April, 2021 - A fun and catchy title

April was a month in which I found some reasons to be hopeful. I was able to get vaccinated, the president is pushing for changes around infrastructure, the environment, and child care, and Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder. No longer a hope to “get back to normal”, but a hope to get past the old normal and find a way to better.

The event that stands out to me the most from April was watching the verdict to Derek Chauvin’s trial. The outcome was never a certainty throughout the trial, and when the verdict was delivered I felt a huge sense of relief to see that justice was served. I also felt despair; if it is so hard to get justice for a crime as well documented as it was egregious, how are we going to realize it for less clear situations. The answer is with effort. There is nothing simple about the massive systems at play in America, and there is nothing easy about changing them. I don’t adhere to the call to defund the police, but the police systems in the US need to feel the pressure to change and that does include their finances. We have to maintain the effort to bring forth that change, in how we communicate, how we protest, and how we vote.

The movie The Trial of the Chicago Seven, which is my film pick for the month, is particularly apropos to these ideas around change and pressure. I highly recommend watching it, not just because it’s really well done, but also to compare the past year to the events of the movie and realize we’re living in a continuous timeline with the America of our past and of that film.

There was also a really interesting story during April about a Super League in Europe where the richest teams tried to create their own elite tournament that nobody else could play in but themselves. It got protested down by the fans and players but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rich club owners try to do it again, but next time, sneakier.

What I read:

I’ve read some really good books this year, but this month’s was my favorite so far. Exhalation - by Ted Chiang is a collection of science fiction short stories that blew me away with their elegance and depth. Not only does the author tell stories with science fiction concepts such as time travel, artificial intelligence, and parallel universes, he uses those concepts to approach deeper meaning around humanity and our nature, free will, love, death, and meaning. This is a very thoughtful book that does what great science fiction is supposed to do; become a mirror in which we can view our own universe in a new light. 10/10, will read again.

Favorite Movie: The Trial of the Chicago Seven

Favorite Series: The Expanse, Season 5

Favorite Podcast: The Social Dilemma - Intelligence Squared

Honorable Mentions:

Monkey Mind Pong - Neuralink on YouTube

Malibu Broken - Jessie Frye, Ollie Wride

The Super League That Wasn’t - The Daily