One day, I’ll write a book about…how do I describe it? Symbols beyond words. I take notes on this inchoate subject all the time, and one source of much material is ancient Egypt. So I am captivated by the brilliant exhibit now on view at the Metropolitan Museum, Divine Egypt. It could have been devised specifically for me and my interests. It even features my very favorite object from the Met, the inelegantly titled God Horus Protecting King Nectanabo II. Plus it has a section devoted to the goddess who, in my view, is the special protector of Upholders, Maat. I love the fact that I visit the Met every day; it means I can go through this large exhibit very slowly, and look at just as much as I can absorb in one viewing.
Onward,
5 Things Making Me Happy
Whenever I talk about my books, I remind readers, “Word of mouth is the best way to support a book.” On my podcasts Happier and Since You Asked, we often tell listeners, “Word of mouth is the best way for new listeners to discover the show.” A recommendation from a friend really is the way most people discover new books, movies, TV shows, plays, music, anything. I was very interested to read about word-of-mouth power in this story about Virginia Evans’s novel The Correspondent. (Turns out that in addition to word of mouth, reading an intriguing article also makes me want to read a book.)
This week marked the 56th anniversary of the premiere of the iconic children’s TV show Sesame Street on PBS. I remember being bitter as a child, because the rule was that if my sister Elizabeth (five years younger) wanted to watch educational TV, and I wanted to watch something else, educational TV won. Watching its original opening now, I’m struck by the fact that its theme music ties into my not-yet-revealed one-word theme for 2026. Soon, all will be revealed.
One of my very, very favorite books is Muriel Spark’s masterpiece The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I’ve read it many times, and it occurred to me, “I should listen to the audio-book, and experience it in a new way.” I listened to it, and then immediately listened to it again, because there were so many subtle points I wanted to revisit while it was fresh in my mind. Such an extraordinary novella—only 40,000 words long. I watched the movie trailer, which stars Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie, but it looks like such an exaggerated version, I don’t think I could bear it.
New word alert: copypasta. Wikipedia defines it as “a block of text copied and pasted to the Internet and social media.” Related, creepypasta is copypasta that falls into the horror genre. Love new words.
At one time, I thought about writing Forty Ways to Look at Leonardo da Vinci (stands alongside Forty Ways to Look at Benjamin Franklin and Forty Ways to Look at St. Therese of Lisieux as biographies I would love to write) because I so admire his creative genius. I enjoyed this little video illustrating how to construct his self-supporting bridge. What a mind!
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This week on Happier with Gretchen Rubin
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