On levity.

Things remain mind-bendingly awful. Unless you’ve just now woken up from a coma that began in, I don’t know, let’s say 2013???, I don’t need to enumerate the ongoing horrors for you. On top of all of that, there were layoffs at my job in the last week—not me, but many loved and valued folks so, nonetheless, sucks. Also, It’s so fucking cold out and I hate it! Everything, sincerely and from the bottom of my heart: STOP.

And yet, at the office the other day, we unearthed a five-foot-tall plastic skeleton from a closet, dressed it in some company swag, and paraded it around like it was a dear friend. I sort of marveled, for a minute, at the comradery it inspired. A kind of shared mania induced by a very stupid thing—this excuse, for a minute, to be nothing but silly.

People were genuinely delighted to see the skeleton. They gave it accessories, took pictures holding it or standing aside it with one arm around its shoulders. We decided to name it skelly. Someone gave it a gentle kiss on the head.

what if i make my outlook picture the skeleton, I messaged a colleague. And so, here I am. A fully deranged husk of a person, whittled to nothing but bones—and yet! Laughing, still, in spite of everything.