PEBBLE
Life is not a struggle. It’s a wiggle.
-Peter McWilliams, shared by Teri in Santa Rosa, CA (who found this gem in a fortune cookie!)
BOULDER
Whenever you have the opportunity to throw silly into the world, do it. Life is a battle, and silly is a rest.
-Russell Howard, shared by Emily in Carlow, Ireland
PONDER
So last week in Ripples #1214, I missed a small typo that significantly altered the meaning of the sentence it was in. It read (emphasis added here), “The reality is that we cannot push toothpaste back into the tube, WE CAN force a hermit crab back into a shell that it has outgrown.” That last part was was supposed to read, “NOR CAN WE force a hermit crab back into a shell that it has outgrown.”
It wasn’t end of the world and I’m guessing most people either didn’t notice it, or figured it out just fine. And as far as I know, no hermit crabs were harmed because someone took the statement as both correct and literal.
But when it was initially pointed out to me? OHHHH did I fret about it! I scolded myself for not catching it during the two times I proofread it, and repeatedly berated myself for not having a better system in place to prevent errors like this from reaching 30,000 readers. And then I took a breath and said, “ooh Paul…maybe lighten up a little?”
Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously.
Sometimes we take life too seriously.
Whenever possible, let’s try to lighten things up a bit this week, shall we? Maybe we can try to be a little more silly than serious, more goofy than grumpy?
And if you do happen to encounter someone who is extra “crabby” this week–please forgive them as quickly as you can. It is possible that their mood was caused by last week’s typo and they tried to force themselves into a smaller space than they were meant to be in.
Peace,
Paul
P.S. Happy Labor Day. Happy Labour Day, too!
