Person
I know had been planning a scavenger hunt for months.
It
was meant to be a birthday surprise for her significant other.
Involved many of the places that were important to their relationship.
First date. Favorite restaurant. Add to list with similar thoughts.
Neat idea.
Whole
thing got trashed by the stay at home, wear a mask and keep the
min-blinds closed lockdown.
(Writer’s
note: That’s a joke. Trying to be funny about something that’s
fundamentally not that funny when you recognize we’ve all been
working hard at just surviving. So, sincerely… you stay strong,
productive, and do your best to be happy. Check on your neighbors.
Best wishes to your family. Wash your hands and wear a mask. For
yourself, for me, and for all of us. Be a good person, smart and
responsible. Thank you. Back to our story.)
Once
the restaurants were closed, the ability to talk to management
and arrange for a clue to be placed at the exact table where they
first dined became a bit more impossible than difficult. Spread
that out across several stops and several clues, and, for a scavenger
hunt style weekend challenge filled with multiple marks on the
map… yeah, you see it… a lot more impossible to pull off.
Her
story fascinated me though.
I
mean, we’ve all heard the generic inconveniences and troubles
in the basic things. Some big. Some small. Almost all of them
are commonly shared. Going to the store. Ordering food.
This
one was specific and personal. It was individualized, not immediately
shared by many others that I could identify, and yet had a deep
significance of sorts. It mattered, even though I had absolutely
zero to gain from the effort or results.
Most
of us like the happy ending stories, yes? We all want Tom Hanks
and Meg Ryan to get to the Empire State Building, right?
Well…
first we need to acknowledge that there are also people that when
it comes to Hanks and Ryan, they’re cheering for the volcano.
(That
there is another joke. Should anyone decide to bring this to the
attention of Hanks and/or Ryan, understand I have a kind place
in my memories for both movies. You keep up the good work. Stay
safe. (And wear your masks.) Anyway…)
There
are things that matter to us. Things that, for better or worse,
can change our schedules, plans, and outlook on any day. And then…
…then
there are those things that we are aware of, but honestly don’t
matter to us much at all.
The
trick is when one of those doesn’t matter moments actually does
have us looking at it and thrilled, impressed, or at least casually
interested in the result.
Orangutan
and dog becoming friends? Great stuff. To date, however, I have
never needed to know any information about how to introduce an
orangutan to a dog for personal use.
But
I find these moments to be heartwarming in a way. Real and authentic
might be good adjectives for them. Individualized moments that
capture and convey something necessary for the larger whole to
have true meaning.
There’s
an old saying we’ve all heard about taking time to appreciate
the roses. The true gift in the idea is learning what parts of
the saying are literal and what parts are figurative.
Once
you do, I promise you’ll find a lot more satisfaction from many
areas of your life. If not because they create the special events
that sparkle beyond the routine daily grind, but rather because
they make sense of scavenger hunt you won’t be heading out to
complete.
(And
when you go out, remember your mask. Thank you.)