Right on the front of a napkin

Truth in print
Knoxville, TN
January 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Some days I struggle to find the funny. Or the light. Or the little spark of something that reassures me everything is going to be ok.

It's especially difficult these days, because we live in such disconnected times, where we no longer have the luxury of actual face-time with a colleague, or a walk through the park to talk things through.

Virtual get-togethers, online games with colleagues and friends, trivia nights, and streamed concerts from our driveways can certainly help add some color to the grey. But Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and others just can't replicate being there, and we lose something when all interactions are screen-based.

Every once in a while I come across a sliver of something in my archives that reminds me there's still lots of kindness out there. Somewhere deep in some hotel chain's hierarchy, someone decided to order napkins with inspirational sayings.

While the cynic in me says it's just branding, the human in me dismisses the cynicism. I'd rather focus on the meeting where this was first pitched, and the fun these folks must have had making a simple idea come to life for thousands of people they'd likely never meet.

I took this photo a few months ago, and it resonates particularly strongly today. Because you're pretty neat, as are we all. And we need to allow ourselves to revel in that simple fact more often than we do.

I know a napkin won't fix the world. But maybe it's in nooks and crannies like this one that the process must first take root.

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