Being a trickster on April Fool’s Day doesn’t always work. Today’s meme explains why.
I ran across this quote from Akash B. Chandran and looked him up. He’s a talented IT web designer.
You think maybe he’s had a few April Fools’ Day pranks fail and that’s behind his quote.
Today is Happiness Day. It’s a bit of a strange topic when we have a pandemic going on and death tolls rising. Still, we can all use a little happiness with all this craziness bombarding us.
Where can we find happiness?
First, and foremost, turn off the news. Quit watching every single newscast all day long. Stay informed but take a break.
I think we’ve all gotten the message. This is not getting better. If you listen to the experts, it’s going to be worse.
Truth is we do not know. So why, listen to all the speculation that only fuels a pervasive dread of what’s coming next.
And, because you’re stuck inside try some of these ideas to find a little happy…
Find happy in diversions…
Consider the good that’s happening.
Yes, people are dying, but people are also recovering from COVID-19. Civilization is not going to end. Life will change as the emergency eases, normal will be different, and likely better.
Focus on the good stuff, and do something frivolous or fun.
Like a virtual ride on Disney’s new Frozen II roller coaster.
Be safe. Stay healthy. Find something that makes you happy.
When I first began to teach music in the classroom, I would lose my voice once a year. Laryngitis is hard for any teacher, but for a music teacher it is particularly challenging. It takes much longer to regain the ability to sing than to talk.
I would spend weeks teaching listening lessons and doing rhythm activities. Before it was all over, I would find myself sad and out of sorts. I realized this was the result of not singing regularly.
This feeling of sadness is being felt on a much grander scale by musicians around the country as they are prohibited from meeting in ensembles to make music. The Toronto Symphony found a way around these restrictions.
As I listened to this wonderful music, I was overcome by joy and amazement. I could just imagine each performer in their own home playing their part without being able to hear the others except in their minds. I have no idea if this is actually how it happened but it really made me think.
We can all do our part wherever we are and trust that God will eventually put it all together to make something beautiful.
Hopefully, one day, we will see the finished product and all the sadness and loneliness will have been worth it.
In the meantime, we can enjoy the creativity of musicians who can’t help but make music together. Here’s another example:
Credits:
Photo by Andree Brennan from Pexels
Quote discovered on NYT and USAToday bestselling author, Joan Reeves blog
Crisis, chaos, and change are the three components of every major event.
Remember the existential edginess of 9/11? It’s returned.
During that crisis, we hunkered down at home with loved ones close, glued to our televisions, as the world around us changed. Our hearts trembled in fear that day. We survived.
Crisis, along with its bedfellows of chaos and change, happened again during the Colorado wildfires of 2013.
Maybe not everyone, but edginess and uncertainty ruled with mandatory evacuations for us. We piled two cars with our most precious belongings, two dogs, and ourselves. Our home was spared, but our world changed. We survived.
Crisis struck again in 2017 when Harvey dumped torrential waters and once again uncertainty, losses, and dramatic life-changes swirled around us.
Now a pandemic called COVID-19, coronavirus swirls worldwide crisis and chaos.
There’s nothing good about this crisis. Fears are rampant.
No one escapes the chaos of bare grocery store shelves or quarantines, voluntary and mandated. NO toilet paper, really?
As we grope our way along through the chaos, here are six suggestions (paraphrased by me) from Writer Unboxed blog contributor Sarah McCoy.
Choose one or all of Ms. McCoy’s suggestions. Doing so requires nothing and will offer great relief from “the toxic fear plaguing us as tenaciously as this microbial foe.”
Take heart in knowing we got through 9/11, wildfires, and floods and so many other crises. We can rest in the assurance this darkness will give way to the light too.
In the grand scheme of things this is not even a blimp on the radar, only I recently had the word supper changed to dinner by a copy editor. Even with everything else going on in the world, that troubled me.
The editor said dinner is used more often. I responded in the South we eat supper and go to dinner.
That didn’t help.
Not to be defeated, I did my favorite thing—research—and discovered dinner doesn’t refer to a specific time of day but refers to the main meal. The word supper comes from the Old French word “souper,” meaning “evening meal.”
In her NPR interview, food historian Helen Zoe Veit says, “[In the 18th and early 19th centuries,] Americans regularly ate a light supper as their evening meal because they were eating dinner—the biggest meal of the day—around noon.”
(Who knew there was such a thing as a food historian?)
Anyway, Veit further explains the reason for eating the biggest meal at noontime was so farmers would have more strength and energy to get through the rest of their workday. When Americans began working away from their homes and farms and couldn’t easily return home to cook and eat in the middle of the day, large noon meals disappeared too. Having the main meal of the day in the evening meant they could spend more time enjoying their food and spending time with their family.
The word supper is more commonly used in Southern and Midwestern states. Mostly likely because those regions are agricultural.
Nowadays I think most folks eat meals at all hours, not necessarily by the clock or large meals. You can have brunch between breakfast and lunch and lupper between lunch and bedtime.
Heads up here… you’re not going to find that word lupper in the dictionary. It’s a word I made up to explain to my children why lunch was skipped and there’d be no supper.
In my research I ran across this fascinating blog on the supper vs dinner question. Lovely vintage photos. Take a peek, you’ll enjoy it.
P.S. The word supper stayed. After all, the story takes place in rural Texas. That is supper eating country.
I believe I have two of the best jobs in the world.
First, I get paid to stand in front of groups of children and lead them in silly songs. At least that is part of my job. As a music teacher I have the privilege of introducing them to all my favorite games and action songs. Of course the older kids are not quite so enthralled but all in all it is a great job.
Then I come home and have piano students file into my home all afternoon each with their own special talents and their parents. They come in as many shapes and sizes as the students. Parents usually ask at the first lesson if it is necessary for them to sit in on the lesson. It honestly does not matter to me as long as they are not a distraction.
I did have one mom that took to thumping her son on the head when he made mistakes. I politely asked her to wait in the car. Others have come in and read or worked quietly on their laptops. A father who was a school bus driver would regularly fall asleep during his daughter’s lesson. I was quite impressed.
One of the most creative uses of this time is by a mom who entertains herself with Eeyore – the donkey from Winnie the Pooh. My mom found a stuffed Eeyore at a garage sale years ago and it has made its way to Miller Farm via the “obligatory bag.” It talks if you push its nose, squeeze its belly or pull its tail.
This, however, would be quite distracting so this mom makes sure to keep Eeyore very quiet. Instead she arranges his hair. She then takes pictures and labels them. I was so amused that I asked her to send them to me.
Now that my secret is out, everyone is going to want to be a music teacher/piano teacher! Oh, well, I’m sure there are enough students and parents to go around.
The photo is from Sentinel Peak in Colorado looking toward South Fork. The climb to the top is a wilderness hike, meaning no clear trail. Once you reach the peak you do feel closer to Heaven.
Thoreau’s quote describes the feeling accurately.
I’ve lived long enough to know that life is never smooth. And, I know what’s happening around me can disrupt my writing brain. I’ve accepted that and adjust accordingly.
I can settle into a writing routine sans television and social media and pump out the words on my next work in progress.
Then whammy. World events erupt tossing an unexpected curve ball. The stock market sank 1,000 points.
Now, I don’t follow the stock market. But I do know enough to recognize a huge dip like that means there’s trouble in River City.
On goes the news again. I discover the cause. And this disruption is a Wowizer— coronavirus COVID-19 is threatening a pandemic. Fear over the impact on the economy is rampant.
Scary stuff.
All the journalistic sensationalism is troublesome. I’m not being blasé. I do realize the inherent danger and have amped up basic hygiene routines per CDC instructions.
But I’ve watched in utter amazement as media coverage has created its own pandemic. Shelves in stores are bare as people hoard assorted items named as potential to be hard to get. Prices of these necessary items are being raised to ridiculous amounts. (And, people paying those prices!)
That’s sick.
I had a moment of reality when news came that the virus had spread to communities near me. I’m not carelessly believing I’ll be fine. I’m taking precautions.
But I’m not panicked.
We have food and supplies stockpiled (comes from years of living where grocery stores were a long way away and being snowbound happened too often). We’ll share toilet paper and Kleenex.
Whatever happens will happen. Nothing I can do stop to it or avoid it.
In her blog Kristine Kathryn Rusch that called the situation a Black Swan event being fed by overenthusiastic journalists.
I didn’t know the term Black Swan. Business Major Hubby explained it was a term for an unpredictable event that causes catastrophic damage to the stock market.
Well, this disruption certainly qualifies.
Surely the mad dash to secure hand sanitizers, disinfectant, and toilet paper is straining supplies, depleting stock, and ultimately effecting a company’s bottom line. What manufacturer could have known the virus COVID-19 would increase demand and drain their supplies?
Never mind, too many of these products come from China where the virus has pretty much shut things down. The way COVID-19 is spreading worldwide the whole supply chain is being affected.
The term Black Swan itself originated from an ancient saying that presumed black swans did not exist then had to be reinterpreted to teach a different lesson after black swans were discovered in the wild.
(Probably much more than you wanted to know about the term, but what can I say, I’m a writer. I love research.)
The scariest thing about this Coronavirus Black Swan is the isolation that’s being created. We’re instructed to avoid physical contact-no handshakes or hugs, large crowds, and travel, particularly any foreign travel. Major events are being canceled. Cruises and conferences are canceled. Even the Olympics is danger of cancellation.
Disruptions that go way beyond my writing time!
This blog is not to tell you how to prepare or explain why companies should have known to have larger stock of certain items. It’s a gentle warning…
Sometimes, in our hyper-vigilance, we focus too much on news and social media. Neither of which are not the most reliable sources for accurate information.
I urge you to get your information about the situation from solid sources like the World Health Organization and/or the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Please be safe out there and take care of yourself.
Me, I’m turning off the television and focusing on getting this work in progress finished.
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