May Day 2022

It's so thrillium to find trillium

 Today is the beginning of a new month, the beautiful month of May at the tail end (we all hope anyway) of a two-year pandemic, but stuck somewhere in the midst of an awful war in Europe. I sincerely hope it (the war) will be over soon, too, and join the pandemic in the ash heap of history.

I learned that the term "Mayday" when written as one word is considered a universal signal of distress and has been around for more than a century. Written as two words, it's a spring festival of light and joy, dancing around the Maypole, baskets hanging on doorknobs filled with treats and candy. It took me a few minutes to decide to title this post as a joyful moment, rather than as a distress signal. Let's have fun today!

It has been so wonderful to get outdoors here in the Pacific Northwest and see all the spring flowers everywhere, all at once. It's like a fairyland out there, and with all the rain we are blessed with, they cannot seem to help themselves from sprouting and showing their incredible profusion at this moment in time. I'm glad to be able to see and share what I am experiencing with you, dear reader.

It's interesting that my skydiving years keep inserting themselves in today's circumstances. Melanie started a conversation on Facebook with some people I was acquainted with when I was active in the sport. She was so excited to learn about their accomplishments, and as we discussed it, that was when I realized how removed I feel from those days. That was then, and now I am in a different world. But two decades ago, I read my Parachutist Magazine from cover to cover, and now I glance at it, but I don't really feel much connection, other than to those who are still around from those days. Unfortunately, many of my old friends have either died or walked away from the sport themselves, and the new generation and I have little in common. There was a time when I could not have imagined my situation today, thinking that some part of me would always crave to be in freefall again. Nope. I've moved on.

At first I thought it would be fun to write a humorous post, one filled with jokes and laughter, but you know what? I couldn't find any jokes that I thought fit with my mood. Humor is an interesting topic: what makes something funny to one person and not to another? I looked online for the best one-liner jokes and found few to be actually humorous. Then I read the Wikipedia page about humour and found that it is indeed a very slippery concept. Although it's definitely worthwhile to laugh and find the amusement in our everyday lives, it's not easily defined or appreciated. 

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. —Groucho Marx

Now that's the spirit! I watched the White House Correspondents' Dinner on TV last night, and there were quite a few good jokes and only a few of them were groaners. Trevor Noah knows humour and can dispense it with only a little barb now and then. Mostly it's enough to make me smile but not enough to make me laugh out loud. My friend John sends me jokes that often make me laugh and sometime when I re-read them I find they are not all that funny after all. A curious thing, humor (or humour). 

On another topic, these days I spend some time in the morning, usually, solving the daily Wordle. It gives me such pleasure to actually get the word, and I've gotten pretty good at it. Do you do it, too? You can play it online, free of charge, and it's not exactly easy, but I've only been stumped a few times. You get six chances to solve the word of the day. Check it out here if you don't already know about it. But trust me, it's addictive. I did find a cartoon about it rather funny. 

Do you find it funny, too?

I snagged this from the New Yorker. I tried to sign up to receive the magazine (which I enjoy very much) but it's too expensive for me these days. I have enough online subscriptions already, where I spend way too much of my time as it is. It sure is nice, though, to peruse my usual subscriptions and catch up on the day's events. And so much easier on my mental state, rather than turning on the TV and getting frustrated with all those commercials, and being fed the same story over and over, learning nothing new. Much better to pick and choose.

Well, I tried to write a post without being all doom-and-gloomy, to make a couple of my readers happy. I guess I've been concentrating too much lately on ageing, growing older and losing my faculties, and hanging out with topics that bring them down. Perhaps this post will be more uplifting. Whatever you decide to do with your day today, I do hope you find some time to smile and laugh. Remember, it's May Day, not Mayday!

And I hope that you will find some time to get fresh air into your lungs, breathe deeply and even smell the flowers if you can. Why not? It feels good, it's good for you, and I'm sure the flowers appreciate being admired. And with that, it's time for me to wrap up this post and give myself some time to get ready to head out with John for our usual Sunday breakfast. Thank you for coming along with me on this wonderful and magical May Day!!!