Over the past few days, I have felt like a sponge: absorbing information from media outlets, watching horrifying video after video, reading the privileged tweets of all-lives-matter enthusiasts who are uncomfortable that a moment of history that is not about them, watching the child-in-a-suit who is legally the country’s president worsen the situation, and I am full. Sick. Tired. Overwhelmed. Words seem trite. Sentiments and platitudes feel ingratiating. A man died, and nothing we say, nothing we write can bring him back. A man was killed in broad daylight. A 46-year-old man cried out for his mother as he lay under the knee of an officer who was determined to subdue him. It didn’t matter that George Floyd could not breathe. All that mattered to Derek Chauvin and the other fools-in-uniform was that Floyd be suppressed till he was no longer a “threat.” So, they killed him. After all, how else does one eliminate the threat of an unarmed black man whose hands were handcuffed but to kill him? How else do four white-skinned officers threatened by the blackness of one officer get rid of the threat? God forbid that a white person feel threatened in their “land of the free.” Nah, all threats have to go and America must be great again. I guess I should not be surprised. This behavior has historical precedent: grabbing the lands of (brown) Native Americans and killing them off with smallpox, for instance. For people who have the audacity to dispute the wrongness of Floyd’s death, for those who admit that this incident is wrong but claim that it is an isolated incident or that it has nothing to do with Floyd’s blackness, and then head to church this morning to sing “Waymaker,” I am praying for you. Don’t misunderstand: I am enraged at your ignorance and disgusted that you claim to love the Lord but care very little for those He loves. I am praying that you realize that your “Waymaker” is not a fan of hypocrites. I am praying that the eyes of your white privilege be opened. But please, please, please, if you are not going to help black lives matter, then get the hell out of our way. Picture pulled from: https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2020/5/29/187d4fb6a7c6459e8256afd01df59e68_18.jpg
Hi there beautiful people.
I know it's been a while. As my little cousin would say, "Sorry!" (Imagine this in a cute chipmunk voice) Onto the list, dear friends!
Access the Spotify playlist by clicking here (or listen below) I was going to start this piece off by calling Shaun an idiot. However, after watching him confront Lea on last night’s episode (S03E18), I can’t seem to summon the vitriol anymore. Mostly because I think he finally realizes how idiotic he has been. And it’s not as fun to kick someone when they’re down, you know? I kid. The Good Doctor centers around a brilliant surgical resident, Shaun, who is also autistic. In the current season (S3), Shaun is caught in a love-triangle of sorts. The incredibly ridiculous Carly/Shaun/Lea triangle. Laughable, really. As if Lea can hold a candle to Carly in the girlfriend department. Honestly, Carly should be given the Oscars-equivalent for Best Girlfriend. But maybe I’m biased. Let’s examine the facts, shall we? When we first meet Lea, she is literally the girl-next-door. She breezes past Shaun’s autistic barrier to social interactions and worms her way into his affections. She doesn’t mind that he is autistic. Instead, she seems to like that he is autistic. One time, she even says that he is not like other guys. She takes him out of his comfort zone: road-tripping, driving, drinking, even giving him his first kiss. Perfect, romantic teenage-y stuff, right? No, because Lea drops him like a hot potato almost immediately, claiming that she just wants to be friends and moves right out of San Jose before he could say Dillalo. Just when Shaun starts to become okay without her, she moves back to San Jose, right into his house and they become roommates. Poor, confused Shaun. Like he needs this much drama in his first situation-ship. Thankfully, the writers realized that Shaun needs some sanity in his life, so at the end of season 2, Shaun asks another doctor out on a date. Her name is Carly and she has sense. Did I mention that she has sense? Yeah, okay. In his relationship with Carly, Shaun grows by leaps and bounds. He learns how to be comfortable with his autism. He learns that he is desirable even as someone with autism. He and Carly have open, honest, and deep conversations about their biases (Carly wondering if she is dating him to prove a point because her sister is autistic), their personalities (Shaun disliking intimate physical contact, i.e. handholding), fears (Shaun being afraid Carly will grow tired of his “issues”). For the record, she never gets tired of his “issues.” Meanwhile, Lea hovers around their relationship like a visible ghost. She lives with Shaun until Carly tells him that she is not comfortable with their housing arrangement. Lea moves out, but less than two episodes later, she is around again, working in the same hospital as a technical assistant (y’all, Lea is supposed to be an automotive engineer! What does that have to do with medical software?) Finally, the love triangle seems to be solved in S03E16 when Carly breaks up with Shaun because she thinks he is in love with Lea. It takes him an episode to get there, but Shaun agrees with Carly’s assessment and goes after Lea, because he “loves her more.” If I rolled my eyes any harder, they would pop out of their sockets. Here’s why this is problematic: Shaun already picked Carly over Lea! In S03E11, he weighed Lea and Carly against each other, and picked Carly. If Shaun was not autistic, the storyline of him not “realizing” his love for Lea might be plausible. But he is, so it is not. Shaun is brutally honest and does not engage in nuanced emotional interactions that belie artifice. If he wanted Lea over Carly in S03E11, he would have picked Lea over Carly. But he didn’t.
So, for him to be persuaded that he loves Lea more than Carly because he and Lea sang into one mic at karaoke is a level of idiocy that Shaun should never even have considered. Shaun even tries justifying his decision by claiming Lea makes him a better version of himself (please read: not autistic). Either Shaun is an idiot or the writers messed up by making Lea seem prejudiced. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Because Lea is who she is now, and Shaun is autistic. They do not fit together. It’s borderline toxic and just plain wrong. To insinuate that Carly did not make Shaun want to be better is a writer’s cop out. Shaun grew so much in one season with Carly than he did in two seasons with Lea. That might have something to do with Carly’s caring consistency and stability, something Lea is not great at. I applaud Lea’s decision to reject Shaun, but it also highlights why it shouldn’t even have been an option in the first place.
3/3/2020
Review of the Top Ten List
Hi lovas!
This week's playlist is filled with mood music to get those creative/productive juices flowing. Hope you like. I pray that your week will be amazing and everything the Lord wants it to be (which is amazing)
Have you guys been enjoying the playlist? I hope so!
Let's get right onto the review...
2/24/2020
Ronke's Top Ten Songs of the WeekHey there, beautiful people, here's what I am listening to this week. I think you'll enjoy the playlist (you know, since I have such an unparalleled taste in music, hehe)
Have a fun week!
2/13/2020
Being An Adult...Being an adult is putting the leftover pot of food in the fridge because you can’t come and kill yourself.
Being an adult is leaving dishes in the sink overnight. Being an adult is sometimes sleeping with makeup on. Being an adult is dozing off on the toilet seat. Being an adult is going to the washing machine to find your clothes almost dry because you forgot them in there. Being an adult is going to the dryer to find your clothes cool because you forgot them in there. Being an adult is not remembering if you turned the dryer on. Being an adult is spending hours in traffic listening to a Spotify playlist that makes no sense. Being an adult is realizing that the playlist radio makes more sense than the playlist itself. Being an adult is an experience. Being an adult is an experience I am grateful for. Being an adult is an experience I am determined to consciously and presently enjoy.
1/19/2020
Ronke's Top Ten Songs of the Week
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AuthorAll posts by Ronke (unless otherwise indicated) Archives
June 2023
CategoriesAll 36 Day Challenge Contradictory Or Nah? Film Review GAMT Premier League Quasi-Reviews Regular Ish Story Time The Jane Review The Misadventures Of A Yoruba Girl Top Ten/ RAD List |