Joy Project: Surprise

Hello! Thanks for checking in on the latest joy project installment! Chapter 6 of Joyful was a fun one, because I love to be (pleasantly) surprised. To me, that means nothing overdone, awkward, potentially embarrassing, or scary. It's as simple as catching a glimpse of the unexpected (like these painted stair risers), finding a laugh in something dull, or the serendipity of being in the right place at the right time. Keep the lavish parties; I'm happy with a coupon for a free appetizer.

I was surprised (hah!) to learn that psychologist Paul Ekman identifies surprise as one of the six primary emotions. Its purpose, writes Ingrid, is "to quickly redirect our attention." From an evolutionary perspective, that is an advantage because a surprise could signify an oncoming threat or opportunity. Joyful surprises, which hopefully those early humans also experienced, "promote upward spirals of positive emotion." I love that image, because we so often think of spirals as a descent.

Even in infancy, humans are pretty adept at recognizing things that look or sound different. To our benefit, artists of all kinds understand the value of sensory surprises. Perhaps you've heard of yarnbombing, also known as knitted graffiti, which livens up an environment with fun color and texture. Painted rocks with inspirational messages and designs have popped up all over my neighborhood during the pandemic. And I love hearing little snippets of music wafting through the air, even if it is just a kid practicing trombone. 

Yarnbombed light post

The trick is working surprise into our lives without becoming predictable. This is where the "hide-and-reveal" comes in handy. More on that next time!

A to Z Joy: Everything is Alive

 

This one is a relative newcomer to my list. I was going to do a geeky writer thing with Edit for today (I really do love to edit). Then my friend April, who is also doing the A to Z Challenge, posted on social media about this podcast, and I am now hooked.

From the website:

Everything is Alive is an unscripted interview show in which all the subjects are inanimate objects. In each episode, a different thing tells us its life story--and everything it says is true.

Inanimate objects, you say? As in a lamppost, or a pillow? Yes, and yes.

If you enjoy dry, wry, understated humor with a touch of absurdity, this is the podcast for you. But it's also often profound, and I usually learn something random and fascinating, too. The episodes are short, which is good for my attention span, which seems to be dwindling by the day.

Happy 2nd week of A to Z!

Invasion of the Pod(cast) People

Back in the days before television--and definitely before my time--families used to gather around the old wireless radio for their nightly entertainment. From Little Orphan Annie to the Metropolitan Opera to the infamous War of the Worlds, there was something for everyone. Today, in the digital age, we can stream television content anywhere, anytime. And we do. But apparently we still love to listen to great stories, because podcasts are huge.

As of June of this year, the running total of podcasts is 750,000 and climbing, which adds up to more than 30 million individual episodes. Wow. And I thought finding something to watch on Netflix was hard.

Even though I sort of failed at audio books a few weeks ago, I wanted to give daily podcasts a whirl. I've dabbled in podcasts before, but not on a regular basis. So this week I dipped my toe into the Amazon River-sized stream of audio content and discovered variety that puts even the golden age of radio to shame. Despite that vast quantity of podcasts, it didn't take me long to narrow down my preferences:

Sports: No thanks. I don't mind watching, but listening to people talk about sports? No, no, a thousand times no.

Humor: It depends. Something clever (without an abundance of casual profanity), or the always funny Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, definitely. A couple of guys riffing about beards or whatnot--I'll pass.

Politics: Nope. I get quite enough of that by watching the news.

Science/Nature: Yes, please.

Psychology/Social Science: Another yes. History, too.

True Crime: This is a big one, because they are apparently very popular. I enjoy a good mystery, but if I start to feel like someone might be creeping around in the bushes outside, then that's not the podcast for me.

In general, the best podcasts follow the rules for good storytelling: they draw the listener in quickly, they build suspense and/or interest, and they don't waste time with a lot of extraneous details. It is not as easy as it might seem, but there are plenty of podcasts doing it very well. This week is a Take It, and if you have any podcasts to recommend, please leave me a comment! Happy listening!

Get your ears ready!

Boweled Over

Not long ago, I was tooling (sorry, that's a terrible pun) around my local Home Depot looking for a drain snake when I saw the following sign:

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I were to make a list of medical services I didn’t want my toilet to perform, elongating my bowel would be right up there with emergency tonsillectomy and open-fracture reduction.

Because I tend to over-think these kinds of things, I got to wondering what could possibly explain the error. A hand-written mistake can't be shrugged off in the same manner as a typo. Was it possible the sign-maker didn’t know how to spell bowl? I certainly hope not and prefer to explain the extra "e" as the oversight of an anatomy student who was up late the night before studying for a test about the gastrointestinal tract.

The lesson, writer friends, is to never underestimate the power of a single letter. But I bet you knew that already.