Hahn: Beautiful, Arresting Eye Contact

Kathryn Hahn, during an interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on 24 October 2019.

You know, it's interesting. I spent a lot of time with the rabbi Susan Goldberg. She was a - an enormous touchstone for me throughout all of it just as a person and as a guide. And I knew that I couldn't learn - intellectually learn everything that there was to know, but I knew just heart-wise and spiritually, like, I think that we were able to have - established such a connection when I spent time with her, I think there was such a - she has such beautiful eye contact, arresting eye contact in which you just feel so held and so seen. And so that was, I think, my way into Raquel and just stillness, which I don't have myself.

Rabbi Susan Goldberg

Link to transcript:  https://www.npr.org/transcripts/772672014

Striving to Get Better: Stephen King and Larry Winget

I heard a good interview with Stephen King this morning on public radio.. There are a lot of connections between what King says in the interview and Larry Winget’s book, It's Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success Is Your Own Damn Fault. In particular, Winget talks about being good at your job and striving to get better.

In King’s interview
On his prolific production in writing: 
"There are plenty of people who have got lots of talent. This world is lousy with talent. The idea is to work that talent and try to get to be the best person that you can, given the limits of the talent that God gave you — or fate, or genetics or whatever name you want to put on it. A lot of people have suggested that the stuff that I do may be second-class because there's so much of it. My response to that is: I'm going to quit and be dead for a long time. This is the time that I've got, and I want to use it to the max. I really want to try and mine everything that I've got."

On blaming your situation and past:
(On why alcoholism plays such an important role in Doctor Sleep) "I was interested in [alcoholism] for a lot of different reasons. There does seem to be a genetic predisposition to alcoholism — that's the nature part. The nurture part is that if you grow up in a household where there's a lot of drinking, you have a tendency to become a drinker yourself. I wanted to see if it was possible to escape those things."

Link to radio story: http://www.npr.org/2013/09/24/223105565/stephen-king-on-getting-scared-nothing-like-your-first-time

Chilean Miner Rescue in the Big Picture; Making the Impossible Happen

I was really moved by this Radio Editorial.

October 16, 2010 - SCOTT SIMON, host:
National Public Radio

The 33 men pulled up from the depths of Chile's San Jose mine this week looked strong and proud: victors, not victims. Their survival was a marvel that enlisted drillers, engineers, doctors, geologists, scientists, psychiatrists, bureaucrats, clergy, and volunteers from around the world.

But the men saved themselves too. They had the hard, hidden part: living with isolation, hunger and despair for 69 days, trapped in a small, dark space 2,000 feet below the ground that tried to crush them.

They told reporters yesterday the first 17 days were hardest. They had no word from the surface or proof they were being searched for. Some of the men squabbled, which they made a pact never to speak about. They made jokes about cannibalism as they watched themselves starve. After 17 days, the refuge chamber into which they'd scrambled to escape began to feel as close as a tomb.

Now, the men - who may always be known as Los Treinta y tres - can look ahead to sunnier days.

Chile's president, Sebasti�n Pi�era, embraced each miner as he emerged and said: You're not the same after this and neither are we. We will never forget this. I think that we embraces the world. Millions of families, including ours, got our children out of bed to watch the men rise from the earth, wave, sing, and blow kisses. We told our children: remember this night whenever you think something is impossible.

President Pi�era says he also knows that this magnificent achievement stemmed from what may be reckless disregard of mine safety. Never again, he says, will we permit people to work in conditions so unsafe and inhuman as they worked in the San Jose mine.

It's tempting to say the rescue of the miners, like the landing on the moon, or the return of Apollo 13, shows that humans can do anything if we just work together. Landing on the moon, or rescuing 33 miners, are daunting but direct enterprises. They have start points and finish lines. The trials of war, famine, terrorism, poverty, global warming, joblessness and loneliness twist and turn.

This week it was good to be reminded that skill, courage, and dedication can also move the earth. When 33 men were buried, people uncovered strength they never knew was inside. Failure was not an option. This week we were all Chilean. Viva.

National Public Radio Link