How the movie "Civil War" Helped Me Find Meaning -- Where I Wasn't Looking

05/01/24 • 14 min

Going to see the movie Civil War, the 2024 release written and directed by Alex Garland, isn't like seeing most movies. You walk out of the theater with a lot to think about -- and maybe you walk out changed.
What the experience has done for me is to help me embrace a philosophy proposed by Viktor Frankl, the 20th Century psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust and developed Logotherapy, based on the premise that a basic drive of humankind is to find meaning in life — no matter what the conditions of someone's life may be.
His most famous work is the book Man’s Search for Meaning -- published in English in 1959, an immediate best-seller and, in 1991, called by the Library of Congress one of the ten most influential books in the U.S.
If the term "tragic optimism" sounds contradictory to you, stick with me for a few minutes. You might find it as bracing, helpful -- and hopeful -- as I do.
Opening Music by Oleg Kyrylkovv from Pixabay

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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Previous Episode

Why Did the Sheep Cross the Road?

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In which I witness a semiannual Idaho tradition — when sheep take over a major roadway on their way to greener pastures. It's an Idaho thing.
Want to learn more? Helpful links:
Andy Little, the “Idaho Sheep King"
Idaho sheep ranchers Frank Shirts and Henry Etcheverry
Boise's Basque Block -- where you can find funky, cozy Bar Gernika and enjoy the once-every-five-years cultural Basque cultural festival, Jaialdi
A few more fun quotations about sheep (that aren't insulting to sheep):
We’re a nation of sheep. If you go out and look up at the sky, people around you will start looking up at the sky. — Alan Abel

Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats. — Sue Grafton

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove. — Mark Twain

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same. — Stendhal

If Someone wants a sheep, then that means that he exists. –Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Sheep sound effects courtesy Pixabay Sound

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Are You House-Proud?

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"House-proud" is how my mother's generation used to describe someone (always a woman) who was fussy and vain about how her house looked -- or, somebody whose home someone like my mother might worry was nicer than hers.
It's an old-fashioned term. But the feeling is still pervasive? Do you cringe when someone drops by unannounced and you're suddenly aware of the dust bunnies in the corners?
I have a solution. Listen and learn . . .
Starting this week, you can send a text to Here's a Thought right from the podcast app on your phone. Keep scrolling and you'll see the button. I'd love your feedback, and/or your suggestions for a topic to overthink on an upcoming episode! Let me know if it's okay to acknowledge you by name.
Sound Effect from Pixabay

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