Matt Damon's portrayal of a stranded astronaut in The Martian provides a valuable metaphor.
Matt Damon's portrayal of a stranded astronaut in The Martian provides a valuable metaphor.
By Emily Yahr
The line to ask Connie Britton a question stretched down the aisle at the theatre in the National Museum of Natural History, where the Nashville and Friday Night Lights star was onstage for a Smithsonian Associates event. It was January, 10 days after President Donald Trump's inauguration. Sarah Leavitt of Silver Spring, Maryland, approached the microphone: "I just wanted a little life advice tonight."
Leavitt, 46, said she felt overwhelmed by a barrage of news since Trump took office, including the volume of opportunity for activism, such as phone calls to representatives and participating in the Women's March. A few days earlier, she bailed on plans with friends to see Dirty Dancing on the big screen - it didn't feel right on the same night that people were storming airports to protest Trump's Muslim travel ban order.
"I can't understand how to talk about pop culture and how to be a citizen in this world that we're in at the same time," Leavitt said. "And I was just wondering, how do you calibrate your time, and think that we should calibrate our time now in this new situation?"
Britton responded, "I've been thinking about the exact same thing ... I think we're all figuring it out."
Six months later, the Washington, DC, news cycle rages on with constant headlines about healthcare and Donald Trump jnr's emails. Political activism is especially alive in liberal areas such as Washington, a city where a third of the people have protested Trump, according to a Washington Post poll.
And some still wrestle with the idea that it's OK to step away. Binge-watch a show. See a movie. Listen to a podcast. Deep down, it's easy to feel as though you're doing something wrong for not focusing enough attention on serious issues.
After Britton's response, the Q&A moderator, NPR writer and Pop Culture Happy Hour host Linda Holmes had a metaphor to share:
"Did you see The Martian with Matt Damon? He's got a big thing he's trying to solve, which is that he's stuck on Mars and he has to get back to Earth. And they spent a lot of time in the movie on the fact that he has to figure out how to grow potatoes on Mars. The potatoes on Mars do not actually get him back to Earth. He's not actually solving the problem. But if he doesn't have potatoes, he's not going to live long enough to solve the problem and get back to Earth."
John Oliver talks to Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show" . Photo / Michele Crowe, CBS
She continued: "So, to me, my hope is, the songs that you love, the books that you love, the TV that you love, the conversations that you have about people that are kind of nourishing to you, help you - those are your potatoes ... and you have to have that stuff in order to make it long enough to get back to Earth."
Judging by the applause Holmes' words struck a chord; and hit a bigger nerve the next day, when I tweeted a transcript of her quote. It was retweeted thousands of times and responses poured in with sentiments along the lines of, "This made me cry" and "I really needed to hear this right now".
"To me, it encapsulated and distilled a fairly complex idea into a simple one," said Mike Nothnagel, 42, of Poughkeepsie, New York. "The world is a challenging and serious place, but you have things you like that can help you navigate it."
Nicola Hassapis, 28, of Boston said she connected with the metaphor because she has been trying to reconcile the need to take a mental break - sitting out a protest, closing Twitter - with guilt that accompanies the urge to step away from the news. "I think that's something people need to hear in the era of the 24-hour news cycle, particularly at a time when anxieties related to the new administration are running high," she added. "Being an effective activist, advocate and ally isn't contingent on being plugged in all the time, despite internal and external pressure for people to believe the contrary."
When politics has seemingly taken over the culture, the instinct is for everything to have a political angle. Broadcast TV networks courted pilots for the fall that might connect to "Trump's America". Saturday Night Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert are seeing record ratings as they zero in on the administration.
But many yearn for escapism more than ever. Even if, as Hassapis implies, some people are worried they'll be judged if they admit they missed a major story to watch a House Hunters marathon, or turned off cable news in favour of reading the Harry Potter book they've already read 10 times.
Paul Levinson, an author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University, says it goes back to the days of Plato, who was very critical of music and poetry, because he thought it distracted society from more important things.
Plenty of others argue the opposite: For us to be fully effective as a humans, entertainment is a critical outlet, because otherwise we might just be ruminating on all the problems in the world, sending our minds into downward spirals.
Experts also emphasise the importance of letting your mind take a break. Mark Reinecke, chief psychologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, recommends not only seeking out entertainment that brings you joy, but doing things that give you a sense of accomplishment.
"If you sit and dwell and ruminate about troubling things in the world, your mood will decline, you'll feel terrible, you'll feel overwhelmed. Your mind won't be in a good space," Reinecke said.
