Distractions and Pleasures

 It's a world you can't control, where the big things on big stages demand your attention. Competing with that is a fool's errand. Rather, the only way to survive is to carve out some space of your own. Routines help: having the same breakfast every day or a morning workout helps to get you started with your feet firmly under you. Keeping in touch with family and friends, even if only by Zoom or Facetime, also helps to keep us sane and centered. Organizing the basement, making bread, binge-watching "The Crown": each offers its own sense of control and peace. But it's also the little things, the unexpected distractions and pleasures that make a difference. To wit, some of mine.

As the air turns cold and the trees drop their leaves, the view out our back window gets less dense and the sky more open. And the while the brown is less preferable to the green, the clear blue starts to become deeper. Even better, as I look up from washing out my coffee mug at the sink, I see three hawks lazily riding the thermal updrafts. They glide effortlessly in circles, seemingly just tilting this way and that. Were they jets, their contrails would trace a Pollock in the sky.

I am a lover of all things sweet. Cookies, candy, honey roasted nuts, and on and on. Doesn't need to be fancy, and indeed some of my favorites are mass market edibles that would make a 5 year-old happy. And so along with Nutter Butters and Peanut M&M's I will occasionally score some Swedish Fish. These red gummy candies look like their namesake, and taste vaguely, well, red. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But my wife, knowing my penchant for new treats, stumbled across an offshoot. She was at Trader Joe's, a grocery chain that carries no familiar names but instead markets its own matching brands. And so when I reached into my treat bin I pulled out an unfamiliar bag marked as "Scandinavian Swimmers." Inside were Swedish Fish-esque creatures with the same consistency but different aquatic shapes, such as dolphins and seahorses. I can attest that the lobsters taste particularly red.

As written here previously, much of our socializing has been moved to outside venues in recognition of the risk that interior spaces present. As part of that we added a small firepit to a patio along with four chairs as a place to gather with friends. While it's wonderful to sit and sip and visit with others while bundled up outside, the fire is the capper. There is something hypnotic and calming about the flames rolling and the logs crackling that transcends the same experience were it indoors. Maybe it's the smoke that drifts this way and that, or maybe it's the warmth you can draw close to. Either way, it draws me in, and I could watch for hours.

One of the benefits of my change in schedule is that the lack of travel means I am home far more, and have time to volunteer. And so I spend several hours a week working at a food pantry. It means lugging 50-pound bags of potatoes or flats of canned tomato sauce, but I am happy to be able to do something tangible for others as opposed to just writing a check. One task is restocking the shelves so other volunteer "shoppers" can more efficiently make bags for the those in need. And while I gladly restock the canned peaches or bags of rice, I am always happy when the canned meat section needs help. That's because stacking tuna fish cans is like working with Legos. They fit together with a distinct click, and you can make a tower a dozen cans high. Alas, my modern skyscraper arrangements don't last long as the cans are picked and packed for grocery bags, but that just means I get to rebuild the next time.

In a year filled with mind numbing challenges, we have all had to find comfort where we can. There are more for me, and I'm sure you have your own. But we have to keep looking and finding those outlets, however small and inconsequential they may be. It's the difference between simply trying to ride out the storm vs. finding a reason to smile. And we all need to keep smiling. 

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Marc Wollin of Bedford tries keep his eyes and ears open. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.