Cooped
I’ll start today by saying that I find the art of miming a very strange thing. When someone does it well, like Marcel Marceau, it is undeniably magical and can be very entertaining. But somehow, it also quickly becomes annoying and widely despised. I am among those who ridicule it but I’m not sure why that is. The same thing is true for clowns in public spaces but that’s because they often attempt to engage passersby who do not want to be engaged and, accompanied by the fact that they are almost never funny or entertaining at all, it becomes easy to see why they are widely despised. But I’m not sure mimes are the same thing. Maybe it’s just because most people have an agenda when out in public and it usually doesn’t include stopping to appreciate street performers, which is more our fault for not enjoying the moment instead of racing to complete our tasks than it is theirs for trying to entertain us.
The other thing that occurred to me while drawing the above cartoon is that self-isolation, like all of life, is a test of our mindset. Researchers have found that happiness is directly tied to expectations. If you expect your life to be perfect, you will always be unhappy because nobody gets a perfect life. If you expect nothing, whatever you get is more than you thought you were getting, so you’re happy about that. This touches on what Buddhism is sort of about, I think.
Having lived for years in both the U.S. and Mexico, I’ve seen this dynamic play out firsthand. Here in Mexico, most folks know they’re not going to get substantially more than they already have. As a result, they tend to be happy with simple things—music, good food, their relationships with family and friends, the satisfaction that comes from hard work and a few fiestas each week—and they don’t waste time hoping for fancy material possessions or fabulous vacations in exotic locations.
On the other side of that equation is the United States, which since the mid-1900s has been pitching America as the place where anyone can be a success, have it all, rise to the top, enjoy the finest things in life, and if you’re not getting all that, you’re just not working hard enough. This blatantly false sales pitch has led to a nation in which an inordinate number of people are unhappy, anxious, and up to their eyeballs in debt. The numbers of people on antidepressants and those addicted to opioids and alcohol, as well as the high incidence of obesity and credit card debt (retail therapy) attest to this. In the U.S., if you don’t have a super cool apartment, car, clothes, and accessories, it is easy to feel like a loser.
This is merely my opinion based on what I’ve read and experienced, of course, but what I’m getting at is that we tend to build our own invisible boxes, like the mime above. If I think of all the things I thought I’d have one day but don’t, it brings me down. If I compare my career and my bank account with Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, I can feel like a failure. If I think of all the things I can’t do during the pandemic, I can go stir crazy. These habits tend to build a mental box that’s pretty shitty to inhabit.
On the other hand, if I think about the things I’m grateful for, the wonderful friends, neighbors, and family members I have in my life that could be taken away from me at any moment, and the fact that there are millions of FAR worse places in the world to be self-isolating, it builds a box that actually makes me feel happy and hopeful about where I find myself these days, even though my options are currently limited.
I hope you’re faring well during this strange time and are enjoying the small moments that life regularly tosses at us but that we’re frequently too busy to notice. Among other things, the pandemic has taught me that it really is the little things that matter.
Let’s check in with Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons from this week and see what little things he’s been up to…
You can usually find Waldo hanging out in a crowd outside of the ugly clothing store.
What if you’re going to have several gobs? Do they offer it in a tub?
If he eats his batteries with salt, there’s a very bad pun to be had.
I just want to know where he got the vertical pie storage trench coat. I could really use one.
This is a scene from the Tell-Tale Screw. Don’t ask.
The Earth lost Little Richard last week. His energy and irreverent flamboyance were a big part of what rock and roll was about for people of my generation. Wayno says some interesting things about Little Richard on his weekly cartoon blog, and he includes an early video of Tutti Frutti. Go sneak a peek and come back for the rest of this one.
We’ve completed another rotation around planet chuckles, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for manning mission control for us. If you like what we do and that we do it for free, without ads or a paywall, please consider supporting us via one of the links below.
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Until next time, be smart, be happy, be nice, and resist the Dunning-Kruger Party.
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