Banter 72: Hygge

Date: Sunday, November 19th at 6pm

Location: Sabine's house

Zoom option: Zoom link emailed out (or ask Sabine if you can't find it)

With some trepidation about sounding new agey, as we northern hemisphere dwellers shift into the tilt away from the sun & the dark hours grow long, our patterns and moods change. Some people like the shut-in, hibernation quality of this portion of our year, while others stay buoyant through strapping skis or skates to feet for as many hours as they can fit in. Sauna culture is another angle on making winter and coldness feel fun vs. something to merely survive. 

Hygge - a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture) - isn’t reserved for fall and winter only, though it surely comes to mind more then. Not surprisingly, this developed among some fellow northern hemisphere residents. Most / all? cultures that deal with extended winter (incl. south hemisphere dwellers) surely have their hyggelig practices and customs. We know that mental health struggles increase greatly for humans in the winter months, with sad self-harm statistics in Montana being all too well known to most of us, along with great increases in alcohol consumption this time of year and other trends that indicate attempts at coping. 

Well before hygge was a trendy hipster / bourgeoisie concept in the US, ski bum Whitefish, for example, was hanging twinkle lights along rooftops not just for Christmas but Nov-March to alight the streets with cozy factor, gathering in roasty warm pubs (for the alcohol load, yes, but also for the camaraderie and closeness), holing up with friends and family at potlucks, meeting at the Moose lodge for bingo nights, having 7am coffee at a cordoned-off corner table at the Buff, taking part in ski torch parades & lining nordic paths with lanterns at night, hanging feed for the townie birds and squirrels, baking muffins, lighting old world candle chimes, and all the things we each do to help each other to arrive to the long-lit, effortlessly joyous days of summer once again. 

So, we gather in hyggelig manner this second most dark month of the year. 

Some mellow prep materials on the topic:

• "Indian take on Danish hygge" - short stand up comedy act: https://youtu.be/cHocWPV7HL8?feature=shared

• A New Yorker article, "The Glossary of Happiness" - https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-glossary-of-happiness

Banter 71: Are white lies good or bad?

Upcoming topic: Are white lies good or bad? Do you engage in them? Do you sometimes feel it was the wrong decision? Do you fess up in those instances? Do you want to be told white lies? Do you lie to yourself sometimes? Can you share examples of when white lies brought people closer together? Can you share specific examples of when white lies created distance and disconnection in a relationship?

Topic from: Lavonne Burgard (thanks, Lavonne!)

Date: Monday, May 29th at 6:30pm 

Location: At Mitch's in Kalispell 

Zoom option: Emailed to group; if you didn't get the link, email Sabine.

Resources to spend time with before we meet to discuss:

Short overview article: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/whats_good_about_lying

Short psychology article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/love-lies-and-conflict/202210/do-white-lies-help-or-hurt-your-relationship

Scholarly article "The Dishonesty of Honest People": https://people.duke.edu/~dandan/webfiles/PapersDisHonesty/The%20Dishonesty%20of.pdf

These resources speak to related concepts that may be helpful to mull over too:

Hidden Brain podcast (50 mins):   https://www.npr.org/2018/08/30/643321125/can-you-handle-the-truth

Medium length article with a lot of historical quotes about lies, truth, lying: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/lying/lying_1.shtml

Banter 70: Our collective human fascination with the macabre - why? what purpose does it serve?

Goosebumps book series is targeted at 9-12 year old readers

Upcoming Topic: Our historical and current fascination with the macabre in stories/podcasts/children fables/myths/tv shows/etc. What purpose does it serve us to be drawn to the macabre vs. being propelled away from it?

Date: Saturday, April 22nd at 6pm

Host: at Sabine’s house

Zoom option: See email from 3/17

Materials to spend some time with to help you think further about the topic: 

From Chris: Seems like there's a link between our need for mythology and our fascination with crime thrillers, but I couldn't find anything directly in Joseph Campbell. To support Chris’ train of thought, I found this tracing our historic fascination pre-podcast with the macabre: https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-writings/true-crime-0016921

   

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, published 1886

Or, somewhat related, we can look to Carl Jung’s psychological concept of a shadow (the part of our psyche that harbours our darkest impulses). Here is a video explaining it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgLQWutNxKc

Here also is Joseph Campbell speaking about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzYsi3SV1bY

Caravaggio’s painting of Medusa, 1597 (in the Uffizi, Florence, Italy)

From Sabine: Pretty basic, but not bad talking points on the topic: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/559256/why-we-love-true-crime

If you haven’t listened to any True Crime podcasts yet, maybe try your hand at an episode from one of NPR’s many: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/2069/true-crime

Or, consider an episode of a recent, Seattle-based, fictional crime / detective series I binged on, The Killing (on Hulu), based on the original Danish series, Forbrydelsen. This is not an American phenomenon, as Scandinavian crime shows are considered the best by film snob sorts, referring to them as Scandi Noir. Hate the title of the American version of this show, but man the character development of the two detectives is so well done, as are the moody Seattle specifics.

From Mitch: an SNL skit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4RdcE6H4Gs

Skim sections that interest you in this 200 page dissertation: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6644&context=etd#:~:text=Previous%20studies%20have%20shown%20that,drawn%20to%20female%20protagonists%20and

If you only have time to review the materials briefly, I’d suggest Mitch’s SNL skit first, then the first YouTube video explaining Jung’s shadow self concepts, and maybe the ancient-origins website link to get more sense of this not being a contemporary neuroses or new development in humans.

Banter 69: Digital Life, from a philosophy perspective

Date: Thursday, Feb. 23 at 6pm

Host: Annette

Topic: Digital Life, from a philosophy perspective

Nathan Dufour Oglesby is a philosopher who also creates YouTube and TikTok videos with a comedic focus (Nathanology), such as this one on the etymology of "Superbowl." 

Epicureanism, an ancient Greek philosophy known for its lessons on material existence and pleasure-seeking, can also be applied to living well on social media and the internet. Nathan Dufour Oglesby (who likes to put the fun in philosophy) explains:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220901-the-epicurean-guide-to-digital-life