Spiritual Quote of the Day (First Letter of St. Peter, on Anxiety)

“Cast all your anxieties on Him, for He cares about you.”—1 Peter 5:7 (Revised Standard Version)

The image accompanying this post is from a painting of the apostle by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).

TV Quote of the Day (‘Anything But Love,’ With Richard Lewis in Full Anxiety Mode)

[Hannah Miller, an aspiring writer, has exchanged seats with another airline passenger to sit next to Marty Gold, a reporter for a Chicago magazine—unaware that he has an intense fear of flying.]

Marty Gold [played by Richard Lewis]: “We’re right next to the engines. I can’t believe this! Where’s the safety card?” [starts looking on the floor]” Bags, gifts. Oh, yeah, here it is.” [opening it to read, then frantically grabs Hannah by the back of the neck, bringing her down to the floor with him.] “Head between knees!” [At last they come up, with him exhausted.] “Why?”

Hannah Miller [played by Jamie Lee Curtis] [smiling, attempting to get him through the flight]: “Look, what’s your favorite city? Come on!”

Marty: “Why, uh, I have two: Paris and Teaneck, New Jersey.”—Anything But Love, Season 1, Episode 1, “Fear of Flying,” original air date Mar. 7, 1989, teleplay by Wendy Kout and Dennis Koenig, directed by Michael Lessac

When I first came across this exchange on YouTube, it made me chuckle—and desire, someday, to try to see full episodes of the sitcom Anything But Love, which I was never able to catch during its four-season run on ABC more than three decades ago.

From what I have heard, the dialogue capitalizes on the anxiety that Richard Lewis has long made a part of his stand-up routine. But the last line especially made me smile: a tip of the hat to Lewis’s roots in Bergen County, New Jersey, also my longtime home.

But this week, I had a different feeling about Lewis, after the news broke that he will be retiring from stand-up because of four surgeries and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. Having watched my mother struggle for a decade with the latter medical condition, I can only feel sympathy for him as he deals with its debilitating impact.

Lewis revealed the diagnosis with the same candor that he related his past crisis with alcoholism. I’m sure he’ll face his coming battle an equal amount of grace and courage.

In the meantime, let’s all work for a day when we never have to watch a loved one be stricken by Parkinson’s—or receive the diagnosis ourselves. Anyone who wants to see that day can contribute to either the Parkinson’s Foundation or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Song Lyric of the Day (Donny Hathaway, Hoping That ‘Brighter Days Will Soon Be Here’)

“Never mind your fears
Brighter days will soon be here
Take it from me:
Someday we'll all be free.”— “Someday We'll All Be Free,” written by Donny Hathaway and Edward Howard, performed by Donny Hathaway on his LP Extension of a Man (1973)

Last night, a beautiful cover version of this song by Hanka G reminded me of the stunning original by Hathaway. Edward Howard wrote the lyrics to encourage Hathaway, who was already suffering from the mental illness that would claim his life six years later.

A half century later, the song remains a powerful balm to the spirit for anyone experiencing anxiety, depression, or just simply the blues—especially with the holidays over and the bleakness of winter setting in.

Quote of the Day (Thomas Mann, on Europe on Edge, 100 Years Ago)

“It was a spring afternoon in that year of grace 19-, when Europe sat upon the anxious seat beneath a menace that hung over its head for months.” — German novelist and Nobel Literature laureate Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Death in Venice (1911)

It might be more appropriate for today’s “menace”—nationalism/fascism revived—to appear while we wait for the cold of winter to arrive…

Quote of the Day (Paul Valery, on Living in ‘Interesting Times’)

"You live in interesting times. Interesting times are always enigmatic times that promise no rest, no prosperity or continuity or security. Never has humanity joined so much power and so much disarray, so much anxiety and so many playthings, so much knowledge and so much uncertainty."— Address of French poet Paul Valery (1871-1945) to a graduating class in 1932, quoted in Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century: Volume One: 1900-1933 (1997)

Joke of the Day (Steven Wright, on Math and His Anxiety)

“When I turned two I was really anxious, because I'd doubled my age in a year. I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I'm six I'll be ninety.” — Stand-up comic Steven Wright, quoted in “The Age-Old Problem,” Reader’s Digest, December 2015

(Photo of Steven Wright after a spring 1994 performance in Cohen Auditorium at Tufts University.)

Quote of the Day (John Kenneth Galbraith, on Leaders and ‘The Major Anxiety’ of Their Time)

"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership."—John Kenneth Galbraith, The Age of Uncertainty (1977)