Your Weekly Dose of EEE #13: What Does it Mean to Be a Good Person?

Plus a Mother's Day throwback you've probably never seen before

Hairy tulips in Chicago. Never seen this variety before; have you? Photo by author.

Greetings, friend!

I am writing this on an airplane between Chicago (Midway, obviously) and Boston as I try in vain to resist eating an entire bag of Garrett popcorn. It’s a losing proposition, but I can think of worse ways to spend two hours.

I’m fresh off a solo visit to my aunts’ place, where I rendezvoused with my parents for a couple of days. It was a very nice visit, refreshing to be in the company of only adults for several days, and just a reminder of how fun it is to all get together.

Now, as I head back, I’ll be jumping right into a town government meeting a few hours after I land and then Mother’s Day this weekend. I have a bunch of opinions about Mother’s Day, but I’d rather share with you a real-life Mother’s Day story that has made its way around the internet over the last few years. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I can’t copy and paste it here without breaking some ephemeral Google rules, but trust me when I say that you will enjoy it even it it means clicking away from the EEE. Here’s an excerpt:

Another two minutes passed before the doorknob turned again. My husband entered and began rummaging through one of the drawers.

“Whatcha looking for?” I asked casually, as if I wasn’t sitting naked in a tub full of steaming water.

“Cotton balls.”

Join my children, husband, and dog their Mother’s Day sabotage.

See, wasn’t that fun? Okay, now for a very short dose of EEE.

What’s Exciting Me?

I’ve sold a couple copies of When We Were Mothers this week! Nothing crazy, but I am excited that people are finding it, and I hope the upward trajectory continues!

I shamelessly introduced myself to someone in the jewelry shop in Andersonville in Chicago yesterday because she was holding a book and looked friendly. Maybe she’s one of the Amazon sales, who knows! All I know is that she shares a name with my kiddo and she works in fertility and loves The Handmaid’s Tale, so I am hopeful she’ll love WWWM!

What’s Entertaining Me?

📺 A Good Person. I have no idea what platform I watched on, but man was this a moving film. On the heels of publishing “Addict” on Tuesday, watching a story of someone who became addicted because of the interplay between a physical injury and a crippling emotional loss just really tore me up in a whole new way.

Allie (Florence Pugh) is driving her fiancé (Chinaza Uche) and his sister and brother-in-law when they get into a devastating car crash. When she wakes and finds the couple died in the accident, she starts on a spiral that threatens to end horribly for her. But she forms an unlikely relationship with her fiancé’s father (Morgan Freeman) who helps her climb out of the hole into which she’s sinking. The story is heartwarming and heartbreaking and has Morgan Freeman using f-bombs at an alarming rate, and it examines the gray area between good people and their bad actions.

📖 Wow, have I really not read a single word this week? Oops. 🥸

🎶 Macklemore: The Heist. I haven’t listened to this one in a while, but I came across it in my downloaded music while flying and decided to flip it on. I really like Macklemore for his willingness to act as an ally for marginalized groups and speak out about his struggles with addiction (There’s that word again! I guess we have a theme this week.) and relapse.

Some songs on this album are serious, some are goofy. But almost all of them slap.

(Editorial Note: Nicci has been advised that she has exceeded the maximum age requirement for using the term “slap.” She has opted to use it anyway.)

On the theme of addiction, I recommend the song “Neon Cathedral.” But “Ten Thousand Hours,” “Wing$,” and “Jimmy Iovine” are just a few of the other great tracks on this album.

What’s Enlightening Me?

I had a moment when writing that story, “Addict,” and then when re-reading it for publication, and again when interacting with readers in the comment section, where I felt swallowed by regret for the way I’ve thought about people who struggle with addiction. It’s complex, as everything is, to separate addiction the disease from the behavior the afflicted person engages in to try and relieve the pain they’re feeling. I just hope we can all take some time to reflect and practice, in our future interactions and thinking about this topic, to extend them grace and understanding when possible.

I’ll see you next week friends. Buckle up, the next few weeks are gonna be a roller coaster of emotion.

Thank you, as always, for being here.