I never fall asleep very fast when Chris is in Henderson, so I've taken up a little Letterman watching. Why have I never watched him before? He's impeccable in his humor. Ugh, it's fantastic. Yes I hate most everything he stands for, but if I boycotted every celebrity I didn't agree with I'd subscribe to zero entertainment at all and who can do that? Not me. Anyway, I digress. He had Julia Roberts on last night - I guess it was a rerun but whatever - and my point in posting this clip is that I love something he said about having children. I know the clip is like 10+ minutes long, but the part I want to share happens before the clock strikes 1:15, so don't fret. If there's a way to cut up Youtube videos I'm not smart enough to know about it. But again, I digress. I love what he says about having children. It's so true. I can't talk about it. I can't articulate it. But it's the biggest fattest feeling I've ever had. And it's like Chris said, I just want the world to be a better place now that Olive is here.
wow, that's a great point (the not killing each other...); i think it ties in (somehow) to our conversation yesterday about empathy. if we really loved our neighbor as ourself (or like we love our children), i think we'd get to peace faster.
ReplyDeletethanks for posting the clip, brookey.
Hi, Brooke
ReplyDeleteI linked through from Brandy's blog. Your post is wonderful.
I'm afraid I'm going to break the spell a little here. Reading what Brandy said, I thought about how many people feel noble or loving emotions which don't seem to "transfer" well. This reminded me of the importance of a good set of values in turning our best emotions into actions which actually help people.
And values can be acted on even when we don't "feel the love". Sometimes acting on our values rather than our feelings is how we develop love or empathy for those who may not seem so lovable.
But it's a really good thing to remember those times when we do feel like we want to make the world a better place. If we can bring our values and our feelings into harmony, so much the better.
Case in point: From Old Testament times, Jews have held that "bearing false witness" - destroying another person's reputation in a false, distorted or cruel manner, is a kind of soul-murder. David Letterman certainly would not want anyone attacking his young son in this way.
ReplyDeleteYet David Letterman, who wonders why our feelings about our children cannot lead us not to kill each other, employed truly vicious humor about the family of Sarah Palin. Because feelings of empathy come and go, even for people who have kids. Sometimes, they even lose their feelings of love and empathy with regard to their own children.
I just read a piece on how David Letterman's humor has gone from funny to contemptuous and destructive in recent years. Having a child didn't seem to help him become more empathetic.
Maybe when we feel those transcendent feelings which inspire us, we need to think about how we will translate them into action when our feelings change.