Monday Merriment
Pixar's done it again
Yesterday evening, my husband and I watched Soul on Disney+. That movie was an absolute treat! I am not sure that I understood much about it before we started streaming it, so the plot was a total surprise to me. And I am a little overtired of life descriptions that suggest the body and soul are discrete things rather than just as-a-package-deal-you. But it was still clever, cute, and unique.
Two questions that it made me ponder: are the things that make life worth living the "small", "ordinary", "repetitive", or "normal" aspects of everyday life? And, can life really be "not worth living"?
Pixar seems to suggest that the answer to the first question is yes. I am so glad that this was a message Pixar decided to share with people. Especially this year, while we've all been limited to home-cooking, playing board games, and chatting on the phone with family--as opposed to traveling to new places, eating at the latest cool restaurant, or meeting new people, I think it was important to emphasize that much of the zest for life that is so helpful to have comes from savoring and noticing the little moments of life.
Pixar seems to suggest that the answer to the second question is no. Another point that needs to be made more. The movie's character 22 is a disembodied soul that keeps failing to earn its way into a human body. She doesn't find a spark for life and avoids becoming human until inadvertently placed into the body of an adult American man (hi-jinks ensue). But isn't that the truth? If we can sit and imagine--in the abstract--whether the mundane moments of real life are all a person is going to live through, would we say "great, go on living!" or would we think "oh that's not really living--life needs excitement and novelty!"? It seems Pixar wants to say every life is worth living, and the tiny moments of awe that you get from simply noticing the beauty that surrounds you already, make it worth living.
What a wonderful film.
Spicy meatloaf, you say?
In my ongoing effort to cook from the cookbooks I have, last night I made Chrissy Teigen's spicy meatloaf from Cravings. It's a combination of hot Italian sausage and ground beef (rather than just ground beef, which is how my family made meatloaf growing up). The heat from the sausage (we only found hot pork sausage rather than hot Italian sausage at the supermarket) as well as some red pepper flakes really did transform that dish into something rather awesome.
Her recipe suggests grinding up your own breadcrumbs from 3 slices of bread: I just used a cup of a mix of regular and panko breadcrumbs. She includes finely minced mushrooms in the recipe which I think was an excellent addition.
It was also a great Sunday night dish, because it had to bake for close to an hour, and we both wanted to be lazy after eating.
A little motivation
I'd like to take some of the thoughts that I had while watching Soul into my work this week: don't worry so much; live in the moment; and treasure the fact that you even have this moment available to you. My line of work tends to lead me to do none of those things. So, here's hoping that I can bring a little zest to my work.
Today's delights:
- Yesterday, I got a mani/pedi;
- Soul on Disney+;
- Chrissy Teigen's spicy meatloaf recipe;
- we got a fresh blanket of snow yesterday evening, so we woke up to a sparkly winter wonderland;
- new pure goat milk, fragrance-free, body butter making my knees and elbows sooooo soft; and
- a fresh pot of coffee ready to get me through the morning.
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