Friends. We need to talk. Yesterday I wrote about enjoying each day and making the best of whatever may come. Otherwise, we risk wishing our life away while waiting for better days ahead. You can read about that here.
That published around 4 a.m. By 7:30 I had hit a deer. Just a quarter mile from home. On my way to a work meeting in a town 45 minutes away. It came out of nowhere and was in front of my car in the blink of an eye, as deer tend to do. I was even looking for deer because the population is so vast in my rural part of southern Ohio.
Can you say irony?
Bambi’s suicide mission put the day off track in more ways than I count. While I was physically fine I was considerably wounded in spirit. While rattled, I shifted straight into “make it work mode” and tried to figure out how to manage the reality of “the right now” at work alongside the reality of what needed done to fix my personal problems.
Still, I clung to the optimism of the morning message. Try to enjoy the day. Try not to wish away today’s life in favor of tomorrow. Blatantly ignore the successful whole foods eating plan of eight days in favor of stress eating pizza and Diet Coke with coworkers. Live life well.
That last part about the pizza and Coke wasn’t in the original message but sometimes improvisation is the way to go.
Yesterday made it crystal clear that I am one of the lucky ones and I need to remember that.
After all, rural America isn’t equipped with things like public transit and being in the country means that walking or even cycling to work either isn’t feasible or is unsafe. Being without a car in a rural area is a crisis when you need to go anywhere at all.
Yet, in my case, I benefited from the knowledge, kindness and generosity of a few important people in my life and from some strangers too. As of this writing, I feel cautiously optimistic that things will turn out better than I believed possible when I first saw my pretty little car with its hood that now resembles a snarled lip.
I learned later that the deer had a gunshot wound to the leg. It was likely suffering and I’m told that my hitting it was a blessing in disguise. I put it out of its misery. I’m clinging to that hope anyway.
Normally when things don’t go my way I assume that it’s forces greater than myself conspiring to keep me safe. Get behind a slow moving vehicle and avoid an accident down the road. Construction that prevents you from traveling your route of choice could keep you out of trouble later on. That sort of thing.
I’ll admit that watching a deer smash into my hood before sailing through the air like one of Santa’s reindeer made me question just how far my faith in that theory can extend. While I sort through all that in my mind, I’m holding tight to the optimism, gratitude and yes, the humor of it all. This was a laugh or cry kind of day and I don’t like tears.
I was incredulous and frustrated for most of the day but eventually found my sense of humor.
Honestly, I am the only person I know that can smash up their car with a deer just hours after publishing a story about making the best of every day. Am I being taught a lesson? Big proclamations about happiness may be a poor choice moving forward but my internal optimist says that I should at least keep trying. If I am being taught a lesson, I fear I haven’t learned much. I’m evidently a slow learner.
Go out and have a terrific Tuesday!
Jamestown, New York was my destination last month because of all the 
There’s an area where you can generate memes and another where you can sit and watch Bob Hope give a USO show. There’s a film that addresses how truth has been stranger than fiction in American politics these last many years. It talks about how late night comedy shows became the gatekeepers for truth while the actual media often just reports what someone says even when it’s all lies or when they’re missing even the most flamboyant red flags imaginable.
Another room is devoted to the archives and motivation behind George Carlin’s work. You can digitally rummage through his joke collection by topic and see notes written in his own hand.
I enjoyed the concept of this plaice but not necessarily the execution. To be honest, it felt like sensory overload. From any given place, you might hear a radio show from an overhead speaker, a tv show from another room and Fozzie Bear telling jokes. It’s hard to know where to focus your attention.
The things I enjoyed most were the areas that immerse the visitor in a topic. I loved sitting in a small theater and watching music videos of famous funny songs. Another corner with classic SNL clips was fantastic. Remember Chris Farley’s bit about living in a van down by the river?
Meet my coaster. It’s a little rough around the edges these days mainly because it’s far better traveled than it was ever meant to be.
Can we talk about how Bernie Sanders has become internet gold this week?
Nonetheless, the internet got ahold of the image and generated something completely unexpected. He has been photoshopped into every imaginable scenario from sea to shining sea. He’s been spotted at Niagara Falls, at the the Grand Canton and at the Rutherford B. Hayes historic site here in Ohio. The pop culture references have been fabulous as he’s popped up in everything from Mayberry to a Bob Ross painting with his “happy little mittens.”
Even local businesses like antique stores and book shops have their own version of the Bernie.
But none are as perfect as this Big Bang Theory reference.
It’s funny. Right?
And we can all get behind the silliness because we just need something to make us laugh.
Who knew that we just needed a practical New Englander to don some homemade mittens and slump on a metal folding chair to curb the feuds as we all giggle over the ridiculous?