Groundhog Day / by Alexander Lyadov

Life has become strange for all of us. Because my wife and children are abroad, mine, for example, now resembles "Groundhog Day". Days repeat like a broken record: walking the dog, exercising, writing articles, helping entrepreneurs, housekeeping, sleeping. At times this cyclical nature pisses me off, but then I get over it. The surrounding context can't be quickly changed.

In the movie, Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman at a TV station, gets stuck in a time loop. No matter what he does, his life is reset. Except for him, those around him don't remember anything from the day they lived yesterday. At first, Phil is surprised and then enjoys the situation — gluttony, fornication, robbery, coterie, etc. Eventually, he becomes desperate and tries to commit suicide. But in vain — there is no way out of the impasse.

Out of desperation, Phil begins to work on himself. He learns French. Takes music lessons. Learns to make ice sculptures. He does good deeds. Once at a ball, Phil becomes a well-deserved star: everyone thanks him for his kindness, he jazzes up the stage, so that even his colleague Rita is forced to admit that Phil has changed. The evening ends, they fall asleep, and in the morning they wake up to a new day.

The insight here is that nothing around will change as long as we are the same. One cannot escape from oneself to another family, industry or country. The repetition of events makes us accept reality as it is. Despair awakens vitality. A timid openness to novelty emerges. New experiences transform us. The world changes in our wake.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander


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