OK, back on track with this double issue! David Sedaris: hilarious as usual. Just writes the things that we all think we experience them (in this instance, reading language guides), but somehow writes them in a way that is so universally funny. I got to see his comedy show live a couple of years ago here and it was the first time in a long time I had laughed till it hurt at a show. I had read many of the pieces that he read aloud from past New Yorkers and yet when he read them, they were fresh and funny all over again. And rather than stifling a quiet giggle while reading his words on the subway or in a coffee shop, we could laugh out loud in the theatre among friends.
I was eager to read the profile on Sheryl Sandberg in this issue, as I have admired her for a long time. However either the profile didn't really scratch the surface or she is not as profound a person as I had believed. I was looking for more depth about the career vs. mom issue, but it was kind of glossed over. Her only advice seemed to be to a) find the perfect husband and b) be in the job you want before having kids. Not really useful day-to-day juggling advice, if you ask me. One time in Gwyneth Paltrow's e-newsletter GOOP I read some advice from a mutual friend of theirs (Gwyneth's and Sheryl's) who worked for a VC in California and who had some great tips for the mom working full time who still did "the school run" (as GP puts it). Now SHE would be a good person to profile. Though I suppose as she is not the COO of Facebook, she would not be as interesting to the average New Yorker reader.
The article about technology guru Jaron Lanier was far more thought-provoking. First of all, anyone who could become as self-actualized and successful as he has with that weird of a childhood deserves a ton of props. Second, his insights about technology were very interesting to read. People can and do get too wrapped up in virtual worlds, such as social networks. Last week a tragic story was in the news about a man who was going through a nasty divorce. He and his soon to be ex traded barbs about each other on Facebook. In the middle were two kids aged 9 and 13. One day the bodies of the father and the two children were found burned to death in a fire in his garage. The mother's postings on Facebook were basically as follows: "Fire on my ex's street - hope everything is OK." "The police are coming to my door..." "My ex has killed my children." I mean, SERIOUSLY? Your whole life has come crashing down around you and you are posting these updates on Facebook? I could never relate to that. And I'm glad to see that some of the people who helped dream up the technology can't either.
The article on the Rwandan cyclists was also entertaining. I have been reading Gourevitch's reports from and about Rwanda for years now it seems and they are always so effective at painting a picture of a country, and a society, whose existence after the genocide of 1994 is nothing short of a miracle. That the country could still even be on the map is amazing in itself; that people have gotten on with their lives, and that feel-good stories such as this one about a cycling Team Rwanda are taking place, is truly inspiring.
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