Musical magic

With 5.7 million views as of this morning, this is three minutes of pure joy. I've watched it several times this morning since my sweetheart showed it to me. My favorite parts come around 1:13 and 2:26.

Is anything more capable of producing joy than music?

Kudos, of course, to Family of the Year for the original song and to Richard Linklater for using it in 2013's best movie.

Easily amused

Early today, I realized it was January 5, 2015. That is: 1-5-15.

This made me ridiculously happy -- just as I was easily amused last Dec. 13. (12-13-14.) It apparently makes other people happy, too, since more than a dozen people promptly "liked" my Facebook post, "Happy 1-5-15."

One of them remarked that I must be one of those people who sees patterns in numbers. Not so much. Another friend said he'd be really excited by 3-14-15, and I didn't even get it until he explained that not only will that be Pi Day, but it'll be the special once-a-century Pi Day in which March 14 falls on a year ending in 15. (To which another math-minded friend mentioned how it'll be especially cool to experience 3-14-15 at 9:26:53 a.m.)

I was a poor math student, but I do like design and I especially dig order, which must be why patterned dates delight me to no end. (Did you know that for some non-theistic people, GOD actually stands for Good Orderly Design? That makes total sense to me; I understand Good Orderly Direction is another favorite in AA circles.)

I think it's healthy to be so easily amused. I'm getting hungry right about now, too ...

Reasons for hope

A few years ago, I briefly worked for a climate-related nonprofit. It was generally not a happy place to be. I labored in Idaho politics -- in paid roles and as a volunteer -- for about 10 years before that and left for the same reason: You can only bang your head against the wall for so long.

These days, I am an informed voter, but beyond that, I avoid politics. I figure a) I did my time in the trenches; b) I don't see the current gridlock going away soon; and c) I am simply far happier when I'm not immersed in the day-to-day Machiavellian minutiae in which I marinated for so long.

This morning, while listening to KUOW, I heard a roundup of environmental news from the past year and was surprised how much I'd missed. (In my defense, the huge holes in the Siberian tundra appeared during my annual mid-July media sabbatical.) Yet I was happy to hear that, although the climate situation remains serious, there is reason for hope. The U.S. and China have a new climate agreement and the ozone layer is starting to repair itself. I went online to try and find a link to the story and I couldn't locate it. But I found this.

It's always possible to dwell on what's wrong in the world. For me, for now, anyway, it feels better and healthier to focus on and celebrate the good news. I'm pulling for this baby orca. I'm glad to live in a state with forward-looking leadership. The world is an amazing place.