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Living Madly: As Good as a Feast

Photo courtesy of Conger Design

Living Madly: As Good as a Feast

By Emilie-Noelle Provost

There’s a feeling I sometimes get when the refrigerator is full, dinner is in the oven, the house is clean, and I have nothing immediate left to do or responsibilities to worry about. It’s almost like contentment, but that word doesn’t quite define it. This feeling also incorporates a sense of wealth: At that moment, I have everything I need close at hand and the freedom to do whatever I want.

I discovered recently that there’s a word for this feeling in Swedish: lagom. Translated into English, lagom means “just enough” or “just right,” but for the Swedes it goes a bit further.

According to the website Swedishness.ch, lagom is rooted in the Swedish culture of minimalism and finding joy in the things you already possess. It’s almost the complete opposite of our culture in the United States, the underlying concept of which emphasizes that happiness can only be found in coveting and obtaining more stuff, more money, more prestige.

The problem with the American outlook is that happiness can never quite be realized. In continually coveting more, we often fail to appreciate what we already have. We find ourselves caught in a never-ending cycle of consumerism that by default leads to disappointment. This isn’t just because we’re always looking to obtain the next best thing. It’s because, in doing so, we often don’t recognize opportunities or engage in activities that can bring us real satisfaction.

By contrast, the Swedes have a saying: Just enough is as good as a feast.

In Sweden, the word lagom is also applied to the concept of moderation: One cookie will bring you joy but ten will give you a stomach ache. Lagom is knowing the difference and using judgement and restraint to achieve the best outcome.

Lagom is also used to describe balance in Sweden, particularly a healthy work/life balance. Sweden is one of the world’s wealthiest countries, but the Swedes don’t live for their jobs. Unlike in the United States, in Sweden there is no glory in working nights and weekends. Overwork is looked down upon. Having enough time to spend with family and friends, working on hobbies, or enjoying the outdoors is as valuable to the Swedes as having a fat bank account. The way they see it, without the former, there’s little point in having the latter.

Sweden is also one of the world’s happiest countries. The World Happiness Report, an annual publication that rates the happiness of people in 140 countries based on Gallup polls, has consistently ranked Sweden among its top ten happiest countries since its inception in 2012. (In 2025, Sweden was number four, while the U.S. came in at twenty-four). This isn’t the result of happenstance.

When was the last time you looked around your house and really noticed and appreciated the things in it? The books on your shelves, the clothes in your closet, paintings, knick-knacks, souvenirs, all of these things at one point or another held meaning and significance. What if that meaning wasn’t so fleeting? What if buying a new car made us less happy than the places that car could take us?

You don’t have to be Swedish to practice lagom. You just have to be mindful, stop what you’re doing once in a while and appreciate the people, experiences, and things that make life worthwhile.

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Emilie-Noelle Provost (she/her) – Author of The River Is Everywhere, a National Indie Excellence Award, American Fiction Award, and American Legacy Award finalist, and The Blue Bottle, a middle-grade adventure with sea monsters. Visit her at emilienoelleprovost.com.

Seen & Heard: Vol. 7 

Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days. 

Winter Olympics week 2 – Last week I wrote that my affection for the Winter Olympics was grounded in the opening narration of ABC’s Wide World of Sports (“the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”). For US Olympians this week seemed more about the agony of defeat, especially when it came to figure skating. The media had devoted much attention to 21-year-old Ilia Malinin, who had won 14 consecutive figure skating events over the past three years and is globally known as the “Quad God” for his ability to routinely execute a quadruple jump that no one else does competitively. In the team competition last week, his skating seemed uninspired but sufficient to help the US team to a gold medal. Then his first skate in the individual program was superb which put him far in the lead. All he had to do in his second skate was get through it intact. On Friday at 4:30 EST, all eyes were on screens to see him achieve greatness. Instead, disaster struck, he fell twice and finished far out of the medal competition. A John Powers story in the Boston Globe was titled “Fall from grace: With one unimaginable performance, Malinin tumbles off skating podium.” A New York Times article was headlined, “Quad God Falls: Ilia Malinin, Whose Acrobatics Wowed the World, Fails to Medal in Milan.” On top of that, the US ice dancing duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates won a silver medal which in historic context is huge, but they were widely expected to win gold. Their performance was stellar but not stellar enough because the French pair who skated next surpassed them and won the gold. 

Podcast: Uncanny Valley from WIRED magazine – Early last year when many national news outlets were appeasing President Trump by settling outlandish lawsuits or platforming right wing commentators, WIRED magazine made national news with a series of stories critical of Trump. I had subscribed to the print edition of WIRED two decades ago but it had long since disappeared from my media consumption menu. That changed last year when I signed up for a digital subscription. But you don’t need a subscription to listen to this weekly podcast. Most Hollywood people are adamantly opposed to AI, but in this podcast, Jonathan Nolan, who I knew nothing about previously, had a more nuanced view. He explained that he’s long been fascinated by science fiction which caused him to begin studying AI more than 20 years ago. During the interview, Jonathan kept referencing “my brother” until I finally realized that would be Christopher Nolan, the director of Oppenheimer, Dunkirk, Interstellar, and the Dark Knight trilogy. Jonathan explained that AI had the potential to allow less established filmmakers to create amazing special effects at minimal cost, although he said AI could never replace storytelling done by human beings. As for the potential cost savings of AI, he said that people always predict that new technologies will save lots of money, but technology has never cut costs. At the end of each episode, there’s a short segment called “Control – Alt – Delete” in which the host asks the guest, “What’s a technology you would like to control; what is one you would like to alter; and what is one you’d like to delete?” Nolan said he would like to control AI video. He said it is very good at creating amazing special effects but he also warned that it is so good that it risks upending our politics (even more so than they have already been upended) when videos of leaders saying outrageous things appear and are believed even though they were artificially generated. He would like to alter the CRISPR gene-editing technology. He explained that he knows many people burdened by diseases that could be minimized or cured through gene editing. The technology is excellent but there is insufficient funding to develop it at the scale needed to benefit people today. The thing he would like to delete is the algorithmic nature of social media. He’s not a fan of social media in general but understands it has its uses, but the way the social media companies use algorithms to maximize “engagement” has severely damaged society so he’d like to do away with that. 

Newspaper: “An Elegy for My Washington Post” New York Times op-ed by Carlos Lozada – Back in 2017, the Washington Post had some excellent stories and op-eds on the first Trump Administration (and with me calling them “excellent” you can assume they were mostly critical). That prompted me to purchase a subscription to the digital edition of the newspaper. Exposed to the paper on a daily basis, I came to enjoy its coverage beyond national politics, especially its book reviews which were written by Carlos Lozada. However, Lozada left the Post for the Times in 2022 and then, in 2025 when Post owner Jeff Bezos embraced the second coming of Trump and emasculated the paper’s coverage of the new regime, I canceled my subscription. I wasn’t the only one to do that. Although I frame my cancellation as a protest, a succession of budget cuts had diminished the quality of the paper and I found fewer things worth reading in it. Those cuts accelerated last week when Bezos laid off one-third of the paper’s employees and eliminated sports, book review, and other sections typically seen as central to a major newspaper. Those most recent cuts prompted Lozada to write this op-ed. In it, he recalled that when Bezos bought the paper in 2013 he vowed to retain the culture of the paper while investing heavily in modernization. That has all changed for some reason. Here is what Lozado wrote:

“I will not pretend to have a simple solution – or any solution – to the business challenges afflicting America’s news media, nor do I believe that just because Bezos is rich, he is obliged to subsidize The Post in perpetuity. Yet, despite management’s preoccupation with The Post’s mounting losses, it is hard for me to imagine that economic concerns are the sole reason to eliminate more than a third of the Post newsroom, on top of the previous cuts in recent years. I went to see the “Melania” documentary last weekend, for which Amazon reportedly spent $75 million overall, which includes a hefty promotional budget. Based on that viewing, I can only conclude that turning a profit on a quality product is not always Bezos’ primary motivation”

Book Review” King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation” by Scott Anderson (2025) – I’ve long thought that 1968 was the pivotal year for US history in the second half of the 20th century, but after reading Scott Anderson’s “King of Kings,” I’m reconsidering that opinion and now believe the late 1970s are almost as important. When most Americans think about the Iranian Revolution, the story is about the 52 Americans from the US embassy who were held hostage for 444 days in Iran by a radical Muslim student group. This book does a masterful job of expanding the canvas to show it was about much more than that. The Iranian Revolution transformed Islamic fundamentalism from a fringe theological movement into a potent, state-sponsored geopolitical force. Previously, anti-colonial movements leaned leftwards with the coffeehouse as incubator. What happened in Iran in 1979 proved that a popular uprising rooted in Islamic identity could topple a strong, Western-backed ruler. The mosque replaced the coffeehouse. Activists in Egypt, Algeria, Afghanistan and other places took note. King of Kings ends with the hostage taking so the book is almost entirely about the decade that preceded it. Despite having one of the world’s biggest and most technologically advanced militaries, the Shah of Iran was a ditherer who avoided tough decisions, leaving it to others to make them and if they did not, letting problems fester unaddressed. More than anything, that behavior allowed the revolution to succeed. Not far behind in the culpability index was the United States. The Nixon Administration removed all restrictions on the purchase of weapons by Iran. To Nixon and Kissinger, this was a win/win. US arms manufacturers profited and a friendly country that bordered the Soviet Union strengthened its armed forces, or did so on paper since Iran was incapable of maintaining and operating many of the systems it purchased. Another problem for the US was an inability to see anything in other than a US/Soviet Cold War context. Even near the end, the US convinced itself that Ayatollah Khomeni might not be so bad since he was anti-Soviet. Finally, hardly any of the Americans assigned to Iran spoke Farsi which prevented them from discerning what was going on in the country. They relied on their inside contacts who were fully subservient to the Shah and fed the Americans an overly optimistic view of events which the Americans were quite happy to believe uncritically.

“That is what matters most”

“That is what matters most” – (PIP #97)

By Louise Peloquin

Over the past four weeks, our “peeks into the past” have focussed on Lowell’s centennial.

The following “PIP” shows Lowell officials putting final touches to the city’s hundredth birthday party, the March 1 afternoon program and an example of a local business advertisement.

 The editorial below highlights the importance of transmitting to schoolchildren a love of history and a profound respect for all the diligent, tireless, and, alas, sometimes overlooked workers who so greatly contributed to fashioning the city. It underlines the importance of cultivating a “patriotic spirit” and nurturing “fond recollections” of the place called home.

L’Etoile’s team demonstrated the special bond with the city they chose to love and to serve. That is precisely why front pages and headlines prioritized local news.

As Lowell celebrates its bicentennial this year, may everyone everywhere with “a Lowell connection” be inspired by this simple editorial.

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L’Etoile – February 27. 1926 editorial

THE CENTENNIAL

 Without donning the splendor and solemnity that some had wished for, it is nevertheless certain that Lowell’s centennial will not go unnoticed. And it remains a memorable event if indeed, as the City Council has so often repeated, our finances do not allow doing more.

     Under the circumstances, it was especially important to give our schoolchildren the opportunity to participate in the celebration. At the very start of their planning, the Centennial Committee included this aspect into the program.

     Like all self-respecting cities, ours should instill into the children the utmost respect for those whose work, perseverance and energy contributed to make Lowell what it is now. The “canal builders”, referred to lately with a certain contempt, possessed noble qualities to be recognized and honored. And what better occasion to do so than on next Monday’s anniversary?

     Once again, if it is really impossible to find within the City Hall coffers enough money to celebrate Lowell’s centennial with great pomp and circumstance, may our sincerity, our fond recollections and our patriotic spirit largely compensate the real or imagined absence of funds.

     After all, that is what matters most.

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L’Etoile – February 27, 1926 front page

EVERYTHING IS READY FOR MONDAY’S FETE

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The official program of Monday’s events is announced – A celebration like Lowell has rarely seen – Symphony orchestra of 45 instruments and a grand choir of 400 voices – Bleachers in the hall.

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AN ENORMOUS CAKE ILLUMINATED WITH 100 CANDLES ON STAGE

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     After a six-hour session yesterday, the Centennial Committee directors announced the details of next Monday’s official program. It is sure to be one of the most magnificent commemorative celebrations that Lowell has ever seen. The program will honor the generosity of the person who made it all possible, the late Hapgood Wright, that good Lowellian whose portrait will be on the program distributed to attendees.

     A general focus on the evening ball tends to make us forget the afternoon ceremony. The program we are publishing here will be a revelation for many. Among the afternoon’s highlights is a choir of 400 voices and a concert performed by Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians.

     Arthur C. Spalding, president of the committee who organized the choir, said that Lowell will hear what it has never heard before. Mr. Spalding was filled with enthusiasm at the idea of an unprecedented musical triumph. The heart of the choir is composed of quartets from Lowell churches completed by the Masonic Choir, former members of the Lowell Choral Society and individual singers.

     Two stages have been built. An eighteen-inch platform directly facing the actual stage, will seat guests. Then, the day’s speakers will be seated on another, higher platform directly below the stage, just above the special guests.

     Still slightly higher, the symphony orchestra will play on the second special platform while the choir will be on the permanent stage behind. The general visual effet will be that of a grand staircase where the governor’s aide-de-camp uniform and the gala attire will stand out.

     Arrangements for radio broadcasting were minutely prepared. A monitor will be installed in the rear of the hall for A.F. Edes’s program.

     The directors inform the public that almost half of the hall will be open to the public without tickets. Doors will open on time. Ticket holders will use the main entrance. As clearly indicated on each ticket, at 1:45, vacant seats will be left for those without tickets.

     Regarding the ceremony, several banquets are being organized for special guests and centennial directors. Afternoon guests will be hosted by the Centennial Committee in Memorial Auditorium Veterans room. Members of the Centennial Executive Committee will have tables reserved at Marie’s Restaurant  between the afternoon ceremonies and the evening ball. Finally, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will dine on the Auditorium lower floor.

     The centennial program will have an excellent portrait of Hapgood Wright, one of the first Lowell businessmen who left a bequest whose interest serves to finance this year’s celebration. The program will also include the following official list of centennial organizers:

Honorary President, Mayor John J. Donovan; president Frank K. Stearns; treasurer Fred H. Rourke; committee secretary William Trottier; Board of Directors, Frank K. Stearns, president; Joseph A. Gagnon; George M. Harrigan; John A. Hunnewell; Charles L. Marren; Ralph E. Runnels and John J. Walsh.

     Executive Committee: William P. Morrissey, secretary; Councilors James J. Gallagher; Daniel J. Cosgrove; Frank J. Hubin; John J. McFadden; Richard F. Preston; Robert R. Thomas; Francis J. Haggerty; John E. O’Brien; Frank F. MacLean; Edward T. Balley; Joseph A.N. Chrétien; Joseph F. Montminy; Arthur Genest; Abel R. Campbell; Thomas F. Inglis; Walter J. Cleary; John R. Higgins; Charles E. Anderson; George E. Barnett; John H. Beaulieu; George Bowers Jr.; Philip F. Breen; Edward B. Carney; Arthur B. Chadwick; Joseph P. Cryan; Royal K. Dexter; David Dickson; Charles A. Donohue; Eugene F. Fitzgerald; Frederick A. Flather; Joseph A. Gagnon; Joseph H. Guillet; George M. Harrigan; James F. Hennessey; Charles H. Hobson; John A. Hunnewell; Patrick Keyes; Richard J. McCluskey, M.D.; Thomas McFadden; Frank P. McGilly; Elmore I. MacPhie; Arthur McQuaid; Charles L. Marren; Joseph A. Molloy; George E. Murphy; Parker F. Murphy; Patrick Nestor; John P. O’Connell; William F. O’Connell; James O’Sullivan; Franklin B. Pevey; Harry G. Pollard; John E. Regan; John J. Riley; Stanley Robinson; Fred H. Rourke; Ralph E. Runels; Frederick A. Sadlier; Arthur T. Stafford; Alfred P. Sawyer; Frank K. Stearns; Joseph E. Sullivan; William Trottier; Jude C. Wadleigh; and John J. Walsh.

     Commemorative pins will be distributed to all schoolchildren next Monday morning. Schools which have received too many will have to return the surplus to the School Committee supplies office at City Hall. Schools which have not received enough will merely have to go to this same office to collect all they need.

     At Monday evening’s ball, one of the most beautiful decorations will be the gigantic birthday cake placed on the main hall stage. The vast Auditorium and Liberty hall will both be open for dancing. The cake, illuminated by 100 candles, will be six feet high and proportionately wide.

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L’Etoile – February 27, 1926 front page

THE CENTENNIAL

AFTERNOON PROGRAM

Wagner’s prelude to the Third Act of Lohengrin – Symphony Orchestra

Prayer – Rev. Appleton Grannis, Rector of Saint Ann Church

Opening speech – Honorable John J. Donovan, Mayor of Lowell

Speech – His Excellence Alvin T. Fuller, Governor of Massachusetts

Handel’s Alleluia choir – Lowell Centennial Choir

Speech – Frank K. Stearns, President of the Centennial Committee

Tchaikovski’s Fourth Symphony finale – Symphony Orchestra

Congratulations Message – His Eminence Cardinal O’Connell

Gounod’s Faust Choir of Soldiers – Lowell Centennial Choir

Male Masonic Choir – a. – Father’s Sunday song – Kreutzer

1. – Home Sweet Home – Geibel

Anniversary poem – Ralph H. Shaw

George W. Chadwick’s The Pilgrims – Centennial Choir directed by the composer

George W. Chadwick’s Anniversary Overture – Symphony Orchestra directed by the composer

Speech – Hugh J. Molloy, Superintendent of Lowell schools

Herbert’s American Fantasy Finale  – Symphony Orchestra

(The Star Spangled Banner will be sung by the audience after this finale.)

Blessing – Rev. Father John J. McGarry, D.L.C.

N.B. – The Symphony Orchestra will be composed of 45 Boston Symphony Orchestra musicians conducted by A. Jacchia. The Masonic Choir is composed of 75 singers under the direction of Ferdinand Lehnert the 2nd. The grand Centennial Choir of Lowell will be directed by Eusebius G. Hood.

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L’Etoile – March 1, 1926

Congratulations Lowell!

On this occasion of the 100th anniversary of Lowell, we offer our congratulations and express the firm hope that each day in future years will bring the most flourishing health, happiness and prosperity to all.

By the Bakers of

20TH CENTURY BREAD (1)

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1) Translations by Louise Peloquin.

Why it’s us versus them by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Paper Girl: a Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by journalist Beth Macy is a perfect complement to my just-reviewed Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. Think of Paper Girl as small-town Ohio, part 2, the contemporary, non-fiction version.

Macy grew up in Urbana, Ohio, graduating from high school in 1982. Though four generations of her family suffered from addiction, abuse, teen pregnancy and poverty-related struggles. Beth herself had been an unruly teenager, yet she still responsibly delivered newspapers on her bike, played in the high school marching band, finished high school, graduated from college and got a job writing for the Urbana Daily News, the same paper she had delivered to her neighborhood as a youngster.

Eventually, she moved elsewhere for jobs with bigger papers, returning home only rarely to visit her mother. Over several decades, she came to discover that “something was rotting beneath the surface” of her “postcard-cute” hometown.  She decided to return regularly to Urbana for two years to dig deeper and deeper into the shocking changes she observed. What she discovered became this powerful fact-based memoir that helps the reader understand more viscerally the huge divide that poisons America today.

Urbana could well be what Ryan’s fictional town of Bonhomie would become today. Interestingly, Urbana is just a little over an hour’s drive from J.D. Vance’s birthplace in Middletown, Ohio. Macy responded one way by documenting systemic failures. Vance (and Trump) respond to the same issues by opportunistically blaming liberals, immigrants, minorities and the deep state for the despair experienced by frustrated whites.

Under the pressure of globalization and the offshoring of jobs, the decline of unions, inroads of technology into job availability, Urbana’s middle class had been hollowed out.  There were huge wealth gaps between the few remaining factory owners and bankers and the growing tranche of poor, who had become mired in hopelessness and resentment.

Public schools are failing. Third graders are failing miserably at reading and math. Absenteeism is endemic. Parents distrustful of public schools’ wokism are homeschooling their kids, supplementing that often-flawed education with rigid Bible-based “character-building” courses. Classic books have been banned. College has become out of reach due to disinvestment by federal and state governments in both liberal arts and vocational education. Those few who managed to start higher ed have typically not finished but are still saddled by student debt. The American Dream of home ownership is a mirage.

Worse, since substantive local journalism (once “society’s glue”) went away, overshadowed by misinformation on the internet and social media, conspiracy theories have become widely regarded as truth. (Springfield, Ohio,  home of Trump’s fabricated Haitian dog-eating story, is less than 14 miles away.) Internet outrage, Macy writes, has become the reigning religion of America. Macy’s own sister (Cookie) and Beth became estranged. Cookie, stuck in a toxically abusive marriage, became increasingly imbued with Christian nationalism fueled in her own church,  and  comfortable with white supremacist rants. For reporter Macy, the despair and alienation are, in her own family, the lived experience.

Disclosures from the Epstein files about the sordid behavior of degenerate wealthy elites at wild parties with underage girls sadly gives oxygen to Qanon conspiracy beliefs widely held in Urbana.  Qanon obsessions are just a small slice of Macy’s memoir, which my friend Paul, who recommended the book, says should be required reading for any Democrat, or anyone else concerned about our toxic polarization.

Macy is short on prescriptions, except for urging readers trying to bridge he divide to find common ground on neutral topics (Sports? Recipes? Grandkids?) and build relationships from there. But she concedes that such approaches, while effective, are not easily scalable. (See my review of How Minds Change, by David McRaney.)

Though her memoir is rich with data, Macy weaves her own personal difficulties in and out of what could have become just another sociological tract. In the process, she humanizes the huge challenges we face as a nation.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s clearcut win in 2024,  Paper Girl could serve as a primer for those getting out of their bubbles and going into the ’26 mid-terms and the ’28 Presidential race beyond.