Just by Sitting in a Lawn Chair

In Memory of Leon Johnson Whom I Never Knew and Never Even Saw

I have a lawn chair. Maybe you do, too.

“Just by participating in your community in a positive way — if that’s all you can do, that’s no small thing. You know, tending your garden, returning the carts at the grocery store, making people feel good about being Americans and like they want to move forward together is actually a really effective political thing to do right now. It’s also a good thing to do anyway.”

— Heather Cox Richardson in her weekly Facetime Live chat, September 3, 2024

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I hadn’t been thinking of this blog as a political statement. But, viewed through the lens of Heather Cox Richardson’s words, maybe it is. All around me I see anxiety, worry, and anger on the rise, driven in large part by messages that amplify our differences and foster ever-widening divisions. Musician Jud Caswell paints a telling picture of society’s fracture in his song, “The Great Divide.”

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Here in America, where we face perhaps the most consequential election in our lifetimes, it’s hard to ward off an “us against them” standpoint. But, in the process of choosing sides and picking fights, some have adopted a narrative that portrays America as a hellscape, our culture as a swamp of immorality, and our land one of ruin and decay.

I beg to differ.

There is a lot wrong with our world in general and America in particular. I won’t deny it. How could I do so this week, of all weeks, in the wake of the terrible school shooting in Winder, Georgia? In arenas other than this blog, I am quick to call out the wrongs that need to be righted, and I am politically active in more conventional ways than writing “One Good Thing...” But pitting people against each other only serves to worsen our problems. Moreover, there is a lot of good in our world, and I don’t like to see those stories ignored or minimized. We are better off when we discover our common bonds, choose positivity, and work together. I agree with Heather Cox Richardson: ‘Participating in one’s community in a positive way is no small thing.’ In fact, it is one good thing. In my view, that’s a lot.

I will go one step further and posit that sharing the good we can find benefits both receiver and giver.

This past week, I read two articles that, coupled with Heather Cox Richardson’s quote above, made me think about the pursuit of happiness in a different way. (Americans reading this post will hear the words, “pursuit of happiness” in a singular way, as it is part of the famous opening of the Declaration of Independence, published July 4, 1776: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”)

Earlier this week, the Atlantic Monthly published an article about happiness that puts paid to the notion that simply envisioning a positive outcome will increase your chance of achieving it (“How to Be Manifestly Happier,” by Arthur C. Brooks). Consigning that method of increasing happiness to “magical thinking,” Brooks points to research that suggests that envisioning a process for reaching one’s goal increases the chances that the goal will become manifest. He writes:

“. . .no evidence exists for a mystical force that gives you what you imagine, and acting as though such a force does exist can set you back. But short of magical thinking, considered reflection on the process of achieving a desired outcome can change your behavior in productive ways. If you want a big balance in your bank account, thinking of a large number won’t help. But thinking about how you’re going to make financial progress and anticipating possible setbacks can encourage you to adopt useful habits of thrift and responsibility—and that becomes how you manifest a chosen goal.”

Applying those findings, he makes four recommendations for increasing happiness in one’s life:

1. Set a goal to be happier (not simply “happy”). Pure happiness may not be possible, but increasing your happiness quotient probably is.

2. Envision progress. What would your life look like if, say, you were to become 10% happier in a year?

3. Develop a strategy. What two or three most important behaviors do you want to change? Imagine yourself working to improve those areas, including envisioning what you will do when you inevitably fail at times.

4. Get started. Now. Take small, realistic, manageable steps.

While I was mulling over Brooks’s essay, I read an interesting article in the Portland Press Herald: “Just by Sitting in a Lawn Chair, South Portland Man Left a Legacy of Joy,” by Ray Routhier. Routhier chronicles the loss of a fixture on Broadway in South Portland. Year after year, local resident Leon Johnson sat in a lawn chair in front of his South Portland home for hours during the warmer seasons, simply waving to the people who passed by. That little bit of friendliness spread joy.

South Portland resident Leon Johnson. (Photo from the Hobbs Funeral Home obituary listings.)

Johnson died a little more than year ago at the age of 87. Of course, the strangers he waved to every day couldn’t have known about his death, but they certainly noticed he was missing. Many longed to see him, and they wanted to know what had happened to him. Finally, a woman by the name of Angela Drinkwater posted on Facebook, asking if anyone knew where he was. Among the more than 90 respondents, there were some who knew Johnson’s name and some who knew he had died. “Most shared how much they looked forward to seeing Johnson and how his daily presence with a smile and a wave, touched them,” the Press Herald reports.

That story stirred something deep in me. Putting together Heather Cox Richardson’s council and Routhier’s story about Leon Johnson, it occurred to me that one way to increase one’s own happiness just might be to apply the process Brooks laid out to a goal of increasing the happiness of others. I mean, all Leon Johnson did was wave to people. How complicated is that? In doing so, he lifted spirits. He made friends of a sort — even though he often never knew who they were and even though most of them didn’t even know his name. And while I cannot know exactly what his feelings were, the article explains that some people reached out to Johnson, sending him postcards and letters, some simply addressed to “Man in the Chair.” My guess is that Johnson’s personal world was happier for the quiet friendliness he shared.

I have a lawn chair.

You might have a lawn chair, too.

At the very least, most people have a metaphorical lawn chair of some kind. Most of us possess some simple ways of spreading happiness in our respective corners of the world. Chances are there are positive actions — perhaps even easy actions — we can take in our communities, and we can follow Brooks’ advice for accomplishing those things.

My neighborhood has a Trash Can Fairy. On trash day, I set my trash can and recycling bins on the curb. Later, when I go out to fetch my empty can trash containers and return them to my garage, invariably they are already sitting right outside my garage door — the work of the Trash Can Fairy who carried them there. Just a simple thing. But one doesn’t have to make a grand gesture to spread happiness. Simple is sometimes best. My hope is that the Trash Can Fairy leaves my driveway smiling, just as I smile when I find the trash cans outside my garage door.

I am pretty sure I have figured out who the Trash Can Fairy is. But I have no idea who leaves the May Day flowers in my yard every May 1st. Maybe working in secret is part of the fun. Someone I know intentionally drops quarters on the sidewalk as she walks around town. “People don’t want to find pennies,” she explains. “They like to find a quarter now and then.” Another person I know crochets warm winter hats and leaves them on top of fire hydrants with a friendly note attached for whoever picks them up. One Thanksgiving, another person I know paid extra at the health food store so that the stranger standing in line behind her had a jump start on purchasing the 15-pound turkey she was holding in her hands. As with Leon Johnson, I cannot know exactly the inner feelings of the Trash Can Fairy, the Flower Deliverer, the Quarter Distributor, the Warm Hat Crocheter, or the Defrayer of Thanksgiving Turkey Costs. But I am pretty sure those kinds of gestures leave the giver feeling better, happier, than before.

Occasionally, community participation affords opportunities to cross the Great Divide Jud Caswell sings about. A few years ago, I was asked to help with a fundraiser for the local teen center. The gelato shop was donating to the teen center the proceeds for all the gelato sold during lunch hour one day. They asked a couple of members of the local clergy to scoop the gelato. I, the most liberal minister in town (at least where theology is concerned), was paired with one of the most conservative pastors. Our political differences were probably vast as well. We were so far apart in our theology that we even belonged to different local clergy groups. I belonged to the original one, which had started as a way to draw the local clergy of all the varying faiths together. He belonged to one that split off from the original group years ago when women clergy began to infiltrate the ranks. That’s how different we were. There was a mighty chasm to cross.

But we agreed on at least one thing: We both believed teens need support, encouragement, homes, love, nurture, and nourishment. Both of our churches supported the teen center. So, we two very different ministers showed up to scoop gelato together, side by side. We talked to each other, we laughed, and we had fun. No one could escape the fact that, despite our many differences, we were both wearing the identical t-shirts we had been given to don for the occasion.

People, we are not helpless. We have power. We have choices. We have imaginations. We have hearts. We can effect positive change in our world, sometimes in the simplest of ways. My hope is that we hold onto our sense of agency and find our ways to sit in our metaphorical lawn chairs, bestowing blessings on those who pass by.

Maybe Bill Staines of blessed memory says it best with his song, “Bridges.” Enjoy!

Love,

Sylvia

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Bridges, by Bill Staines, lyrics:

There are bridges, bridges in the sky
They are shining in the sun
They are stone and steel and wood and wire
They can change two things to one

They are languages and letters
They are poetry and awe
They are love and understanding
And they're better than a wall

There are canyons, there are canyons
They are yawning in the night
They are rank and bitter anger
And they are all devoid of light

They are fear and blind suspicion
They are apathy and pride
They are dark and so foreboding
And they're oh, so very wide

Let us build a bridge of music
Let us cross it with a song
Let us span another canyon
Let us right another wrong

Oh, and if someone should ask us
Where we're off and bound today
We will tell them, "building bridges"
And be off and on our way

Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/09/manifestation-positive-thinking-happiness/679695/

By sitting in his chair, Leon Johnson left a legacy of joy (pressherald.com)

Heather Cox Richardson’s weekly Facebook Live broadcast, September 2, 2024