I’ve been thinking a lot about luck this week. A child placed a black cat on the footpath in front of my friend. I seem to be seeing a lot of ladders. On the other hand, I found a dollar. I wish on eyelashes, stars, chicken bones, and if I happen to be accidentally looking at my phone right as it hits midnight. And I’m very conscientious about picking up any pins.
Questions of luck come up in several of this week’s reads. Can you make your own? The jury’s out – but see if that piece about Poland swings you either way.
Lucky this week: the Polynesian snails that almost went extinct.
Unlucky this week: the mafia boss caught after five years on the run. (And you, unless you forward this email to 10 friends. I don’t make the rules.)
1. Surviving a plane crash
Everyone’s had that thought when the plane gets a bit spirited: what would you do if it fell out of the sky?
In 1992, Annette Herfkens and her fiance were flying from Ho Chi Minh City to the Vietnamese coast. Forty minutes in, the worst happened. She awoke in a jungle with her fiance dead and the cries of the severely injured around her. She was ultimately the sole survivor of 25 passengers and six crew. She had “12 broken bones in her hip and knee alone”. Somehow, she managed to hang on until help came – and much later, worked out the “textbook” behaviour she believed helped her survive. Here, she tells Paula Cocozza what that was.
The detail: Herfkens, who had no way of knowing if a rescue party was coming, remembers her eight-day wait “mostly in pictures … she has worked hard to forget the smells”. (Can you imagine.)
How long will it take to read: about four-and-a-half minutes.
2. The old ways are new again
May Queens! Green and Wicker Men! It’s Beltane weekend in the northern hemisphere (and in my heart, totally warped by too much Loreena McKennitt and Marion Zimmer-Bradley at an impressionable age). Emma Beddington dives into the state of paganism in 2023, as the internet sends it mainstream (again), recasting this “loosely defined constellation of faiths” for another generation.
Notable quote: “To be in a circle, to have a huge bel-fire and to jump the ashes into the full summer, it’s very life-enhancing,” says Adrian Rooke, a druid from the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (Obod) (!!). Show me the lie.
How long will it take to read: Five minutes! Less time than it takes to cast a moderately thorough spell!
Further watching: Midsommar (2019), the director’s cut, or maybe The Wicker Man (1973).
3. The optimism of Bob Brown
Adam Morton’s interview with the former Greens leader is really special. An “unconventional and emotionally charged” doco about the activist’s life, and the story of green politics in Australia, is now doing the rounds. At screenings, Morton writes, Brown is often asked how he keeps going, after five decades of campaigning – and, let’s be frank, very frightening environmental destruction. While admitting to “10 depressed years”, Brown speaks here about his staunch commitment to optimism – “something we should not just allow to the captains of industry” – and to encouraging young people to do what they need to do to stay hopeful. “Because the risk the other way is burning out everybody,” he says. “And we have to look after each other.”
***
“Don’t get too anxious. Look after yourself. Find good companions … Travel. Go to parties to make sure you’re enjoying life. And if the going gets too tough, go shopping. Don’t wear a hairshirt. Assume we have time to turn this around – because if you can’t make that assumption, you might as well go home and read a book.” – Bob Brown
How long will it take to read: about three-and-a-half minutes.
4. National luck
Everyone wanted to read about Poland this week – literally hundreds of thousands of Guardian readers from around the world. I’ll admit to being slightly bemused by this flood of interest, but Anna Gromada’s piece about the country’s radical transformation and shift in Europe’s pecking order is fascinating.
Why does it matter: As Gromada writes, Poland’s story is “a real-world illustration of what theorists such as Joseph Schumpeter said happens in globalised capitalism when technological progress overtakes and destroys established industrial monopolies (such as those of western Europe) turning them into the dinosaurs and giving newcomers (such as eastern Europe) a chance to sneak in … The region has learned the hard way that if you are not at the negotiating table, you are on the menu.”
How long will it take to read: about three-and-a-half minutes.
5. Getting lucky
The dispiriting splutter of a once-white-hot flame, the inexorable creep of tracksuit pants … I’ve never experienced this, obviously, but you do hear things about the way people’s sex lives can wane over time – especially in longer-term relationships. This week in our very readable series on sex, a relationship therapist has tips for “regaining intimacy”. Common sense? Maybe. Worth trying? Why on earth not.
How long will it take to read: two minutes. AKA much less time than your beloved now spends cleaning their ears.
Further reading: Rome wasn’t built in a day! Start with a kiss! Turns out we have a guide especially for that.
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