An Excess of Suckers

Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

Yesterday, one of my dearest friends sent me a video of her son — my godson — leaning over his tiny baby, who was lying on the changing table howling with laughter.

Daddy blows raspberries on baby’s little tummy, and baby erupts with unbridled hilarity.

“Oh yeah?” says Daddy. “You think that’s funny, huh?”

More raspberries. More pure guffaws. I mean, pure guffaws. Every fiber of that baby thinks his Daddy is the funniest thing in the whole world.

From now on, I need to start every single day watching that 14 second video. No matter what else is going on in the world, I need to see and hear that baby’s joyous laughter.

It’s raining today. Again.

I shouldn’t complain. Okay I won’t complain. For the last several years, my region has been engulfed in drought. No longer. We’ve had rain upon rain upon rain. So it is today and presumably will be until the end of time. Everything is so green around here. The leaves are popping, the grass is growing, the rhubarb is big enough to begin harvesting. It may be raining, but we can bake pie. It may be raining, but the chances of forest fire are diminishing. It may be raining, but . . . Help me here; there must be something good to say. The slugs are happy, okay? That’s it. Yes, the slugs are happy. There must be some songbirds that eat slugs, right?

Time to watch that video again.

See how this goes? I catch myself heading into a downward spiral. Sarcasm and pessimism float to the top. Time to watch that video again. Because that baby was the happiest being on the planet. For 14 seconds, the happiest being on the whole planet. And that makes me happy, too.

I don’t watch the news on television — I haven’t done so for years. There are certain voices I cannot bear to hear. There are certain moving images I cannot bear to see. But I read news coverage voraciously, because it feels important to me to know what is happening in my world. There is no question but what the news is pretty depressing.

Fighting escalates between India and Pakistan. Time to watch that video again.

Officials in the Trump administration say they might suspend the writ of habeus corpus. Time to watch that video again.

More immigrants arrested and detained without due process. Time to watch that video again.

Layoffs, company closures, rampant corruption, the decline of American education, the decay of health standards, the decimation of FEMA right before hurricane season begins, unending destruction in Gaza, and, and, and . . . and it’s time to watch that video again.

I don’t mean to suggest turning a blind eye to what is happening in the world. I don’t advocate that, and I am not doing that. No. I believe it is important to witness and to act. At the same time, I do need to take a break sometimes so that I can refresh my spirits, restore my energy, and bring my witness and action to the world. My work is important, at the very least to me. So, I find ways to fill my tank so that I can continue my work. That’s why I write One Good Thing . . . It’s one way I have to fill my tank. Maybe that’s why you read it, too.

I suspect we all need our own versions of that baby video, of caring for ourselves. Some people ignore the news altogether. Some seek spiritual nourishment — meditation, chanting, prayer, retreats. Some take to serious exercise to pound out the worry and frustration. Some engage in laughter yoga. Some join peaceful protests. Some play music. Some play board games or Dungeons and Dragons or poker. There are any number of ways people can inoculate themselves against the malaise of depression and anxiety the news can cause — and the inoculations themselves have varying degrees of success.

Laughter is guaranteed to help me. And the absurd situations people can find themselves in can often make me smile. Like today’s story in the New York Times: “Boy Accidentally Orders 70,000 Lollipops on Amazon. Panic Ensues.”

Seriously, people, the headline alone helped me face the day. I mean, 70,000 lollipops?

Then I read the story. Eight-year-old Liam had his mom’s permission to browse shopping websites as long as he merely reserved the things that caught his eye. But, in this case, oops! He pressed the wrong key and placed an order.

Oh-oh.

Pretty soon 22 25-pound boxes of Dum-Dum lollipops were delivered to his front step, much to his unsuspecting and hysterical mother’s dismay. His poor mother’s bank balance careened into the red. She contacted Amazon, trying to figure out how to return the boxes (impossible because they were food). She reached out to other parents on her Facebook feed, many of whom shared their own horror stories of children ordering things online. One thing led to another, with media coverage ranging from the local television news to national coverage, including the New York Times article I read this morning.

But the story had a sweet ending, not the least of which was the refund Amazon eventually gave the mother (no doubt inspired in part by their realization that it would garner them some good media coverage — oops, sorry, there’s my cynic on the rise again). Amazon could not take the candy back, however, which still left the little family with a giant pile of lollipops. So, they gave the candy away — to charities and churches and all the people who offered to help them figure out a way through their plight. The New York Times article even included a sweet little video of Liam bringing a box of Dum-Dums to the pastor of a local church.

I don’t know about you, but I need stories like that. I need little boys like Liam who press the wrong key and who cannot even conceive of what 70,000 Dum-Dums would mean in the first place. I need communities who reach out to help frantic mothers trying to figure out what on earth to do with 70,000 lollipops that have suddenly landed on their doorsteps.

And I need laughing babies.

The world is a mess. Whatever brings you joy, I wish you the moments to make that happen in your life. Even if it’s only 14 seconds of unbridled joy, I invite you — I urge you — to make space for those 14 seconds. Go smile. Go laugh. Go renew your spirits. The world needs our hearts and our minds and the work of our hands to help make the world whole again. If you are the least bit like me, a little break for joy now and then is one of the things that will make it possible to bring your best to bear when your efforts are most needed.

Time to watch that video again.

Love,

Sylvia

Sources:

Boy Accidentally Orders 70,000 Lollipops on Amazon. Panic Ensues. - The New York Times