Today we’re kicking off a series highlighting some bright spots found in every day life. Hopeful, impressive, or beautiful: I’m not trying to put too tight of a definition on it. Just looking to share something that will make you feel something. I’d love to hear what you think should be featured. Comment below or email me at Jeff@junctionpointnetwork.com.
Today’s bright spot is maybe a bit on the nose.
This is a picture I took a few weeks back. I was struck by the view of a sunset here three years before and came back on the same date years later to try and capture it. I’m at the beginning stages of a photography journey so I’ve got a lot to learn but had a lot of fun trying.
Sometimes I get frustrated when it doesn’t work as well or as easily as I’d like. But sometimes I remember it’s really good to just soak in the beautiful moment. Have you had any beautiful moments worth sharing lately?
Today we’re going to take a look at a great podcast that if you love the medium that you either are listening to or should be. Video shows are increasingly popular, with many people viewing those as the default when they think of the word podcast. I won’t get on my RSS soapbox today but I will say that I prefer a great audio experience over everything.
I have never been a huge TV guy. At least now until I met my wife. Give me a two hour piece of cinema over something episodic any day.
Life changes, especially after marriage. Here are five shows that I’m into currently.
Silo
This is one that I watch on my own but I bet my wife will eventually get into it. Silo is considered too dark and too slow by some online but the pacing is part of the enjoyment for me. I found the show on Apple TV while searching around the app after finishing the first season of another show later on this list. I haven’t read the books yet (although I have them downloaded onto my tablet ready to go), because I love the reveals of the show. It’s intriguing, tense, and thought-provoking sci-fi.
The Rookie
The Rookie is not the kind of program that will change how you look at life. The writers are often using silly ways to get out of situations. But it is fun. It’s popcorn watching that my wife and I can always easily be in the mood for. I was interested because of Captain Mal, Nathan Fillion. She was brought in by a clip from the show hitting her social feed.
Severance
Man, what a breath of fresh air was this show and yet how frustrating the long wait was for season 2. If you haven’t seen the show, employees at Lumon get a chip implanted in their brain that severs their work self and off of work self so they never know what is happening on the other side of each. As viewers we’re kept mostly in the dark but slowly get more pieces of the puzzle. It’s great. Aubree and I did a podcast on it for Junction Point during season 2.
Ted Lasso
Another Apple TV product and it’s the one that caused me and a lot of others to sign up in the first place. The first season especially is incredible TV, making you laugh and cry. I am a little skeptical of this fourth season after a bit of a rocky ending to season 3, but I’m staying curious.
Pluribus
The last entry on the list is yet another Apple TV product. I have never seen Breaking Bad, the show that Pluribus creator Vince Gilligan became a massive success with. I have heard only good about it but the premise made me feel like I’d only end up depressed watching it. Pluribus fits in my sci-fi wheelhouse, with the main character Carol running into some out of this world challenges that I think should be experienced watching the pilot before hearing about. I wasn’t as strong on parts later in the season but the subsequent seasons have a lot of interesting avenues to go down.
My biggest struggle when sitting down to pen these posts is the beginning. It’s hard to hit the right tone while the tone is still being worked out. I don’t really plan any of this out aside from an overall idea I hope to get across. I hope I am moderately successful at that but I don’t know. The thing I want to make sure you to know today is that MJ was a good dog.
I was barely an adult it felt like when I first got MJ. Yeah, I was twenty-six, living in a house that I had recently purchased, planning a wedding, and working full-time. But I didn’t have any clue what I was doing. I was somehow more clueless than I am today. But a former partner wanted a dog inside the house and I did not. So we compromised and got an inside dog.
Mary Jane was MJ’s full name and she was a mix of Blue Heeler and Walker. A herding and a hound dog mixed. She had a lot of spunk. I remember reading only after I got her that Heelers were very smart, smart enough to be one of the only breeds to outwardly backtalk their owner. I found out that was definitely fact a few months later when I told her it was time for bed and she stared me dead in the eyes and peed on the couch. Power move.
I had many moments early on I wasn’t sure that I could handle her. She slept in a crate in her first year and would howl for hours non-stop. She took to shaking and throwing her body around so fiercely in her kennel while I was at work that she would literally undo the bolts holding it tight. She was animated and overly enthusiastic about greeting people when meeting them. She almost swiped a corn dog out of a guy’s hand the time I took her to a local festival. I couldn’t leave her mortal enemy, the dreaded paper product out anywhere near her or it would suffer the same fate as its fallen bretheren.
But man, she was something. She was great with kids, even though I don’t have any. She loved everyone she met, doling out high fives like they were going out of style. Even without a great teacher, she learned to “sing” along by growl howling along and even to dance, doing pirouettes when she’d stand on her back legs and I’d hold her paw or just sway back and forth when I’d ask her to dance. She was a great companion, literally lapping up tears as I recovered from my divorce, begging for walks I think sometimes just to keep me moving. She would bark at the door if someone came but never kept it up, just let us know someone was there. MJ would gives hugs on command and there were many days I needed them. She was very protective and full of love towards my wife, Aubreé.
I got her when she was only three weeks old. I was young and dumb and she was a fuzzy potato. I didn’t take her on enough walks. I didn’t use my best tone when she got in trouble for tearing up paper or nabbing a piece of food. I didn’t give her enough time with free space to run. I never gave her a kid to love on her own while she was here. I was with her for more than sixteen years. She was a good dog every single one of her days here.
She had a stroke in February this year and did not act or move the same for about a week. We had the appointment set up with the vet. But the day before the appointment, on my birthday, I came home to her happy and wagging and full of life. She pushed on to live mostly normally until the beginning of this month when she had another stroke. She basically couldn’t move. It was time. I didn’t think I’d get sixteen years with her. But I am thankful. Rest in peace, Emsy.
As I started my commute this morning, I noticed my odometer was only a few miles short of hitting 97,000. My mind flashed back to making my first car purchase. That 2002 Chevy Impala had just over 97,000 miles on it but all I could see was potential. That car was freedom. I held pride in the purchase I had made. I wasn’t focused on where the car had gone or what it had been through but instead on where it was going and where it could take me.
I’ve had my current car for several years now and its mileage doesn’t bother me because I got it with lower mileage and have kept up on its upkeep. Now in my forties, I have am continuing to pile the miles on. Not just the years but the stresses and events and memories. I hope that I find more chances to look more at where I’m going and even look at myself as someone with potential and not just focus on the years of wear and tear. I have an infatuation with being transfixed on the what-ifs and seductive alternate scenarios of the past. I look at the things missing from my life that will never be returned. Maybe I can take a look at see the freedom I have to take myself down roads I’ve never been and make the miles count.
