For the last couple of years, I watched almost all of Liverpool’s football matches, since I liked their manager, Jurgen Klopp. I liked his energy, affection for his players, passion, commitment and the joy on his face when they do well. He announced yesterday that he is leaving the club. He says he ran out of energy. How do you quit the things you love? How do you have such conversations without wanting 10% to leave the door open? How do you have such clarity? Quitting at the top, allowing time for transition, leaving in the best possible condition, with love for all, leaving when people don’t want you to leave than leaving when people hate you.
"I love absolutely everything about this club, I love everything about the city, I love everything about our supporters, I love the team, I love the staff. I love everything. But that I still take this decision shows you that I am convinced it is the one I have to take.
"It is that I am, how can I say it, running out of energy. I have no problem now, obviously, I knew it already for longer that I will have to announce it at one point, but I am absolutely fine now. I know that I cannot do the job again and again and again and again."
2.
I rewatched some of the episodes of season 2 of The Bear. In the episode titled Omelette, there is a segment where the main character is told to focus only on this, given restaurant business is a risky business with nonexistent margins. Live this and nothing else, give up every minute, every drop of blood. In return, you will be kicked every day for the foreseeable future. So why do people do it? I was thinking this is what could have happened to Jurgen Klopp. How long can you focus, with high energy?
The best, heart touching moment, was when the two chefs tighten the screws on a table and discuss what scares them. Life and work is a long struggle, drudgery for years, day after day. It would be possible only If we do it with people we want to do it with.
You could do this without me.
I couldn't do it without you.
Yeah, you could.
I wouldn't even wanna to do it without you.
You make me better at this.
You make me better at this.
3.
Finished reading the second book of the year - Yellowface, by Rebecca F. Kuang. I should have read the plot bit more carefully before picking this up, otherwise I wouldn’t have put myself through a torture. It is written well, but not sure if I need this now. I stay away from horror movies due to the same reason, why drag my poor heart through that. The book addressed a lot of topics - publishing industry, plagiarism, racism, reverse racism, asian history, cancel culture, cyber bullying, jealousy, rationalizing bad behaviour, loneliness. It is interesting how the human stories are now unfolding in social media. What people say in Twitter, Instagram etc affecting them deeply, acting out online vs offline.
Passage below made me think about writing. Why do I ramble? It is for my peace, unburdening of my heart, to bring clarity to the mess in my head? Each of our stories must be epics, the complexity of which has never been captured at that scale.
“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much. To stop writing would kill me.
Writing has formed the core of my identity since I was a child. .. gave me a reason to stay alive. And as miserable as it makes me, I’ll cling to that magic for as long as I live.”
4.
Met some friends for lunch this week. One of them with whom I had a coffee every day for many years till a year back when he moved to another city. Someone level headed, zen like, with whom I could say everything that is going on and in that process gain some clarity. Missed him dearly.
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