Good day

Joy can come from the simplest of places. Today, it came from several sources:

1. Taking a good book with me while waiting for someone. Even Wal-Mart's bustle and rampant consumerism become background noise when you've got your nose stuck in an Orson Scott Card book with a bookmark in hand to twirl about absent-mindedly. Eighty pages in, and I'm loving it. Wry humor and a good tale to boot.

2. I about started giggling aloud as I exited. The woman said, "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. Have a nice day." Immediately after that, to the person I was with, "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. Have a nice day." A second later, to the person behind us, "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. Have a nice day." Hardly remarkable, one might (rightfully) say, but it reminded me of a movie I just re-watched recently. If you haven't seen Idiocracy, you ought to. It'll probably make you laugh more than you'd be willing to admit to and then make you want to weep at the future it projects--a future whose seeds have long been sown.

3. I pulled out a coloring book and markers this evening for the first time in, well, quite a while. The picture was a Celtic-knotwork-type design, and the markers were new, an impulse purchase a few months ago. There is no simpler joy than sitting on the floor, coloring book in lap, markers spread out so you can see all the colors. Slowly, the abstract line art transforms into a colorful work of art that might not turn out exactly how you intended but usually ends up striking all the same. It's the closest a non-artistic type like myself will ever come to creating art, so I enjoy it all the more.