I enjoy being a cynic, because it feels a bit ornery, but cynicism stands no chance against a List of Happy. My face breaks into a goofy grin, when I think about these things:
- A giant panda named Mei Xiang had a cub. Pandas are cute. Cubs are adorable. Even the word “cub” is adorable. What makes this even cuter is that the mother panda is cuter than the cub.
- A couple I know is packing up and moving abroad, just because it makes them happy. Proves that ordinary people can make their dreams come true, without the intervention of a fairy godmother.
- In his spare time, my brother the college professor made a quilt, a gorgeous quilt. He’s a Renaissance man for the twenty-first century.
- A stand-up comic hosted a political convention. The juxtaposition of silliness and deadly serious politics is metaphysically satisfying. Metaphysical satisfaction makes me bust out laughing.
- A woman I recently met makes croissants. From scratch. In her own kitchen. In real life. She talks about baking croissants the same way I talk about making toast. Pretty sure my cooking got better just because I know her.
- I looked out the window just in time to watch a hummingbird hanging around.
- My cousin has a sign in his house that reads, “We’re not half. We’re not step. We’re just family.” Which causes my heart to do a hummingbird thing.
- People are commuting to outer space and living on a space station. In the past, there were badly produced television shows about this sort of thing happening in the future. In the present, I’m living in my own future.
- A worm builds a coffin around itself and comes out a butterfly. Looks like a magic trick to me. Or a miracle. Or maybe they’re the same thing.
- Dark matter. Science says 85% of the universe is made up of nobody-knows-what. It makes me happy that 85% of everything is a question.
- The first time Susan Boyle walked onstage and sang. For a couple of minutes, a bunch of us felt the exact same open-mouthed stupid astonishment. Astonishment is a uniter, not a divider.
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