From My Margins: When Good Enough is Great

No masterpieces this week, but sometimes I like it that way

First off, let me say a big thank you to all of you who have subscribed in my first week here. I’m so touched every single time I get a notification that a new person has subscribed. After three years of feeling like becoming a mom has scrambled my brain and ability to string coherent thoughts together, it means a lot that you all want to be on this journey with me to start to put words on paper screen again.

An especially big thank you to Viv and Karin for becoming paid supporters. I’ve spent much of my career working with thought leaders in one form or another and watching people pay for their thoughts. It is overwhelming and humbling to have the tables turned and be the one whose thoughts are valued in this way.

Theme for the Week:

Part of what makes great entertainment great is its rarity. If we only took in what is great, it would stop feeling so great. I’m not an entertainment snob. I love and appreciate true art, but that’s not where I’m at every week. When you’re working with limited free time and a tired mind, a B+ choice can be good enough.

That’s what I’ve got for you this week. A good enough movie. A good enough book. A good enough finale (and one I think we all agree didn’t clear the good enough bar). A good enough crafting effort.

If You Only Have Time for One Thing:

I’m as surprised as anyone that this is my one thing this week, but here we go:

The Gorge

I was inspired by my friend Courtney (of Common Ground Pilgrimages) to have a monthly movie-and-a-cocktail date night with my husband. We’re alternating who plans it each month, so it’s a fun surprise for the other person. This month was Kevin’s turn; he paired a classic rum Dark 'N' Stormy with this thriller.

We had a conversation recently at work about how nice it was to see a return to movies that are just a fun ride. They aren’t trying to win big awards or beat box office records. Are there plot holes? Absolutely. Is the dialogue perfect? Absolutely not. But sometimes, on a Friday night, I don’t want to settle in for a piece of art¹. Sometimes, I just want two hot actors to entertain me for 90-120 minutes. The Gorge delivered that.

The story puts Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy), two of the best sharpshooters in the world, on either side of a massive, spooky gorge. Their job is to stay for a year and keep what’s in the gorge from getting out. Contact between their respective towers is forbidden. You see where this is going, right?

The best thing I can do here is give you the reactionary bullet points I put into my notes app as I watched:

• Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy are both great. And Sigourney Weaver? This movie has a surprisingly excellent cast.

• These dumbasses. You have one job.²

• Let me join the chorus of voices crying out to STOP MAKING MOVIES SO EFFING DARK. I am in my house, not a movie theater. I want to be able to see what’s happening on the screen even if I have a lamp on somewhere in my house.

• This has some real The Last of Us vibes and I like it. Can’t wait for season 2 of that show.

• Literally said out loud, “That’s not how fire works.”

• This was filmed in Norway and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

• Drasa’s handwriting is too perfect. This may be my biggest complaint.

• So much better for them not to give us the poem at the end. Great writing choice.

• This was fun, if imperfect. Give us more like this, Hollywood.

Reading:

Red Rising by Pierce Brown (4 stars)

I first read this back in 2016 and only made it through book three in the series, which I believe is all that was out at the time. It was too hard for me to keep up with the massive world (literally the entire solar system) and large cast of characters between novels, so I dropped it. Recently, though, I saw it included in a list of one of the best modern sci-fi series and it piqued my curiosity again. The seventh, and presumably final, book is due out next summer (2026); it seemed like a good time to give it another chance.

I remembered really liking this first book; that remained true upon return. There are a lot of details and people to keep track of, and Brown probably could have trimmed this down by around 50 pages for a tighter story. Still, it’s action-packed and hard to put down once you get going.

I am anxious to see if the later books in the series lose me again or if the series lives up to the hype it gets from so many readers. There’s a TV adaptation in the works, which I can see being very successful if they do it right.

Watching:

The Righteous Gemstones, season 2 finale

Last week,

Danielle Adair

commented to say that season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones is fine but that season 3 is a masterpiece. That was so helpful to hear. I’m looking forward to having this season behind us and moving on.

I have to say, though… when Kelvin said, “At least you’re baptized” to BJ… I don’t think Kevin and I have both laughed that hard at the same thing in years.

The White Lotus, season 3 finale

Sigh. I really wanted this to be good. I hung on all season with hope in my heart. I didn’t hate it all. I loved the dinner scene between the three friends. Their resolution felt as true to me as all the cattiness earlier in the season. Yet, what can I even say about Rick and Chelsea and their terrible ending?

Sarah Stewart Holland was absolutely correct when she said in the Pantsuit Politics recap of the finale that having no one respond to all the trauma and simply get back on the boat is truly unhinged. I’ll prioritize sticking to the travel itinerary and making my flight with the best of them, but there is no way all these characters just sailed off as if their mornings had been totally normal.

Lots of commentators have remarked that the deaths in this finale were a lot different than previous seasons. Their circumstances were tragic, rather than absurd, and they were a driving force of the season in a way they have not been before. It made for a real departure in tone that I did not love.

I did really enjoy parts of this season, but I felt let down by its overall arc and conclusion. I’ll still watch next season.

Cooking:

Photo credit: Lauren Zaser / BuzzFeed

We’re in the midst of what I presume will be our final cold snap before we barrel toward summer temperatures. In that spirit, I’m trying to squeeze in a few of our winter favorites one last time for the season.

I love this recipe for Chicken Thighs with Bacon and Brussels Sprouts from Tasty. I chop the apples up into bite-size pieces and sometimes skip the apple jus. I find there’s plenty of moisture without it, and if you pick a tart apple, you have the acid you need to balance the flavors without the vinegar in the jus.

Doing:

Tomorrow is my son’s third birthday party (theme: Ride Along with Me to 3; translation: it’s a Daniel Tiger party), so the vast majority of my free time this week has been spent getting things ready for that. Anyone interested in leftover cake or banana swirl should feel free to swing by on Sunday afternoon and get it out of my house. 😂

One of his gifts is a calendar station I put together for his room. He is very interested in the days of the week / months of the year, and he is generally starting to understand the concept of anticipating plans. I repurposed an old bulletin board and hung pieces from this Lakeshore Learning calendar set. I used these glue dots to stick the date pieces and arrows into place. We’ll hang it next to this LIKARTO Weekly Planner magnetic board that will guide more daily routine. I’m really excited about making this part of our morning routine together, and I think he will love it, too.

That bulletin board setup is basically the extent of my arts and craft skills, so if you think you’ll subscribe and get more Pinterest-mom adjacent content, you’ll be disappointed. Still, lots of great reasons to come back next week, so I hope you’ll subscribe anyway. See you then!

1. Sometimes I do, though! Last month we watched A Real Pain. It was funny and poignant and a phenomenal piece of art. Also a great Friday night pick.

2. I do understand people failing at basic common sense is necessary to the plot of nearly every thriller, but it never ceases to make me a little crazy.