We hope you don’t give us too much grief over our picks this week.
LISTEN
The sound of sadness as a gift
I have two songs for you to listen to today. First, the beautiful and inspiring “Grieving,” by the wise-beyond-their-27 years Leith Ross, with an accompanying music video that’s sure to make you a little (or a lot) teary-eyed:
My mother says that funerals
Have the timing down all wrong
You say so much to a person
Only after they are gone
But grief is love run backwards
So we love them better then
And we love them with forgiveness
All because we know the end
Honestly, there’s not much else to say here, but I will highlight the benediction that’s shown on screen near the end of the video: “May we all learn to love with the clarity of grief.” Indeed.
This gift of grief is acknowledged in a second track, this time from frequent Ponytail Pick Adrianne Lenker, soul-piercing singer and songwriter extraordinaire:
Here we hear Lenker’s longing (“Just leaning on the windowsill / You could write me someday, and I hope you will”) carrying with it that clarity of grief’s love (“Oh, kiss so sweet, so fine / You could hear the music inside my mind”), but it’s important to note that this gift doesn’t make the loss any easier to bear:
We could see the sadness as a gift and still
Feel too heavy to hold
-JB
Gift us with your sad song selections in the comments.
WATCH
Jane Goodall’s last plea for hope in a darkening world
Some deaths of famous people land differently than others. The first one I remember hitting me with real significance was Robin Williams. All that joy lost, just like that. Oof.
I’ll be honest: Jane Goodall was not one of those deaths for me. It was sad—we were losing a force for good in the world—but I didn’t have any personal attachment to her. Plus, you know, she was old. Old people die.
This excerpt from the first episode of Netflix’s Famous Last Words changed that. A series of interviews set to release after the death of the interviewees, Last Words started with a doozy. And while the interview didn’t do much for me, Goodall took full advantage of her opportunity to address the camera to close the episode. I highly recommend you watch it below.
-AK
READ
The losses of Life after God, by Douglas Coupland
Probably the most poignant of Coupland’s novels that I’ve read (and the one with the most Greater Vancouver references, which was fun for me). A collection of first-person short stories floating in a deep pool of collective longing and grief over lost relationships and lost faith. Wayward sisters, broken-hearted dogs, desert wandering, drugs and divorce, the death of Superman, the end of the world. Is God grieving with us?
-JB
We’ve put our black garb back in the closet. Join us next time as we dry our eyes and look up at the
New songs to me but excellent choices. Candle in the Wind sung by Elton John at Princess Diana's funeral captured the grief of millions. Check out an old sports movie, Brian's Song to make you cry. Books? All my Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews.