Amy Lindgren

If you’re between jobs for almost any reason — laid off, quit, fired, caretaking — you’re a perfect candidate to become a volunteer. I know you don’t have the time, but on the other hand I’m guessing you probably do. It’s a rare individual who can’t spare even an hour or two to help someone else, at least now and then.

That said, your time is still precious, and you want to spend it wisely. On that note, I won’t use any more of your time on preamble. Here are 11 ways you’ll benefit by volunteering if you’re not currently working in a paid position (and even if you are). These reasons are calibrated toward the specific issues faced by people who are not working or searching for a job.

1. Volunteering can lead to new friends: Sharing a common purpose is a fast way to connect with others. Friends you make as a volunteer become closer than most colleagues, just because you start the relationship with a common bond and no competition.

2. It’s nice to feel welcome: You know how it feels when your friends come help you with a big project? That’s the happy relief you’ll give someone whenever you volunteer. If you left your last job under duress, it’s nice to know someone wants to see your smiling face.

3. Volunteering can provide structure: If you’re in a job-search process, you may have already discovered that the day can fly by without anything getting done. It’s counter-intuitive, but obligating some of your time elsewhere is the antidote. When people have fewer hours for job search, they tend to use the time more effectively.

4. It helps defend against bad habits: Sleeping late? Watching television all day? Not showering or getting enough exercise? You can still form bad habits while volunteering, but you have to work at it. Knowing you’re expected somewhere tends to inspire better self-management.

5. It can fill a skills gap: Learning to lead, training others, being trusted with a program or project — these are things you can do as a volunteer that could take years to be assigned in a workplace.

6. It lets you use the expertise you already have: On the other hand, you already have a lot of skills — are you using them? By volunteering in your area of expertise, you keep your skills sharp between jobs.

7. Volunteering gives you interview stories: “What have you been doing since…” is a wince-worthy interview question for candidates with a résumé gap. You can provide a decent or even amazing answer if you’ve been volunteering.

8. Volunteering can lead to a job: It’s not uncommon for organizations to hire from their volunteer pool. Who better to join the team than someone who clearly wants to be there?

9. You can score some fun benefits: You won’t get traditional work benefits such as health insurance, but what about tickets to a show, free food or volunteer dinners? Depending on the role, you could also receive excellent training and even skills certifications.

10. Volunteering is good for you: Mental, emotional and physical health have all been shown to improve for people who volunteer. When you feel good about what you’re doing, you feel good.

11. It’s a good thing to do: Helping others is just the right thing to do, however you go about it. It also sets a good example: When we see others do good, we want to do good as well. And that’s the community we all want to live in.

Getting started as a volunteer

1. Identify how much time you want to offer: It may be as little as an hour per week, so don’t worry that you can’t fit something in. Because some volunteer opportunities are regular and others are on-call or intermittent, something is bound to fit your schedule.

2. Decide what you’d like to be doing: Perhaps you like interacting with people or maybe you enjoy doing online research or working with your hands. If it’s hard for you to get out, there are also ways to volunteer without leaving home. You get to choose.

3. Look for opportunities: This doesn’t have to be hard. If you already know of an organization you support, you can reach out to them directly. Otherwise, you can use an online system such as Volunteermatch.org to connect with a gig you’ll enjoy.

That’s pretty easy, right? Right. So go ahead and get started. Your résumé will thank you, but so will your heart, your spirit and your community.

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You may not know it from the title or the vaguely cartoonish logo bearing that title, but “Spaceman” is not just another Adam Sandler-Netflix movie.

Unlike the comedic live-action and animated romps the actor and producer has churned out as part of the multiple-times-extended movie-making deal between his Happy Madison Productions and the streaming giant, this is a drama with Sandler front and center trying to make one giant leap for mankind and boldly going where no man has gone before.

But while “Spaceman” sees Sandler’s character travel deep into the solar system on a solo mission, this story is primarily one of an introspective journey, as the protagonist worries the marriage he left on Earth is failing and works through choices he’s made with the help of an unusual new friend.

It’s always interesting to see Sandler take on the occasional drama, the “Saturday Night Live” alum giving strong performances in, for example, the well-received “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) and “Uncut Gems” (2019). Sorry to say he’s not as good here, the actor never seeming to find a groove with the character of lonely Czech cosmonaut Jakub Prochazka.

Still, it is a little surprising — and very disappointing — that “Spaceman” is rarely more than borderline-engaging given it’s directed by Johan Renck. Best known for helming episodes of television shows, including a handful of “Breaking Bad” installments, he most notably directed every chapter of the acclaimed 2019 limited series “Chernobyl.”

“Spaceman” is not on that level.

After a brief sequence in which we watch Jakub walk through a small river while wearing his spacesuit, we are formally introduced to him as he is nearing Jupiter. Near the giant planet resides what’s been dubbed the Chopra Cloud, a visually striking phenomenon in space that poses a threat to Earth.

“I wish you could see it the way I do,” he says during a broadcast back home before expressing excitement about soon venturing inside it and learning more about the mysterious particles that comprise it. “We still don’t know what they are or where they come from, but as I enter the Chopra Cloud, I might just unravel some mysteries of the universe.”

During this chance for folks to interact with him, a young girl asks Jakub if he’s lonely, noting that he’s been referred to as “the loneliest man in the world.” He assures her that he is not that, that he talks every day with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who is carrying their child.

In truth, not only is Jakub lonely, but he’s also not sleeping well, thanks at least in part to a malfunctioning toilet making constant noise. One night, he dreams of a small alien entity literally getting under his skin and crawling around under his face.

Soon, though, he encounters a much larger creature from a far-away place, a spider-like being he will come to name Hanus.

Initially, Hanus terrifies Jakub, who flees to the craft’s airlock, suits up and exposes the ship to a blast of anti-contaminant chemicals in an attempt to hurt the nightmarish visitor. However, Hanus, speaking calmly and gently (Paul Dano of “The Batman” provides the mellow voice work), quickly convinces the fellow explorer he means him no harm.

Although he believes he may have lost his mind, Jakub is happy to have someone to talk to, especially since he suddenly isn’t hearing from Lenka, which concerns him.

His worries are not off-base, as his wife has recorded a message in which she informs him she’s leaving him — a message the woman in charge of the mission, Isabella Rossellini’s Commissioner Tuma, is refusing to send through to Jakub.

Hanus not only can communicate with Jakub in his own language, the creature saying he has studied humanity and refers to Jakub only as “Skinny Human,” he seemingly has the power to help Jakub replay moments from his life, many of them painful.

However well-intended, this all is a bit … well, something. It feels a little precious at times, downright trite at others.

Scenes on the ground featuring Lenka, who goes to visit her mother, Zdena (Lena Olin), are strong enough that “Spaceman” may have benefited from more of them — especially given the acting talent of Mulligan (“Maestro,” “Promising Young Woman”).

The screenplay for “Spaceman” is written by Colby Day, who adapted it from Jaroslav Kalfar’s 2017 novel, “Spaceman of Bohemia.” Regardless of whether this is intentional, the story keeps you guessing as to whether Hanus is real or something Jakub has unwittingly constructed — distractingly so, as that really isn’t the point of the film.

It’s also a little distracting that both Sandler and Mulligan sound as they typically do, Renck noting in the film’s production notes that he doesn’t “do accents.” (You may recall that in “Chernobyl,” a lot of Russian characters sounded VERY British.)

Ultimately, thick accents wouldn’t elevate “Spaceman” to the point of being easy to recommend — especially with an ending that may require more than one viewing to understand. (Thank the cosmos for the rewind function!)

As it is, the film’s appeal lies mainly in the fact that it is not the typical Adam Sandler-Netflix movie, and that takes this journey only so far.

‘Spaceman’

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language)

Running time: 1:48

How to watch: On Netflix Friday

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The outpouring of grief and respect late last week for the fallen three of Burnsville, Paul Elmstrand, Matthew Ruge and Adam Finseth, constructed a 70-minute line of 1,400 law enforcement vehicles, 10,000 celebrants in church and untold thousands more inside a country mile who walked out to the edge of the road in the cold, backs straight and hands over their hearts.

What a difference 20 miles or so makes.

The closer you get to the tallest buildings of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the more the voters have signed up for the wrong team, a political class that egregiously holds law enforcement in eternal suspicion, always quick to blame the copper first. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty recently charged State Patrol Trooper Ryan Londregan for doing his job, which resulted in the death of Ricky Cobb II. Londregan probably saved his partner’s life. Officers are left wondering if they are to be punished, even when they are going by the book.

There were seven kids in that house in Burnsville where the murderer, Shannon Gooden, hid in a bedroom with guns and ammunition he wasn’t supposed to have. He was a felon. Before dawn and before he killed himself, Gooden killed officers Elmstrand and Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Finseth. Another officer, Adam Medlicott, was injured.

The seven kids were unharmed.

When they got to heaven, maybe God stopped them and said, “What brings you here?”

“Well, we just saved seven kids.”

“Come right in, boys, and thank you.”

What do the people of Burnsville — of most of Minnesota — know that the politicians of Minneapolis don’t? What do they understand and feel? What brought them out on a winter day to stand at attention until the last car in the procession passed?

Let’s start with the American flag. They are proud of it. It means the world to them, as it does to most of us. Never saw so many. Nobody was triggered. The flag was displayed reverently.

They also know, those untold thousands, that prosecutions must be stern, that breaking the law cannot be tolerated, no matter your race or gender. They know that defund-the-police movements are mean and selfish and result in a world of hurt.

They believe that bad guys should not be immediately returned to the streets because of bail money raised by two-bit celebrities in California.

They know that riots and burned neighborhoods are not peaceful protests.

They don’t believe we need more pandering, knee-jerk laws. They believe we should enforce the laws we have.

They believe in right and wrong.

And they believed Medlicott, who, in addition to celebrating the unselfish human spirit of his fallen brothers, concluded with the truth of the day, the year, the truth of eternity.

“You can’t reason with evil,” Medlicott said.

No, you can’t. Sometimes evil shoots you dead in the break of dawn in a strange house where the lives of seven kids hang in the balance.

The people who lined the streets knew that, knew that these fellows were protectors.

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