Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Reticulation is a Thing to Behold
Heavy heartedness. That’s what I needed a break from today.
If you’re a person paying attention or, worse, a person (like me) paying too much attention, current events can create a constant sense of dread and foreboding. Remember the little sign from the Vietnam War – War is not healthy for children and other living things? Neither is this administration.
So, I think about this as an older person, how unhealthy it is to carry this outsized worry around all the time. Is my life going to be shortened because I’ve not figured out the recipe for shaking off the events of the day? I don’t know. I do know that I’m trying to be mindful of the connection between stress and health. I actually spent a whole semester on this topic in an independent reading with a beloved professor who attributed his colitis to living as a Black man in America. This isn’t that, of course. But it’s not nothin’ either.
Anyway, I went to the zoo today with my son and it was wonderful. And it wasn’t until five minutes ago that I realized that I had a couple of lovely moments of being carefree. One was when I walked into a building where three enormously tall giraffes were eating and a littler giraffe was curled up watching. And the other was when I made a video of a hippo walking toward me and then turning dramatically around to show me his beautiful and quite ample rump. And the last was when the chili fries I ordered at Gilles, the 87-year-old landmark ice cream shop on Milwaukee’s westside, turned out to be spectacular.
That’s it. That’s my answer to your question.
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
My only coping mechanism is to avoid most any news except for very local news. I think the zoo is a great idea. I did see lovely flamingos on that local news today and even learned a few things. They were beautiful and life was good for a few moments.