would understand…. This magazine helps bring people together in the DMV region with features such as “Small Town Adventures”, Hikes & Bikes”, “Beaches”, and “Re-Opening Northern Virginia” in March 2021. Consider subscribing to this gem - one of the few surviving print magazines from the DC area. It is only $20 for a two year subscription. https://northernvirginiamag.secure.darwin.cx/I**WEBN
Research of the week – A review of a few false “predictions of doom” which cost governments billions of dollars and many sleepless nights for average folks such as myself. Learning from these can allow us to ask questions and maybe all of us can spend our energy, finances, and resources in more helpful ways that reduce suffering and increase quality of life, such as working on our spiritual health since this is all we can take with us.
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Yours truly, one moment at a time.
Matt Irwin
Inspiration of the Week – St. Luke 6:39-45
Take the log out of our own eyes before we try to take the splint out of our neighbors' eyes.
Humor of the week: Saturday Night Live
It gave me great pleasure to finally see at least some of our humorists doing their job - poking fun at obvious contradictions right under our noses. Below is a fun parody on how the vast majority of “covid cases” are mild, but still come with quarantines. They use a classic SNL strategy - humorous advertisements - this time for a test that is “Always Positive”.
Music of the week – Musicians are all a bit crazy, but some more than others. This week we feature a classical musician, Erik Satie, a jazz musician, Bud Powell, and a rock musician, Brian Wilson.
Erik Satie
Erik Satie was one of the most unusual and bizarre musicians in history, but ironically created some of the most peaceful and serene music in existence. Here are some examples of his craziness: He founded his own religion, of which he was of course the only member, he published his daily schedule with minute by minute accounts of each activity, such as once per week waking at 3:19 am – on Tuesdays, he wore seven different identical grey suits (one for each day of the week) every day for ten years, he wrote a piece of music called “Vexations” which was supposed to be repeated 840 times, for a total length of 28 hours.
On a more serious note he founded ambient music designed specifically as a background for various specific activities, which he called “Furniture Music” – or in French, “Musique D’Ameublement”. Below are three of his solo piano works.
Erik Satie – Gymnopedie #1:
This is perhaps his most famous work which also appeared in jazz waltz form in my newsletter on October 12th.
Erik Satie – Je Te Veux
Erik Satie – Grossienne #5 -
Bud Powell
Many proclaimed that Bud Powell was “the most gifted bebop jazz pianist of all time”. However, he also spent extended periods in mental hospitals and died at age 41. Like other musicians who died young after years of struggle, including Mozart and Beethoven, Bud’s music lives on – not just in recordings but also in the musicians and others who followed him. Here is his rather innovative version of the jazz standard “It Could Happen to You”.
Brian Wilson – the main creative spark of the Beach Boys
Brian Wilson became an innovative genius in music and was the source of much of the Beach Boys success. After many years of the “same old stuff” he worked for en extended period on a more creative effort, the album “Pet Sounds”, and then fell into a psycho-spiritual madness that took him away from friends, family and music for many years. A movie about him from a few years ago demonstrated how he finally came out of these “crazy” years to rejoin the regular world, and to start playing and writing music again. The movie is “Love & Mercy” and I liked it quite a bit. Here is one of his songs from Pet Sounds which is featured in the movie. The lyrics focus on how to get someone to pull out of their isolation, a prescient topic given what happened to him over the ensuing years, and what we have all seen in the past few years. Note that he had the section players imitate animal sounds - hence the “Pet Sounds” theme.
Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys: I Know There’s an Answer
Research of the week – “Crazy Edition” a review of some predictions of doom that never came true.
I have fallen for a number of “predictions of doom” over the years. This is a part of human nature that is deep and seems impossible to completely avoid. Many of my newsletters point out that fear of death and fear of infection is also deep in human nature, and these fuel the doom narratives quite well. Predictions like the ones below can be quickly exaggerated and propagated, and are really very “infectious”. They go back to ancient times, and come with intense societal pressures.
Near Death Experiences, also covered in prior newsletters, suggest that death is not actually a “doom-worthy” event. However, if one acquiesces fully to the very negative perspective around it, then I guess you could say all the doomsayers are right, after all…
I will cover a few here: Y2K, HIV decimating Africa, Global Warming, and Covid-19, but there are countless others.
Another great newsletter!