Maybe CBT stands for Carlos Boozer Therapy
Also: Steve Young, Ashley Judd, some Kottkes, some Maggies Smith
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Steve Young too. Because of course Steve Young too.
Because anyone can be affected by mental health issues. And anyone includes a superstar NFL quarterback like Steve Young.
The Athletic does a great job during Mental Health Awareness Month every year with articles about athletes who open up about the challenges they’ve faced in that department.
And as his 30s arrived, he nearly snapped. Young’s nerves had always flared up as game day approached. His life was miserable starting on Thursdays for as long as he played. But the ramp-up to an Oct. 13, 1991, game against the Atlanta Falcons at Candlestick Park felt like something different.
Thursday: After his first sleepless night, Young was such a mess he skipped practice by calling in sick (with the flu or some such; he certainly didn’t say it was anxiety).
Friday: After his second sleepless night, Young told himself, “I need to figure this out.”
Saturday: After his third sleepless night, the Bay Area family Young was staying with saw enough signs of his unraveling that they insisted that he seek help. “And I for the first time in my life,” he said, “I actually admitted to myself: ‘This is not right.’ That’s how far it took it.”
I find it really interesting that a lot of former athletes and some current athletes are talking about this kind of thing lately. For one, it goes against the “man up” toxic masculinity approach that society in general and sports in particular have long marinated in. And for another, athletes have nothing to gain and often a lot to lose, especially the active ones.
Like, a singer-songwriter opening up about a struggle with traumatic stress, for instance, can lend some depth to the work they’ve produced. But an athlete can lose a job for any kind of capricious reason and all it takes is a general manager who’s behind the times.
Steve Young went to college at Brigham Young University and there’s a connection:
Steve Young is one of Brigham Young’s many descendants. Given that the older Young married 27 times and had 56 children, it shouldn’t have been too surprising that one of his descendants would eventually quarterback at BYU. Steve Young is officially Brigham Young’s great-great-great-grandson.
Can you imagine going to a school named after your great-great-great grandfather? I’d be getting my degree at Long Ago Norwegian Farmer University.
Ashley Judd speaks up
Country music star Naomi Judd passed away recently and it’s now been revealed that she died by suicide, using a gun. Which is awful. Her daughter, the actor Ashley Judd, is opening up about her mother in an effort to help other people.
“When we’re talking about mental illness, it’s very important, and to be clear and to make the distinction between our loved one and the disease," Judd said in the interview. "It lies. It’s savage. And, you know, my mother, our mother, couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers. I mean, that is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her because the barrier between — the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart. And the lie that the disease told her was so convincing.”
Tyler Mahan Coe’s podcast, Cocaine & Rhinestones, is a deeply researched history of 20th century country music. One of the episodes is about Wynonna Judd and it includes a lot about Naomi and Ashley. It’s a difficult and painful listen but a valuable one to hear.
Maggie Smith interview went well!
Kinda feel like I need to bookend that one since the last newsletter was just before I interviewed the poet Maggie Smith. She’s great and not at all a British actor. That’s a different Maggie Smith. Hilariously, this YouTube features a picture of actor Maggie but with the words and voice of poet Maggie:
And that’s funny.
But by all means, check out poet Maggie’s poems. This is one of my favorites.
Want a little preview? Well, okay…
All we ever talk of is light—
let there be light, there was light then,
good light—but what I consider
dawn is darker than all that.
So many hours between the day
receding and what we recognize
as morning, the sun cresting
like a wave that won’t break
over us—as if light were protective,
as if no hearts were flayed
I still can’t believe people write poems. I’m in awe of it. I’m a very good writer but I couldn’t write a decent poem if my life depended on it. Couldn’t write a poem if plums in a freezer depended on it. Not even if I owed a Grecian urn. Even men from Nantucket are better at it.
Kottke takes time off from kottke to benefit Kottke
It’s no secret that I closely follow the blog kottke.org. I’ve checked it most days for the last 20-odd years. It’s great for a lot of reasons but one of the big reasons is that it’s almost entirely written by one guy, Jason Kottke. You get used to Jason’s voice and you know that everything he’s bringing to you is brought there for a reason.
I’ve found his blog to be a very useful way to get my mind off whatever I’m worrying about it with my work. And the work I do is really grounded in myself. The show I host is called Depresh Mode with John Moe. Name in the title. When I write books, name’s on the cover. Give speeches, they use a picture of me and my name to market it. It’s validating but it can be a little weird too because where does my person end and my work begin?
LITTLE DID I KNOW that Jason Kottke felt the same way!
Does what I do here make a difference in other people’s lives? In my life? Is this still scratching the creative itch that it used to? And if not, what needs to change? Where does kottke.org end and Jason begin? Who am I without my work? Is the validation I get from the site healthy? Is having to be active on social media healthy? Is having to read the horrible news every day healthy? What else could I be doing here? What could I be doing somewhere else? What good is a blog without a thriving community of other blogs? I’ve tried thinking about these and many other questions while continuing my work here, but I haven’t made much progress; I need time away to gain perspective.
Completely unrelated, here’s Leo Kottke:
He’s good at guitar playing.
I might have to actually do this
Had fun with this idea and the replies.
Well. Ron Coomer.