The 80s and links

Hello!

I’m briefly back in Waterloo to celebrate my birthday, so (out of necessity, out of luxury) I’m often driving and listening to the radio.

My favourite radio station is hosting a “Totally 80s Family Day Long Weekend”. On Friday morning, the host named some TV shows and movies from the 80s. I smiled as I realized how many were major parts of my (very much not 80s) childhood. Some favourite movies from the decade:

• Ghostbusters
• Dead Poets Society
• Die Hard
• Trading Places
• Lethal Weapon
• Footloose
• Field of Dreams
• Beverly Hills Cop
• St. Elmo’s Fire (and John Hughes movies, with caveats)
• When Harry Met Sally
• The Princess Bride

Some of these movies haven’t aged well, or need to be taken with a grain of salt. But I think that each of these shows still holds up well:

• M*A*S*H (a 70s show, but the last few seasons and the finale were in the right decade)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Golden Girls
• Murder, She Wrote

The movies and TV shows (and books and music) of our younger years can crystallize within us, becoming a comfortable home to which we return repeatedly (or randomly). I don’t keep up with new TV shows or movies (except for some CBC comedies), but I always enjoy making time to rewatch an old favourite. This isn’t to say that I won’t return to recent movies, nor do I want to overindulge in nostalgic celebration of childhood, but there’s a definite magic to the enduring influence of your younger years.

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Because I’ve already shared two lists with you, and the world loves trios, here’s another list of links to read:

• Maria Popova (Brain Pickings) shares some of poet David Whyte’s redefinitions of concepts like anger, forgiveness, and maturity. (I excerpted and annotated this link.)
• Rich Ziade describes how Postlight structures their digital projects, with a metaphor and visual that I’ve found useful for understanding :waves hands: agile product management.
• Austin Kleon outlines some thoughts on self-help as a genre, with his usual charming mix of tasteful quotations and thoughtful annotations. (On top of the “self-help” books that Kleon references, like Aurelius’s Meditations and Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, I suggest Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.)

Okay, I’m off! Tomorrow I’m taking the train back to Ottawa and reading the whole way—delightful. All the best for the week ahead!

Lucas