Herblock coined the term “McCarthyism” in this cartoon.
I spent my teen years in the Washington, D.C., area. During that time, I picked up the habit of reading the newspaper — specifically, The Washington Post. I don’t know how many political cartoonists I was exposed to through The Post, but two names stuck with me: Herblock (Herbert Block) and Oliphant (Pat Oliphant).
Reading Jackie Ormes‘ biography reminded me of Herblock and made me want to learn more about him. I ended up borrowing Herblock: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist. By the time I returned the book, I’d developed a new appreciation for him as one of the most significant political cartoonists in history.
Let’s start with one of the things Herblock is best known for: the word “McCarthyism.” With one cartoon, he defined an era. But years before McCarthy became a household name, Herblock had been commenting on the government’s communist witch hunt. Many of his cartoons from the 1940s and ’50s expressed his concerns about the House Un-American Activities Committee as well as Senator Joseph McCarthy and his cronies (including Richard Nixon).
Of course, Herblock was no friend of communism. One of his most powerful cartoons (awarded a Pulitzer Prize) depicts Joseph Stalin walking away with the Grim Reaper. Stalin carries a sickle dripping with blood. The caption reads, “You were always a great friend of mine, Joseph.”
Herblock’s career spanned a little over seven decades. Although he definitely leaned to the left on most issues, he freely criticized both Republicans and Democrats. In one cartoon, Eisenhauer and Uncle Sam stand in front of a window facing a burning house labelled “Civil Rights Crisis.” Eisenhauer is wearing a fire chief’s uniform. “Tsk tsk,” he says, “somebody should do something about that.” A little over two decades later, Herblock drew Jimmy Carter standing in front of his Oval Office desk, pounding on it and yelling, “Who’s in charge here?”
Many of his cartoons were masterpieces. Herblock won two other Pulitzer Prizes in addition to the one I mentioned above. (He also shared a prize with his Washington Post colleagues for their work on Watergate.) Another of my favorites, from 1956, shows two white men standing at a Montgomery bus stop. They stare at a black family labelled “Passive Resistance.” The caption reads, “Somebody From Outside Must Have Influenced Them.” The family’s destination? A church.
Sadly, some of Herblock’s cartoons are still relevant. His 1950 get-out-the-vote cartoon shows two men yoked to a cart labelled “Totalitarianism.” One man gapes at the other and says, “You mean some can and don’t do it?” In the distance are billboards reminding readers to vote.
Still more heartbreaking is Herblock’s 1964 cartoon reflecting on Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. The cartoon is simply titled “An American Tragedy.” It features a man labelled “Extremism” leaning over a boat, pushing GOP moderates under the water. The boat reads, “We’re in the mainstream of Republican thinking.” I wish I didn’t feel that the cartoon accurately reflects the state of the GOP today.
You can find several books that feature Herblock’s work. In addition, many of his cartoons can be found on the website for the Library of Congress.
The 101st Airborne Division escorts the Little Rock Nine to school. Those who suffer injustice have no choice but to experience discomfort.
Note: Yes, this is part of my “Make a Difference” series. I’m experimenting with taking the series name out of the title of my blog posts.
I recently started working for a seminary that offers chapel services twice a week. On February 13, just before the beginning of Lent, an M.Div. student preached from 2 Corinthians 6:3-10. The text refers to the experiences of many early Christ-followers, including beatings, imprisonments, and poverty. As the preacher linked the passage to the experiences of African Americans and to the season of Lent, I felt as if God were giving me a nudge. This is what Lent is about. It’s about being willing to face discomfort in the pursuit of a world filled with love, justice, kindness, goodness, and peace.
The first Christians understood what it meant to suffer. And despite advances in areas such as medicine, agriculture, and human rights since then, even the most privileged among us can still genuinely experience suffering. Mental illness, broken relationships, addictions, abuse… these things are present in the homes of the wealthy as well as the poor. But many of us don’t know the kind of suffering Paul was writing about — riots, prison, hunger (not merely a delayed meal but genuine hunger from lack of food) — these things are outside of my experience and, for most of my readers, yours as well. If we choose to give up something for Lent, we may suffer minor discomfort from self-denial, but we don’t really understand the struggles of those early Christians — or of people today who experience injustice.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to practice one’s faith without facing the persecution that Paul describes. But there is value to discomfort that we may be missing if we lead comfortable lives.
Why is it good to be uncomfortable?
Discomfort goes hand-in-hand with growth. We know this. We just don’t like it. Ever watch a baby try something over and over again, until she gets it right? I still remember when my child would try to suck her thumb before she’d developed hand-eye coordination. She’d usually hit her face somewhere above her mouth and slide her thumb down to it. Then invariably her thumb would fall out of her mouth, and she’d have to start over again. She’s sometimes cry with frustration, but she kept trying. We can’t grow if we’re not willing to endure failure… and it is only through growth that we can give our best to the world.
Discomfort breeds resilience. This is directly related to a willingness to be bad at something before you can master it. When I first started working in higher education, I learned that the students who have to work really hard for their grades, even if they are “B” students, often succeed better than the naturally bright “A” students. These “B” students have a greater tolerance for failure and are willing to keep trying. The naturally bright students are often so used to having everything come easily that, when they actually have to work hard in a class in order to understand something, they will give up. We need to learn how to bounce back after encountering something difficult, but we can only do that if we learn to work through our discomfort.
Tolerance for discomfort helps us do the right thing. People often talk about a willingness to endure discomfort in order to reach a personal goal, such as a financial or fitness goal. But in addition to delaying gratification and being willing to suffer a little in order to retire early or run a marathon, we can practice these things in order to become better people. Whether you want to give more to charity or contribute less to global warming, you may have to deny yourself some comforts in order to successfully make a difference.
Through discomfort, we can relate to the oppressed. Yes, our willingness to temporarily enter into suffering is different from the daily suffering experienced by people without our privileges. But whether you choose to fast for a period of time in solidarity with the hungry or to join with the oppressed in protesting injustice, you can better understand the suffering that others go through if you are willing to take on discomfort that you otherwise would not have to experience.
Of course, suffering merely for the sake of suffering is meaningless. When we suffer, it should be in the pursuit of something better — a better life for others and for ourselves. The point of suffering is not to remain there, but to move through it toward our goal. We may be called to suffer in life, but that isn’t all we are called to. We’re called to relieve suffering, because suffering can become demoralizing and debilitating if the sufferer is unable to attain something better through their efforts.
But it’s so hard!
For the most part, we don’t naturally run toward discomfort. And, let’s face it, sometimes our everyday lives feel difficult enough that the last thing we want is more discomfort. At the end of a hard day, what we really want is to relax with Netflix or a good book. I am, by nature, a Tookish hobbit. There’s a part of me that wants nothing more than to hang out in my snug hobbit hole with some sort delicious, mushroom-y meal. But there is another part of me that craves adventure, and with adventure comes discomfort. It’s not the part of adventure that most of us yearn for. We want to see the world without being rained on or running low on food, thank you very much. But you can’t have a real adventure without opening yourself up to being uncomfortable.
Even if you have no Tookish blood running through your veins, you can still stretch yourself in small ways. That’s because choosing to suffer for the sake of growth and a better world looks different for each of us. You may stop eating meat, because you are concerned about the treatment of farm animals. Your friend may decide to frequently visit their uncle with Alzheimer’s, even though he often forgets who they are. Your parents might invest lots of time, money, and energy into opening a business that employs former inmates. As for me? For the sake of our planet, I should probably learn to better tolerate the cold rather than cranking up the heat.
Each person needs to choose for themselves what they are willing to suffer. But one thing is certain: Though discomfort isn’t fun, it’s a necessary part of making a difference in the world.
Bandette is amazing, adorable, and not the least bit humble.
In November, I wrote about The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen. During that post, I mentioned that I had started reading several comics that were mentioned in the book.
Well, I’ve made my way through a pile of books, in addition to some comics available on the web. If anything, I’m even happier I read Hope Nicholson’s decade-by-decade list of “awesome female characters from comic book history.” I didn’t choose to read every comic mentioned in the book, and there were many I would have read, but I couldn’t get my hands on them. Of those I read, there were some characters or books that left me cold. But there were some I absolutely loved. Here’s my top ten list of characters I was introduced to through Nicholson’s book. Note that not all of them are characters she chose to feature, but I discovered these characters through her book. (Okay, that’s not completely true. I knew of Squirrel Girl. I’d just never read Squirrel Girl.)
10. Squirrel Girl (from Squirrel Girl)
Squirrel Girl is one of the silliest characters on this list, but that’s part of what makes her so wonderful. While I can and do enjoy a dark graphic novel or comic book series, sometimes it’s good to read something light. Squirrel Girl fits the bill. Considering the fact that her superpowers boil down to being a human squirrel with the power to communicate with squirrels, you wouldn’t expect her to be particularly powerful, but she is. It’s the sort of comic I’d pick for someone who was at home with a nasty cold — assuming that person was open to reading comic books!
9. Hannah Marie (from Scary Godmother)
Nicholson picked the titular character from Scary Godmother for her list. Certainly, Scary Godmother is lots of fun. She knows all of the coolest ghouls, and she’s the sort of person I’d love to sit down with for a cup of tea. But her close human friend, Hannah Marie, is ridiculously cute and so fond of Halloween that I can’t help but love her. When it looks like Halloween might not happen, Hannah Marie takes charge, working hard to do what she thinks needs to be done. She bites off more than she can chew and makes mistakes, but she is, after all, a very small and very determined child.
8. Beth Ross (from Prez)
Set in a disturbingly believable dystopian future, Prez features Beth Ross, a teen-aged president who should never have been elected. Unfortunately for the real candidates, age no longer matters, but popularity does, and Ross has recently become an Internet sensation. Completely ignorant of how to play the political game, Ross immediately starts trying to make a difference, and she makes a lot of enemies in the process. It looks like there have been no new issues of Prez after volume 1 came out in 2015. Too bad. The series had a lot of potential.
7. Sister Peaceful (from Castle Waiting)
Nicholson chose Jain from Castle Waiting, but I prefer Sister Peaceful. It’s rare to find positive depictions of faith in comics. Marvel is actually pretty good at doing this — from Nightcrawler in the X-Men to Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel, there are a number of wonderful characters who belong to some sort of faith tradition. While Sister Peaceful belongs to a fictitious order of bearded nuns, the Solicitines, the order is clearly a Christian one, and Peaceful, mischievous as she is, is a real woman of faith. In fact, part of what I love about her is her fun-loving spirit. Peaceful is loving, not judgmental — the sort of person you’d seek out as a friend. Volume One of this series, the only one I’ve been able to get my hands on so far, includes a long section on Sister Peaceful’s backstory.
6. Beauty (from Megan Kearney’s Beauty and the Beast)
This webcomic isn’t even featured in Nicholson’s book; she just quotes the comic’s creator in her section on Annabelle from Nightmares and Fairytales. When I looked up comics that were in this book, however, I didn’t confine myself to the ones from which she drew her list of superwomen. I also searched for several that Nicholson mentioned in passing. One of those was Beauty and the Beast.
It took me several pages to really get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. Part of this was because I’ve always loved that particular fairy tale. Kearney is relatively faithful to the story, although she adds some nice touches, such as making Beauty’s sisters pleasant people instead of spoiled brats and having Beauty genuinely wrestle with her feelings about the being she sees as her jailer, albeit a kind-hearted jailer. But honestly, part of my enchantment is because Kearney writes a darned good slow-burn romance. Although I know how the story will turn out, as long as Kearney remains faithful to it, I still find myself awaiting each update to see what happens next.
5. Kamau Kogo (from Bitch Planet)
Without being the least bit like A Handmaid’s Tale, Bitch Planet is its comic book equivalent. In Bitch Planet, women are subservient to men, and the most powerful men are referred to as “father.” Non-compliant women are imprisoned on Bitch Planet. The situation seems utterly hopeless, but there are still women — and men — who are willing to fight the system. Issues of this comic tend to end with smart-alecky ads for products like Agreenex, which “doesn’t change your circumstances, but… keeps you from caring.” There are several strong female characters in the series. Nicholson featured Penny Rolle, who certainly is an awesome character, but so far my favorite is the extremely badass Kamau Kogo.
4. Martha Washington (from The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the Twenty-First Century)
Partway through Martha Washington, it occurred to me that there are probably several liberals and conservatives in its fanbase. Martha lives under a series of different governments, and all of them are deeply flawed. The conservatives are oppressive. The liberals are ineffective and corrupt. Even groups that truly mean to look out for the greater good go bad in the end. Through it all, Martha does her best to follow her conscience and fight for what she believes is right.
3. Maika Halfwolf (from Monstress)
I almost didn’t read Monstress. I knew I could expect violence and gore, and the first volume delivered just that. But it was a stunningly beautiful comic with a character who truly wrestles with an inner demon. Along with Bitch Planet and Martha Washington, this is another dark, dystopian story, but this one is set in a magical world that clearly isn’t Earth. Maika looks human, but she is really an Arcanic, part of a magical race that is at war with human beings. She’s extremely powerful, and her companions are terrified of her, but as one of them explains, “I followed you. I thought it would be safer. You’re good at killing.” Grim as this series is, I’m eagerly awaiting the next volume.
2. Patty-Jo (from Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger)
Nicholson picked Torchy Brown for her book. I’m glad she did, because that character led me to the biography of her creator, Jackie Ormes. The story behind the biography itself is fascinating: author Nancy Goldstein, an expert on dolls, was helping a friend research the Patty-Jo doll and became fascinated with Ormes. Ormes was the first African American woman cartoonist, but she left behind few personal papers, and it was impossible to find many of the newspapers in which her work appeared. Goldstein conducted interviews with people who’d known Ormes and dug up as much information as she could to tell Ormes’ story and reproduce samples of the four comics she created — two single-panel comics and two Torchy Brown comic strips.
Torchy Brown is a career woman and romantic heroine who appeared first in the 1930s and later in the 1950s. I can see why Nicholson might include her, but I was far more interested in the precocious little girl, Patty-Jo, from Ormes’ longest running comic, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger. While Ormes did include social commentary in her other comics, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger was where she really let loose with commentary on everything from racism to McCarthyism. Learning about Jackie Ormes was probably the greatest discovery I made as a result of Nicholson’s book.
1. Bandette (from Bandette)
Like Squirrel Girl, Bandette is a light-hearted comic with a heroine you can’t help but love. Bandette considers herself the greatest thief in the world, and she very well may be. But while she loves to steal, she hates villainy, and she’ll frequently aid the police in bringing down criminal masterminds. She has a weakness for chocolate, and I was very disappointed when I found that her favorite candy bar, Chocobolik, isn’t real. Her friends adore her, and even some of her enemies, such as the swashbuckling assassin Matadori, can’t help but become her friends. Every time I finish a volume, I want to visit Paris. If I manage to go, I may find myself wishing that a gravity-defying, big-hearted thief would pop out of nowhere and ask me for a chocolate bar.
Have you read The Spectacular Sisterhood of Superwomen? If so, what wonderful superwomen has Nicholson introduced you to through her book?
When you think of age discrimination, you probably think of discrimination against older people in the workplace. Certainly age discrimination encompasses that. I’ve witnessed more than one person in their 50s or 60s who, after losing their job, struggled to find a comparable position — or sometimes any position at all. Some of the people I’ve seen suffer the most are in technical fields. Sometimes people fail to keep their skills up to date, but sometimes they aren’t hired because they are “too old.”
But age discrimination goes beyond employment discrimination against older people. It can include infantilizing older people through the way you speak to them. Calling an older woman “young lady”? You may mean to flatter her, but she knows she’s not young and probably doesn’t appreciate your “compliment.” It also includes the way you treat older people. I love what this post on alcohol in assisted living facilities has to say about the purpose of assisted living: “Assisted living does not and should never mean loss of freedom or rights, instead it promoted [sic] independence by providing seniors the tools and care they need to live the best life they can.”
And just as bad as treating seniors like children is pushing them aside or ignoring them altogether.
I also believe that age discrimination doesn’t just apply to older adults. When a member of one generation looks down on members of another generation, that’s a form of discrimination. I once heard someone in the workplace state that Millennials were lazy and spent too much time watching Netflix. Many of the Millennials I know work really hard — both in the office and outside of it. I should have spoken up on their behalf but didn’t; I allowed myself to feel intimidated by the person who made the statement and just sat in stony silence. It is true that the environment in which a generation grows up shapes the members of that generation. Nevertheless, members of each generation are individuals and should be treated as such. Judgmental statements about generations, such as “Boomers ruined the world” or “Gen Xers are slackers,” are no better than judgmental statements about people based on categories such as gender or race.
And now I’m going to make what may be a controversial statement about age discrimination. In the past five years or so, I’ve run across many people who declare vehemently that not only do they hate babies and/or children, but that such an attitude is perfectly okay. I believe that hating babies or children is just as unacceptable as hating senior citizens.
I absolutely do not believe that everyone should become a parent. One of the most troubling experiences I’ve ever had was conversing with a mother of two school-aged boys. I’d only just met her, but during our conversation she confided that she hated her children. I was not a parent, so her confession prompted me to do a lot of soul-searching before my husband and I decided to become parents. I think that’s a good thing to do; parenthood is not something to undertake lightly.
But there’s a big difference between not wanting children and hating children as a group of people. You don’t have to drool over babies. You don’t have to be happy that you’re sitting near a baby on a plane (while I don’t believe in banning parents from taking babies on planes, air travel is not particularly pleasant, and a crying baby just makes things worse).
But take a look at the last paragraph of the opinion piece I linked to:
If you are my friend and you decide to have a baby, I will feel nothing but genuine joy for you, because as your friend, I value your happiness. I will bring you meals and toys and those adorable little baby shoes (which I will find far cuter than the kid itself), and I will always lend a sympathetic ear when you’re tired and need to vent. I will do so with glee and sincerity, because you are my friend and I love you. But I will still hate your baby, and for that, I will not apologize.
What if I rewrote that to tell someone that I would feel joy for them and bring them a present on their wedding day but would hate their spouse — not because the person they were marrying was horrible, but because I didn’t like “that kind” of person? I think people would be right to call me on my discriminatory attitude. So why is it okay to say about babies?
Some people call age discrimination the last acceptable form of discrimination. I’m not sure I agree with that statement. But age discrimination may be less visible to us than some forms of discrimination. It’s time to notice it and take a stand against it.
I’ve wanted to write about Pop Chalee for a while, but I’ve struggled to find images I could include here. I finally decided to write about her anyway. Some of the links below will take you to pictures of her work.
Pop Chalee, born Merina Lujan, was given the Tiwa name that she preferred by her paternal grandmother. I’ve usually seen her name translated as “Blue Flower.” During her childhood, her parents divorced. She spent some of her childhood raised by paternal relatives at Taos Pueblo in New Mexico and attending the U.S. Indian School in Santa Fe. During her teen years, she went to live with her European mother in Salt Lake City; however, she was treated so poorly that she ran away and got married. She didn’t begin studying art until she was well into her adulthood, but once she began painting, she quickly achieved success. There are even suggestions that her deer influenced Disney’s Bambi, because Walt Disneypurchased one or more of her paintings before the movie’s animation work started.
I don’t remember a time when I did not know Pop Chalee’s art. I spent part of my childhood in the southwestern United States and had many relatives in New Mexico. Running across her art was almost natural. Several of her paintings, commissioned by Howard Hughes, are in the Albuquerque Airport (or “Sunport,” as they call it), including her prominently displayed horse mural. I must have seen her art other places, too; her unforgettable horses and forest scenes are engraved in my mind.
Pop Chalee is probably best known for horses that stepped straight out of a fantasy world and deer leaping through magical forests, but she also painted several works featuring Native American dancers and hunters. Her paintings are colorful and have a sense of motion.
Pop Chalee also worked as a dorm matron for young scientists working on the Manhattan Project. I was excited to find a video of her while I was doing research for this post; unfortunately, the interview is about her memories of Los Alamos, not her work as an artist. (There’s a wonderful bit toward the end where the interviewer asks about the son of potter Maria Martinez, and Pop Chalee is far more interested in talking about Martinez than about her son.)
You can view Pop Chalee’s art in her biography, at the Albuquerque Sunport, and in various museums, particularly the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.
Last year, I wrote about shaking up your Valentine’s Day spending, focusing on how those of us who exchange traditional Valentine’s Day gifts can think about ways to spend that make a difference in the world. I also mentioned the importance of not giving people the gift of a Valentine’s Day guilt-trip. If you believe that Valentine’s Day is just a commercial holiday and your significant other is really into Valentine’s Day, for heaven’s sake, be willing to go against your principles a little to celebrate the day with them. It’s hard to be loving when you’re busy be self-righteous.
While most of the links in last year’s post are still good, I wanted to update the post for 2018.
Restaurants
I didn’t write about restaurants at all last year, which was an oversight. After all, in the United States, Valentine’s Day is second only to Mother’s Day when it comes to eating out. If you decide not to eat at home on Valentine’s Day, consider making reservations at an independent restaurant owned by someone who could use your support this year. Unhappy with anti-immigrant sentiments that have become all too common over the past couple of years? Look for immigrant-owned restaurants in your area. Concerned about the environment? Go to a good farm-to-table restaurant. Want to help people up and out of poverty? Consider patronizing a restaurant with a mission to do just that. And if you had a good experience, consider taking the time to post a positive review online.
As I was doing research for this article, I ended up learning a bit more about ethical sources for diamonds. I found one online shop that made some great claims about the sources behind its jewelry, but when I tried to verify the claims the company made, I ran across an article that threw some doubt on them. The article led me to CanadaMark diamonds, sustainable diamonds that can be traced from mine to final product and which are sold exclusively by James Allen. It seems to me that if you are planning on giving diamond jewelry for Valentine’s Day, this could be an excellent source.
An alternative, of course, would be to present your significant other with jewelry that already has a history — whether it is something from your family that has been passed on to you or something you purchased at an antique store.
Flowers
In addition to the ideas I shared last year, I’ve found two online retailers with beautiful arrangements and a commitment to ethical sourcing. Farmgirl Flowers tries to source from U.S. growers as much as possible, although they’ve had to create partnerships with international growers as well in order to continue to grow their business. The Bouqs Company partners directly with U.S. and South American farms; by cutting out the middleman, they can pay the farmers more than they would otherwise make. Each bouquet available online actually features the farmer who provides the flowers.
Zero Waste Ideas
As I was doing research for this post, I stumbled across this article on zero-waste Valentine’s Day gifts, including giving bulk candy in jars. I would encourage you not to give away candy corn in jars, but that’s just me.
Disclaimer
When I watched The Chocolate Case last year, it drove home how difficult it can be for well-meaning people to bring fair-trade merchandise to market. I still believe in buying fair-trade when possible, but keep in mind that not all suppliers follow the rules. Also, I have not used all of the retailers I mention here. I’ve discovered many of them solely through research.
I’m taking a break from blogging to spend time with a loved one. I will return to my weekly posts on Monday, Feb. 5.
Recently a friend of mine reposted her “joy list” on Facebook. She first posted it a few years ago after I asked people to share their lists with me. Not only did she repost her list this week, but she decided to let it inspire her day. Since baking, the smell of cinnamon, and tea were on her list, she made cinnamon raisin bran muffins and had them with tea. As soon as I read that, I knew I should blog about joy lists.
A joy list is exactly what the name suggests: a list of things that bring you joy. It isn’t the same as a list of simple pleasures, although if your list doesn’t include many simple pleasures, you probably don’t get much joy out of life. Some of the things on your list may be free, like a walk on a summer night, and others maybe expensive, like travel. Some of the things, like baking, will be within your control. Others may be completely outside of your control, like waking up to a foggy morning. And over the years, your list will evolve. When I was a new mom, I added “getting to take a shower” to my list. As my child grew, I started taking showers for granted again.
Creating a joy list in and of itself can bring you joy as you reflect on the many wonderful things you’ve experienced and can continue to enjoy. And, like my friend, it may prompt you to do more of the things that bring you joy.
But don’t just stop with your list. There’s still more joy to be found in encouraging others to create their own lists and share some of their joys with you. It made me happy to see my friend reflecting on the things that bring her joy and incorporating some of those things in her day. Reading about the things that bring others joy also can prompt me to add new things to my own list. Sometimes it can even give me ideas for gifts for my loved ones.
This week, I encourage you to start your own joy list, share part of your list with others, and encourage your friends and family to create and share their own lists. Here are some of the things on my list to inspire you:
Folk festivals
Farmers markets
Clean sheets
The northern lights
Full-blown roses
Steel drums
The smell of a snuffed-out candle
Carlsbad Caverns
A walk on a summer night
Fireflies
Crawling into bed when I’m really tired
A foggy morning
A sincere compliment
Fireworks
Bagpipes
Waking up naturally and feeling well-rested
Tea with a friend
The Minnesota Renaissance Festival
Singing a really good hymn (e.g., “Be Thou My Vision”)
My dog’s love for me
Lilacs
Red-winged blackbirds
Looking out on fresh, new snow and knowing that I don’t have to go out in it
Travel to beautiful places (ranging from national parks to Rome, Italy)
A good book
Time to wander in an art museum like the Met or the National Gallery of Art
Meik Wiking first received attention in the United States as the author of The Little Book of Hygge. Hygge, a Danish concept associated with coziness, recently had a moment in the U.S. and U.K., though it’s already considered a bit passé. (For the record, as a summer-lover in a state with long, bitter winters, I’m a hygge fan.) Now Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, has a new book: The Little Book of Lykke: Secrets of the World’s Happiest People.
While The Little Book of Hygge contains statistics, including more than you may want to know about Danish candle usage, it is relatively lightweight; however, The Little Book of Lykke is based on extensive research. It’s full of statistics and stories related to enhancing happiness. Don’t let the statistics scare you off; it’s a fast, fun read.
If you are familiar with Dan Buettner’s happiness research, much of what Wiking says about happiness won’t surprise you. Health, financial well-being, kindness and community are common themes in happiness research. In an ideal world, you’d read what both of them have to say on happiness. Both have done extensive research on the subject and have plenty of practical tips to offer on the subject. But if you read only one book on happiness, make it The Little Book of Lykke. In a short period of time you’ll come away with several ideas for improving your happiness… and the happiness of others.
These practical ideas are the reason I’m writing about this as a way to make a difference. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know that I think personal happiness can support making a difference, and the book includes several easy ways you can improve your happiness. But there are also things to strive for over the long-term that can make your community a happier place. People of different political persuasions can easily embrace some of these ideas, such as getting to know your neighbors. But others might challenge your stand on certain issues. For instance, since both health and financial security affect happiness, it makes sense to support universal health care. Wiking spells it out in his chapter on health:
As a happiness researcher, I cannot see a more obvious policy to improve quality of life than that of providing universal health care. In the Nordic countries, all of which consistently rank among the ten happiest countries in the world, free health care is available to everyone. People in these countries simply have less to worry about in daily life than most other people on this front, and that forms a sound basis for high levels of happiness.
The Little Book of Lykke was only recently released in the United States; you may have to wait a while if you want to check it out from the library. Whether you borrow it or buy it, I highly recommend taking the time to read this book.
Several months ago, one of my coworkers mentioned how much he loved a BBC radio series called Cabin Pressure. It took just one episode to make me a fan.
Cabin Pressure is British humor (sorry, humour) at its best. It’s made up of 27 episodes, each named for a destination. The story involves a charter airline, MJN (My Jet Now), with one airplane and four crew members. Stephanie Cole plays Carolyn Knapp-Shappey, the tight-fisted owner who’s trying to keep the airline afloat. Benedict Cumberbatch is the airline’s pilot, Martin Crieff. Having worked hard to attain his dream, his rank means everything to him, and he’s frustrated when people assume first officer Douglas Richardson is the pilot. In fact, Douglas (Roger Allam) is a seasoned pilot, but he’s lucky to have his job; he was fired from a previous job for smuggling. John Finnemore rounds out the cast as Carolyn’s son, Arthur, who serves as steward.
My favorite characters are almost polar opposites in terms of intelligence. Douglas is very clever and very full of himself, and I couldn’t help but love him for his playful sense of humor. There are few things he enjoys more than playing a good game on the flight deck, such as inserting as many Hitchcock titles as possible into a flight announcement.
Arthur, on the other hand, is extremely dim, though he occasionally surprises everyone with a good idea. While I love Douglas for his wit, Arthur quickly won me over with his enthusiasm and optimism.
It took me a while to warm up to Martin. He can be an annoying stickler for rules. You can just imagine him as a kid, standing on the fringe of a group of misbehaving peers and saying, “You guyyyyys. Stop! We’re going to get in TROUble.” Unfortunately, I’m probably more like Martin than any of the other characters, which may be why I prefer Douglas and Arthur. Martin grew on me as I got to know him better over the course of several episodes, and by the end, I came to love him almost as much as Douglas and Arthur.
Carolyn was another character I had to warm up to. Although she is occasionally playful, she generally comes across as cheap and irritable. But as you learn about her struggles to keep her airplane from her ex-husband, and as she begins a very odd relationship with Herc, a captain from another airline, Carolyn becomes more human and easier to sympathize with.
More than anything, Cabin Pressure has made me a fan of Finnemore, who not only played Arthur but wrote the script. To quote Arthur, Finnemore is “brilliant” — a very funny man.
Cabin Pressure may be available at your local library; otherwise, you can buy a compact disc set from retailers such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It’s a bit pricey, but definitely worth it.
When this post goes live, it will be Christmas Day — a time when many people exchange gifts. This year, I’d like to suggest that you give yourself an intangible gift. You can think of this as a resolution if you like. However you think of it, I’d like to suggest that you go easy on yourself next year. You’ll accomplish more if you do.
What exactly do I mean by “go easy on yourself”? Some of this I’ve said before, but it bears repeating.
Expect progress, not perfection
One of my earliest “make a difference” posts was on learning how to eat an elephant. I see so many things I want to change about myself, so many things I want to tackle, and I feel the need to take on everything right now. Those of us who struggle with this must remember: perfection isn’t possible. Growth is. So let’s take things one at a time. That list of things we want to tackle isn’t going anywhere.
Cut back
Likewise, I’ve already written about how important simplicity is in freeing us up to take care of the things that truly matter. Simplicity is a gift that many of us, myself included, have trouble embracing. The world is so full of “shoulds” — things we’re told we need to do or own. And we sometimes have trouble letting go of things, because we think we need them or we’re afraid we’ll be judged for letting go. Simplifying our lives can be a difficult task, but the result can be freeing.
Don’t be a cheerless do-gooder
In August, I wrote about the relationship between happiness and goodness. As I said then, I think that relationship is a worthy subject of debate. What’s less debatable is the fact that miserable goodness is neither attractive nor easy to sustain. As you seek to bring love into the world, remember to love yourself, too. And while you’re at it, take time to enjoy the beauty that surrounds you.
Consider your past with tenderness
Recently I’ve become aware of how harsh I can be with myself over past choices. These aren’t even bad choices. They’re merely choices I’ve made that I now question. One thing that has been haunting me was my choice to stay with the same employer for 21 years. Recently I accepted a new job. I feel a mixture of excitement and fear over the prospect of leaving my long-term employer and embracing something new. I don’t interpret my fear as “You’ve made the wrong choice.” Instead, I’ve told myself, “You stayed in the same place too long. You got too comfortable. Why didn’t you do this earlier?” I’ve looked at my long tenure in one place and asked myself if that choice was really a career setback.
I’ve been contemplating these things over the past few days, during which I’ve been reading The Way of Tea and Justiceby Becca Stevens. In it, Stevens shares the stories of women who have left behind lives of prostitution and addiction. When I read the stories of women who were abused since childhood, I don’t judge them for turning to drugs to numb the pain. Yes, the choices they made were harmful, but I can understand why they made them. Were I in their shoes, who is to say that I would have done differently? When you’ve lived a limited life filled with pain, it can be hard to find the exit.
Then I realized: I understand the choices these women made better than I do my own. It’s easy for me to tell myself now that I was too comfortable and may have held myself back. But I need to remind myself of the circumstances during which I made my choices. When my grandparents were alive, I was grateful for the generous vacation time that enabled me to visit them frequently. While I juggled both work and motherhood, I appreciated the fact that my employer was a great place for work-life balance. I appreciated my workplace’s location, which allowed us to enroll our child in a charter school nearby for several years. And when my husband went through a period of career instability, my job’s stability was a blessing to our family.
Not only that, but those years with one employer weren’t even the years of stagnation I’m tempted to see them as in hindsight. I earned a promotion and a master’s degree during that time. I took on extra work that was not part of my regular duties — writing magazine columns and editing a magazine in addition to my marketing role. And outside of work, I wrote and published my first book.
Yes, I was “comfortable” with one employer for a long period of time, but I had good reasons for staying where I was, and I accomplished a lot while I was there. I need to be as gentle with myself for the choices I made as I am with the women whose stories I’ve been reading. And if you are like me, perhaps it is time for you to be gentle with yourself over past choices, too. After all, living with “what if’s” and regret doesn’t do a thing to change your life… or the world. As long as you mull over the past, you’ll remain stuck in it and unable to move forward. So let it go. If you need to ask forgiveness for something or make amends with someone, go do that. But then you need to put your past behind you and step forward into the future.
Go on a retreat
In The Way of Tea and Justice, Stevens explains the importance of retreats for those who wish to be of service to the world.
I love the image in the Gospels of the disciples going to a lonely place to find time to focus and talk with their teacher alone. They had to get away from the crowds, not because they didn’t love them but so they could love them more.
I’ve already written about the joy I take in solitary retreats, but you don’t need to spend a few days in a hermitage to benefit from a retreat. As Stevens reminds readers, you can take mini-retreats every day — even by simply lingering over a cup of tea alone or with someone with whom you can really talk. Stepping away periodically from the busyness and business of everyday life will give you the opportunity to take a breath, get your bearings, and ground yourself as you strive to make a difference in the lives of others.
