My Delights
I'm reading Ross Gay's book, "The Book of Delights." He set out to write a book capturing the daily delights he comes across. It's a joyful book that celebrates the little things, and I'm loving it. It's been a kind of devotional practice for me to read one or two of his entries (each mini essay is about a page, a page and a half long) at night before I go to sleep. And I read his essayettes in an actual physical paper copy of the book because holding the paper, for me, is a delight.
I like the idea of the practice, of writing about a delight each day. Last year I started the practice of listing ten things each night for which I am grateful. I write them in my journal every night, even if I don't write anything else in the journal that day. The list varies and there are obvious repeats. Some days I struggle to come up with ten, but I always do, even if number ten ends up being, "I'm thankful that I have a bed to sleep in tonight and a husband to share the bed with me." That's two things, isn't it?
What delights me today is people's humor. It's been a crazy week. People have been joking that so far, it seems like the year 2020 has a sole mission in mind: to kill us. I don't think that's true, but we're in the middle of a pandemic, a word I've never had to use before. It comes from the Greek words "pan" meaning "all" and "demos" meaning "people." The word "pandemic" seems to have emerged in the mid-17th century (during plagues, which is another interesting word that comes from the Greek word for strike). I confess I've had a few moments of just intense anxiety this week and a few moments of pure escapism while I put on the virtual reality headset and either lose/find myself in the meditation app or just pure lose myself in the Doctor Who game I'm playing (by the way, the level with the weeping angels? A video game has NEVER made me screech that much. That level was NOT great for anxiety!). I've found comfort in a mindless coloring app on my phone that is a virtual paint-by-number game and my husband had I have been watching Nailed It! in German because it's available and the epic baking fails make us laugh (Nailed It! being available in multiple languages is also a delight, and no, by no means do I think I could do better!).
And yet despite all of that, we have not all lost our sense of humor. A friend posted on his Facebook this week a picture of the Senses Taker from Norton Juster's book The Phantom Tollbooth. It's the story of a boy named Milo who has way too much time on his hands, and when a magic tollbooth shows up in his bedroom, he has nothing better to do so he goes into this world where words and numbers are vying for first position. There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to anything, which makes sense because the princesses -- Princess Sweet Rhyme and Princess Pure Reason -- are stuck in the Castle in the Air (cue lightening bolts). Milo agrees to free them. As he approaches the castle in -- the castle in the you know what -- he comes upon the Senses Taker (which my friend thought of because there's much talk about the need for people to be Census Takers). The Senses Taker promises to take their sense of purpose, sense of duty, destroy their sense of proportion. But the one thing he can't take?
Their sense of humor.
So when someone posted a picture of John Travolta saying he didn't have the virus but had Saturday Night Fever and was working on Staying Alive (though he had chills that were multiplying), I absolutely cackled. I shared it with a bunch of people because honestly. It was the funniest thing I've seen all week.
May you find something this week that makes you laugh, that reminds you to keep your chin up as we weather this world together. And seriously. Wash your hands.
Love to you all!
I like the idea of the practice, of writing about a delight each day. Last year I started the practice of listing ten things each night for which I am grateful. I write them in my journal every night, even if I don't write anything else in the journal that day. The list varies and there are obvious repeats. Some days I struggle to come up with ten, but I always do, even if number ten ends up being, "I'm thankful that I have a bed to sleep in tonight and a husband to share the bed with me." That's two things, isn't it?
What delights me today is people's humor. It's been a crazy week. People have been joking that so far, it seems like the year 2020 has a sole mission in mind: to kill us. I don't think that's true, but we're in the middle of a pandemic, a word I've never had to use before. It comes from the Greek words "pan" meaning "all" and "demos" meaning "people." The word "pandemic" seems to have emerged in the mid-17th century (during plagues, which is another interesting word that comes from the Greek word for strike). I confess I've had a few moments of just intense anxiety this week and a few moments of pure escapism while I put on the virtual reality headset and either lose/find myself in the meditation app or just pure lose myself in the Doctor Who game I'm playing (by the way, the level with the weeping angels? A video game has NEVER made me screech that much. That level was NOT great for anxiety!). I've found comfort in a mindless coloring app on my phone that is a virtual paint-by-number game and my husband had I have been watching Nailed It! in German because it's available and the epic baking fails make us laugh (Nailed It! being available in multiple languages is also a delight, and no, by no means do I think I could do better!).
And yet despite all of that, we have not all lost our sense of humor. A friend posted on his Facebook this week a picture of the Senses Taker from Norton Juster's book The Phantom Tollbooth. It's the story of a boy named Milo who has way too much time on his hands, and when a magic tollbooth shows up in his bedroom, he has nothing better to do so he goes into this world where words and numbers are vying for first position. There doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason to anything, which makes sense because the princesses -- Princess Sweet Rhyme and Princess Pure Reason -- are stuck in the Castle in the Air (cue lightening bolts). Milo agrees to free them. As he approaches the castle in -- the castle in the you know what -- he comes upon the Senses Taker (which my friend thought of because there's much talk about the need for people to be Census Takers). The Senses Taker promises to take their sense of purpose, sense of duty, destroy their sense of proportion. But the one thing he can't take?
Their sense of humor.
So when someone posted a picture of John Travolta saying he didn't have the virus but had Saturday Night Fever and was working on Staying Alive (though he had chills that were multiplying), I absolutely cackled. I shared it with a bunch of people because honestly. It was the funniest thing I've seen all week.
May you find something this week that makes you laugh, that reminds you to keep your chin up as we weather this world together. And seriously. Wash your hands.
Love to you all!
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