Few things preoccupy a writer who produces a large quantity of material more than clichés. Some turns of phrase are so ingrained in our minds that when we use them to express ourselves we don’t even hear them. Sometimes, we honestly aren’t even sure if the phrase is our own, or a cliché we’ve heard in passing long ago. In those cases, thanks for existing, Google. You’re really helpful there.
Things to be happy about
Here’s something most people don’t know: I was a highly anxious kid. I worried so much, in fact, that my mother determined it was a problem that needed to be fixed. A fixer of the highest order, she may have over-fixed me, but being a low-anxiety optimist hasn’t served me too poorly. Thanks, Mom.
I’m sure she harnessed a variety of actions to teach me to manage my anxiety and pessimism, but the two I remember the most are getting me a set of worry dolls and buying me the book, 14,000 Things to Be Happy About. I read the whole thing. I even took notes in the margins, including different colored dots to note how each item made me feel. It was just a long list of items, including such minutia as, “the position of your head as you bite into a taco,” but it truly changed my perspective on life. I wish I still had that book with my notes and all of its creased pages, but since I don’t, here are some things that I feel happy about today:
Humans are my favorite
It’s really easy to get discouraged with humans. Whether you’ve recently been more disenchanted by Miley Cyrus, Syria or the baffling balance of press coverage the two stories received, I think we all can agree that it’s been a rough week for humanity.
What makes it worse, I believe, is that we encounter so many of these stories – and then communicate with each other about them – from behind our computer screens. Alone. And it makes us feel worse. Humans, like our wiser companions (dogs), are pack animals. We like to commune, and especially when we feel drug down or disappointed, we need to.
Natalie Burg 