Dear friends,
Another worrisome week.
But there are good things out there, and it’s definitely done me some good to look out for them, so here are some, and I hope it spreads a bit of general goodness in your direction.
Ways to help Ukraine
First, it’s basically just some ways you can help the Ukrainians. The kindness and goodness in people prevails always and, in the UK, we’ve been advised that the best thing we can do is give money towards refugee efforts and efforts to help those still in Ukraine.
Among the organisations collecting funds are:
The British Red Cross, which has launched an appeal to help the Ukrainian Red Cross to provide food, medicine, clothing and shelter, as well as first aid training in bomb shelters and drinking water.
The UNHCR refugee agency, is funding emergency shelters, repairs for homes damaged by shelling, emergency cash assistance, psychological support and warm clothing.
Unicef, the UN's children's charity, is helping to ensure families have clean water and food and that child health and protection services continue.
Save the Children, is providing cash assistance, food and other support to refugees crossing into Romanian and Lithuania, as well as in Ukraine itself.
The Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella group for 15 of the UK's leading aid charities, is also running an appeal, donations to which will be doubled by the government up to a total of £20m.
To raise money for the Red Cross there’s also this book auction going on. Scroll through tonnes of rare books and prints up for grabs to the highest bidder. Payments on winning bids are to be made directly to the Red Cross. Check it out here.
Radio: Lyse Doucet on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, available on BBC Sounds
My evenings at the moment involve wrestling my two small children to bed, tidying up and then “relaxing” by watching the 10 O’Clock news. I think Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent for the BBC, currently stationed Ukraine, is superb. I love her accent (she’s a descendent of the Acadians and so it’s apparently a bit Canadian, a bit French and a bit of Irish too). And if you want more of her, she did a brilliant Desert Island Discs back in January so you can hear more of her lovely voice, together with her thoughts on war, her INCREDIBLE career (which has seen her reporting on all major Middle-Eastern wars since 1990), and also listen to some of her stories, like how she attended a family wedding in Afghanistan as a guest and ended up being there during an assassination attempt on former President Karzai.
Listen here.
TV: The Weekend Away, Netflix
I can rarely be bothered to watch a movie anymore, can you? I have no problem at all committing to 40 hours of a box set. But a 90 minute movie? No way. Way too much of a commitment. But anyway, I love the actress Leighton Meester, and the way she always does this puzzled face (see above), and so it was easy to get absorbed in new Netflix original, The Weekend Away.
If you were thinking of having a lovely weekend away from your young baby, with your best friend, and that maybe that might be relaxing for you, then think again my friend. Look, it’s not going to win any awards, but it’s set in Croatia so there’s beautiful sunshine and scenery to soak in. There’s also a very nice glittery blue dress involved at one point (Blue Fairy from Pinocchio vibes), and the drama will have you absorbed from the very start. My boyfriend said it was absolutely awful and that there’s no way I should put this on a list of Good Things, but I’m sorry, I believe he’s wrong about that.
The Weekend Away is on Netflix.
Books: Bewilderment by Richard Powers
As horror after horror hits you in the face and you find yourself increasingly a bit too sensitive for this world, then this book won’t make you feel any better, sorry. But that’s not a reason to avoid it.
Barack Obama says this book, “changed how (he) sees things” and so anything I write about it therefore just feels like I’m a tiny little mouse shouting up at a massive giant, “I think you’re a really good book!” in a little squeaky voice. I’m not worthy of giving it a review. But for what it’s worth, it’s really good.
Synopsis: “Astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain…”
Podcasts: Twin Flames
Do you have crush from from your past whom you obsessively pursued and, now with hindsight you can see that they absolutely weren’t interested, and you humiliated yourself utterly? And maybe sometimes even now when you’re falling asleep at night, memories of the pursuit come to you and you end up in a full-body cringe of shame and wish you could erase the memories, and then erase time and space.
Well, this podcast is about people, who were convinced and encouraged, by a twisted pair of con-artists from the internet, to pursue the objects of their desire, right to the bitter end. Because, they are told, that person they’re crushing on is their cosmic “twin flame” and they should be together with them no matter what.
That’s whether the person is married, or scared of them, or has a restraining order against them, or if even the person begs them to stop and to please PLEASE leave them alone. It’s awful to listen to the poor deluded people being encouraged to keep up the chase (the real audio of the “Twin Flame classes” is on the podcast). But obviously… it’s also brilliant. Three of six episodes are available now.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s “Good Things” newsletter.
If you have, will you please do me a favour? Please send it to a friend and ask them to subscribe too? Thank you to everyone who has already done this. I promise I won’t spam your friend, it’s just one email a week, and hopefully it’ll brighten their Fridays.
You can find me on Twitter @emilyincam if you want to say “Hello” or you can leave a comment!
See you next week.
Emily xx