Lessons From Lucy – Book Review

Dave Barry is a best-selling author, syndicated columnist, humorist, and Pulitzer Prize winner known for his witty, insightful, and sometimes sarcastic humor. After reading Dave Turns 40 and Dave Turns 50, I was curious about his book Lessons From Lucy:  The Simple Joys of An Old, Happy Dog. When Dave turned 70, he realized that his dog, Lucy, was handling old age much better than he was. Lucy “has more friends, fewer worries, and way more fun.”  It’s a funny, easy-to-read, insightful, sensitive, and touching book about seven lessons that apply to people and pets. In his 70s, Dave has become more reflective, introspective, and philosophical, as theories of adult development inform us. The Palm Beach Post newspaper described the book as “An instruction manual on how to live happy, healthy, and heartily well into your seventies and beyond.” I’ve given the book to several people who laughed at least as much as I did and were equally inspired by its lessons. The lessons are:

  1. Make new friends (and keep the ones you have).
  2. Don’t stop having fun (and if you have stopped, start).
  3. Pay attention to the people you love (not later, right now).
  4. Let go of your anger unless it’s about something important, which it seldom is.
  5. Try not to judge people by their looks, and don’t obsess over your own.
  6. Don’t let your happiness depend on things; they don’t make you truly happy, and you’ll never have enough anyway.
  7. Don’t lie unless you have an excellent reason, which you probably don’t.
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Borgen

Borgen, a political drama about Denmark is on Netflix. Everything about it is top drawer. It is on my top three list of streaming series!

I have been re-watching the Danish series Borgen. The story centers around a woman who tries to juggle being a wife and mother with her job as Prime Minister. Sidse Babett Knudsen, the acclaimed Danish actress, plays the prime minister, Birgitte Nyborg, and she is superb. The rest of the cast delivers excellent performances, though it is Knudsen who sets the tone of the series. Borgen gives viewers insight into a political system different than our own though the process of politics which drives the system is universal. The series is realistic and gritty and hard to stop watching.