Good Reads: From raising champions, to Norway鈥檚 slow TV, to making real friends
A true champion
Missy Franklin isn鈥檛 your ordinary teenager. Not only does the 18-year-old four-time Olympic medalist get straight A鈥檚 and spend her free time visiting children鈥檚 hospitals, she鈥檚 known to be one of the nicest elite gold medal athletes out there. So how did her parents raise such a well-adjusted champ?聽
鈥淭here is no blueprint,鈥� writes . 鈥淢ore often than not, parents are making mistakes without even realizing it. In [the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State鈥檚] 2005 study of elite youth tennis players ... roughly 30% of parents were unintentionally acting in a way that troubled their children. It could be as simple as the way a father holds his face in his hands after his son strikes out, or as complex as an up-and-coming tennis star, seeing the money his parents are shelling out for coaching and travel, feeling pressure to deliver on the investment.鈥�
But the Franklins鈥� effort to not get caught up in the race to athletic insanity seems to have worked: 鈥淚f it鈥檚 one thing my parents have taught me it鈥檚 to follow my heart,鈥� says Ms. Franklin in a related ESPN video.
Is it that simple? 鈥淏y many standards, Missy is spoiled. Her parents have built their lives around her needs and her schedule,鈥� writes Mr. Drehs. 鈥淏ut somehow, Missy hasn鈥檛 devolved into a self-centered egomaniac. Instead, she鈥檚 the exact opposite.鈥�
What Americans do best
Empathy is spreading in Kyrgyzstan, and just in time, writes , with the introduction of a new TV show called 鈥淒orm,鈥� funded in part by the United States. (Think a Russian 鈥淔riends鈥� with a sentimental moral in each episode.) The show confronts pressing social issues that include racism, corruption, and cross-border tensions with neighboring Uzbekistan. While Ms. Canning laments the US government cutbacks for research and education in Central Asia, a critical area as American troops pull out of Afghanistan, 鈥淒orm鈥� serves as a good reminder of what she says Americans truly do best: entertainment.
Norway鈥檚 鈥榮low TV鈥� movement
While many networks around the Western world are vying for viewers with short attention spans and a hunger for the latest exciting concept, a rather odd thing is happening in Norway, writes Mark Lewis for TimeWorld.
鈥淢ore than 3 million people out of a population of 5 million tuned in to 鈥楬urtigruten: Minutt for Minutt,鈥� the five-day, nonstop cruise program, at some point during its marathon broadcast.鈥� That鈥檚 right. They tuned in to stare at a live feed showing people enjoying a cruise. Not an MTV-drama-filled cruise, mind you, just a rather normal cruise that your grandma might take, without the scripts that have taken over 鈥渞eality鈥� TV. Building on that success as well as that of an evening-long program about firewood, the network has plans to release a minute-by-minute knitting program this winter. The producers are already swamped with e-mails and calls from viewers wanting to be involved in some way.
Why? Part of it, Mr. Lewis writes, is that these 鈥渟low TV鈥� programs 鈥渉ark back to a simpler time when people enjoyed the more spartan pleasures of stoking fires, enjoying the landscape and knitting warm clothes for the freezing Nordic winter.鈥� But ultimately this is something that鈥檚 different, and strange 鈥� and that is exciting.聽
Growing real, local friends
It鈥檚 no secret that processed foods are out, and local, organic foods are in. The logic behind why now extends to digital friendships as well, writes 鈥淧rocessed relationships get scare quotes: Facebook 鈥榝riends.鈥� Processed relationships can鈥檛 be as genuine or authentic or honest as real life friendships.... So the solution is to make local friends, hang out organically, and only communicate through means your Grandma would recognize. It鈥檚 so conservative it鈥檚 radical!鈥�
The theory behind this emerging trend is that 鈥渂y stripping away the trappings of modern life, we reach a place where humans naturally fall into deep and honest relationships with each other,鈥� says Ms. Madrigal.
If this sounds familiar, that鈥檚 because it鈥檚 been mused about by everyone from Henry David Thoreau to Naturalists in the 1960s and 鈥�70s. Today it may seem more pertinent than ever: It鈥檚 hard to think when our phone is always making noises.聽
But Madrigal cautions that just as any individual鈥檚 dietary habits don鈥檛 solve global agriculture鈥檚 issues, 鈥渢he biggest technological problems of our time ... are collective problems that will require collective action based on serious critique.鈥�
Productive people are early risers 聽
Ever wonder why productive people get up insanely early? Paul DeJoe, writing in an op-ed for , may have figured it out: Morning is the one time in the day when there is no pressure and no expectations. 鈥淭he second you check email or LinkedIn, an internal clock of new items immediately starts in our minds 鈥� a vicious cycle. Planning your day the night before allows you to feel on top of your day and even look forward to it.鈥�
鈥� Jenna Fisher / Staff writer
