A moment today

the power of small moments

This is a truly difficult time of the year for so many. Between anxieties about holiday gifts, fears about a recession, problems with the weather, COVID/RSV/flu infections, a growing sense of individual isolation based on personal characteristics (religion, sexual orientation, race, political beliefs, socio-economic distress or excess, having children versus childless, liking dogs versus cats, eating only vegetables versus meat, etc. etc. etc. etc.), the list of dreads and concerns grows annually. In short, the holidays too often create more depression in our society than joy, regardless of the adverts to the contrary on your favourite site.

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I rarely get the title ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ as I worry about things outside of my control spinning into something cataclysmic (actions create consequences was not the title of this substack entry by accident). I have a tendency to look at something invariably trying to see the other side as well so I too often dwell on the negative. That served me well as a scholar at times or when I worked with people as an educational administrator but it means I tend to discount the good in favour of the bad so I am prepared for it. I see politics and life as having good days and a whole lot of bad days.

I had a satisfying day today! There are so many reasons it was a good day but I don’t often enough focus on them in the whirl of everything I think I must accomplish (most of which is not all that important).

One thing sticking with me from today was a 90 second exchange I had at my former workplace where I was catching up with the commandant at the Eisenhower School, Brigadier General Joy Curriera.

As she and I chatted, a fellow walked by, breaking into a wide, genuine grin. Glancing at him, I realised it was someone I have not seen in several years and not in the D.C. area. Ian began teaching at the Eisenhower School this summer a few weeks after I retired. His momentary stop and hello acknowledged seeing an old colleague in that manner we all know when we have a truly unexpected encounter with someone we don’t know all that well and had never thought we would see in that particular location. But it was good seeing someone in a surprise.

Brigadier General Curriera looked pretty amazed, asking Ian how he knew me. He recounted we have been in the same field for twenty years but rarely ran into each other as he was working Hawai’i and me here. We have encountered each other at a conference here or there but it is a small field of people so our paths have crossed over the years. This afternoon was a bright, upbeat moment of serendipity. He then had to move on and I went to my meeting.

This is not cosmic stuff. But it reminded me how much it means to all of us when a person from some other place turns up in our lives, invoking good, instantaneous feelings of someone who we remember, even if not in great detail. It reminded me how utterly satisfying it may be for me to stop to say hello to someone in the grocery story even when I don’t want to chat. This chance encounter reiterated that in a season which all of us find ‘too too’ for one reason or another, a smile, a hello, a quick laugh, and any indication someone remembers us positively can make a difference for a couple of hours.

Again, nothing I am saying is going to solve world peace. This is not new or unique but we so easily forget to enjoy in the business of our daily lives. A moment such as this won’t buy groceries, clean the litter box, or solve global warming. But each of us can brighten a day, even for a few seconds. Flowers do the same thing and we remember the joy they bring us but we often forget the human connection that the unexpected occasionally brings. Never underestimate what 90 seconds can do, either. Life is made of a string of small moments.

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