Would You Rather be Thor, or Happy?

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it. They must not do too much of it. And they must have a sense of success in it. John Ruskin, Philosopher

My first visit to Montana took place sometime in the 1960s. I was a young teen and our family made the trip from Seattle up to someplace near Whitefish to visit with friends. We had a delightful time wandering through the woods and go-carting around their property. 

The weather was hot and dusty, so we washed down a lot of that dust with cold, refreshing lemonade (and totally ignored the grime with which our bodies had become caked). We knew we’d get a bath or shower sometime down the road, but that wasn’t anything for teenage boys and/or girls to worry over whilst out and about on vacation.

When night fell, we kids decided to sleep outside under the Big Sky. We had no desire to spend those delightful hours of darkness indoors listening to the adults yammer on and on about things that certainly don’t interest teens.

We explored the stars, finding and identifying the Big Dipper, Orion’s belt, the North Star, and other astronomical phenomena. I’m sure we saw a few shooting stars, too, before the forces of gravity and fatigue pulled our eyelids into the closed and locked condition more commonly known as sleep. I do recall seeing some lightning off in the distance, over the mountains. Michael, leader of we night-time porch-tenders, told us it was heat lightning, so we gave it no further thought.

At least we gave it no further notice until the stars disappeared, having been (apparently) replaced by storm clouds. We were awakened by a symphonic explosion of thunder and lightning direct from Thor himself, and a downpour against which Noah’s little adventure surely paled in comparison! In the nano-second or two it took us to jump up (still cocooned in our sleeping bags) and scramble into the house (if hopping madly in the aforementioned sleep-sacks counts as “scrambling”), we were so drenched the Loch Ness Monster would have seemed as dry as a Gila Monster in comparison!

Memories.

As we approach the holiday season, it occurs to me that we adults tend to focus on everything we need to “do.” There are gifts to purchase and/or ship; there are meals to plan and buy for. Our helpful news media remind us how much more these things will “cost” compared to a year, decade, or century ago. Mental health advocates will provide us with checklists of things to do or avoid to keep the holidays as stress free as possible (as if having one more checklist to go over will reduce that stress). And, of course, there is all the travel that needs doing, and all the complications the travel industry, staffing, and weather will impose upon those who really want to get from point A to B, and back again in a timely manner.

It’s funny, and I’d never really thought of it this way before, but as kids, we had “staff” to take care of all those details. They were our parents and guardians. Maybe we were relegated to the back seats of the car, but so is the President. So is the Pope! Our parents managed our calendars, our meals, our transportation, packing, etc. We simply got to enjoy the ride. And our jobs, when you got right down to it, was to keep busy and stay out of trouble. Our parents patched our wounds, kissed our boo-boos, and always sent us back out to chase butterflies, get dirty, and keep on keeping on.

I think the key to a happier holiday season is to simply take a step back and accept what it is we’re “fit for,” not do too much of it, and have a sense of accomplishment when it’s done. Forget trying to have (or make) a “perfect” holiday season. “Perfect is the enemy of good” (so be good for goodness sake). 

Let God be God. Do what you can, don’t do too much, and appreciate what you’ve done here in this, our valley. Do that, and you’ll not become a Thor loser, even if it storms on your holiday.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)