Splash No. 196 - Celebration
Celebration
When I started running again last year, I discovered that the best way to get myself to enjoy the run was the Guided Runs on Nike Run Club, where a slightly-too-cheerful running coach gives motivational advice about running, but also about life. During my most recent run, Coach Bennett (my favorite slightly-too-cheerful running coach) explained that this was a celebration run because there are never enough celebrations in life. At first, the premise seemed kooky, but I had heard enough of Bennett’s spiels to know that there was something there. All it took for me to really get why I would need to use a run as a celebration was a single question, “when was the last time you really celebrated something in your life?”
I racked my brain, dusting away the cobwebs of my memories, and thinking as hard as I could while doing my best not to trip over my own feet or get hit by a bicycle. After a few minutes of digging deep into the bowels of my brain, I couldn’t come up with anything other than Christmas, which was nearly 3 months ago, and almost a cop-out of an answer. Christmas and other holidays were celebrations, but they weren’t always celebrations of our own lives or our own achievements. Most of the time, they were done, at least in part, out of obligation, and that’s no way to celebrate at all!
I could never ever have predicted what life would be like for myself as a 24-year-old. My high-school-self would be utterly confused that I would learn to love and obsess over writing and that I’d finally figure out what poetry was. I’d be gobsmacked to discover that I had become a designer, and I totally wouldn’t have predicted a global pandemic would throw all possible wrenches in all possible plans. And so, I find myself wondering why I imagine that there will be some time in the future that I’ll sit down and celebrate all that I’ve done and accomplished so far. To quote Seneca, “You are arranging what lies in Fortune's control, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you looking at? To what goal are you straining? The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.”
So what if my version of living immediately is celebrating more? Sure, we talk about living in the moment and appreciating that, but that feels too muted in the face of the uncertainty of life. Even if we don’t throw huge parties over every little thing, we could all afford to spend more of our time celebrating what we have. We can pat ourselves on the back and each other on the back! We can do bigger things and smaller things, but there’s always more room to celebrate.
I liked this quote by David Cain, “We are always living in some version of the Good Old Days. If we don’t consciously recognize the greatness that is happening now, whatever it is, we will recognize it only once it’s become a thing we can remember but no longer experience.” On TikTok, some people have been reposting content from 2020, in the early days of the pandemic, and the comments are filled with wistful sighs, missing the simplicity of the shared fascination with Tiger King or that coffee that took too much effort to make. Even amongst everything else going on, there was something to be missed. But why only in hindsight? Could we not stare this lovingly at our current selves, our current loves, our current coffees, and find ways to celebrate them in the same ways?
This morning, nursing my second set of cold symptoms in two weeks, a great song came on and I danced in the mirror, stank faces and all, looking as stupid as possible, and just enough to have a good time. I danced to the music, I danced to the fact that my body could move, I danced to the taste of my mom’s food that filled my freezer, I danced to finishing a draft of my first long-form piece for publication, I danced to the warmth of the sun and the chill of the night, I danced to celebrate.
Drops of the Week
PLAYLIST - songs i've called "the greatest song of all time" - I use a lot of hyperbole and call every song I really like "the greatest song of all time."
BONUS SONG - "Startn" Up by OHGEESY - (the one that I was dancing to)
ARTICLE - "The Video Essay Boom" by Terry Nguyen - video essays are one of the cooler and weirder things on the internet these days. Some are incredible and some are absolutely terrible, but it's an enjoyable way to learn more about literally any topic!
POEM - "i’m going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense" by Danez Smith - a beautiful ode to feelings of place and home
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Jubilantly,
Nikhil