Welcome to 24 Days of Blogging, a yearly excercise in observation, comment and self-examination as the year comes to close (and an artificial way to boost the yearly post count) on themes of Christmas, technology , education, and whatever else comes to mind. I hope you enjoy the journey with me.
As I stepped out of my car this morning, I glanced down and saw a dollar bill on the pavement. Looking around, I saw no one near, and no obvious owner, so I pocketed the bill and continued on my way (if you feel this was act of thievery, I don’t know what to tell you…perhaps you had better stop reading because some of my other moral judgments will disturb you a lot more). As I walked on my way I felt an unmistakable sense of joy and excitement, that the whole day was blessed by this random act of currency.
Thinking about this reaction I had to wonder. I mean, honestly, what is a dollar to me? The single bill will have absolutely no impact on my day. So why am I feeling like I won the lottery? Sometimes I will get a nice check after a talk or workshop, but the excitement of that number doesn’t compare with finding a five in my pocket after the wash (a bill I will likely leave in another pair of pants later in the week.
The most obvious explanation is that it is the joy of surprise. I expected the check, I need the check, so though it is a blessing, it has been already integrated into my life before I receive it. I can feel satisfaction for a job well done or relief that I’ll have money to pay upcoming bills. However, this is the logical cause and effect of life. Though I am very lucky to do the things I do and to have people value them, I “deserve” the check or my salary. This dollar on the ground was unmerited and unexpected, so it can’t help but feel like a cosmic “atta boy.” It is a undiluted bright moment in a day filled with its own concerns and worries (including what I was going to write about this morning…which it also seems to have answered). It is the surprising hand of joy in the midst of the mundane.
A second thought I had my though, and this is something I was thinking about yesterday and will be writing about in a later post, has to do with our reactions to the micro and the macro. It seems at times our reactions to small experiences are more authentic (and often more intense) than our reactions to large events. Receiving a nice check will make me feel good, but not really joyful. This dollar on the pavement drew me completely out of everything I was thinking and was an unmitigated positive experience, beyond questioning or analysis (ok, I hear you saying “so what are you doing in this post, then?”). There are no thoughts as there are with the check of what it can be used for (or the darker side, wondering if it should have been more). Tying ideas from my last post of 2015 to this, this is an example of mirth, unexplained, undefined, unmerited joy.
It is my dearest hope that maybe one or two of these posts might prove that “dollar on the pavement” for the (exceedingly small) audience that reads them. I leave them to be found, hoping they will bring joy.
BTW…I decided to put the dollar into the tip jar at my Starbucks…it feels it was meant for them.
Whew! the first post is always the hardest…right?
As always, I welcome your comments.
Is the tip jar at Starbucks a modern day “poor box?” Well written.