In my dreams, I know my grandmother is dead. She does too, and yet there she is from time to time, looking radiant in the same sea foam green pantsuit she wore to countless concerts and birthday dinners. The silver and coral strands around her neck, in waking, rest in my own jewelry box now. It all sounds much sadder than it is. She’s been gone for almost three years, but that lends an incandescent joy to those dreaming moments, like seeing a cherished friend in a crowd, miles and miles from where you parted, in a time when you never thought you’d see them again. Hands clasp, we look over each other’s smiling faces with awe. “I can’t believe you’re here,” I might say. “I’m so glad to see you,” she might say. Sometimes I see my father too, sharing a seat with me on the old train we rode in Skagway, or my husband’s brother beaming at the finish line of a long race, face flushed with happiness.
Okay, maybe it’s sad. But it’s not. It’s really not.
I thought about these things after reading that Olivia Newton John’s family says she has visited them as a blue orb in the year since her death. My first instinct was one of protectiveness. “How am I doing? Well, my mom occasionally shows up as a floating blue orb, just like she promised” is a bold thing to say. My amazing colleague John Blake also wrote on this subject in 2021, speaking to people who, after losing loved ones to Covid, still felt their keen presence in a song, a whiff of perfume, or the flicker of a lamplight.
I want to give all of these people a hug because I know the easiest way to meet these accounts is with doubt. After all, it’s impossible to prove causation between a lost loved one and the blips of a power grid. Dreams are likely just our brain sorting stray thoughts like a robot at a recycling plant. Strange things show up in pictures sometimes. Of course people make meaning where they want to see it.
But isn’t that how meaning is made? If someone has an experience that speaks to them, it doesn’t matter if other people believe it or how unlikely it may seem. Who are we to say Olivia Newton-John’s soul doesn't take orb form or whether people actually do punch through the veil to flit across the porch railing as a fat, red cardinal? I believe it, because meaning is alchemy. We are keeping love alive with just a thought, and something in the world is helping us do it. Is that not magic to you?
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Our favorites this week
Get going with some of our most popular good news stories of the week
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Dolls for all
Barbara Lakin, a former fashion designer in New York City, spends a lot of time playing with dolls. She sews them tiny new dresses, dyes and styles their hair and generally gives worn-out old Barbies a new life. However, these dolls serve a bigger purpose: Lakin is a volunteer with Team TLC NYC, an organization that meets migrants upon their arrival in the city and provides them with necessities and other forms of aid. In March, the organization also opened the Little Shop of Kindness, where the migrants can shop for free and young migrant girls can receive the Barbies that Lakin so lovingly refurbishes. Lakin also does her best to source Barbies and dolls besides the stereotypical blondes, so the migrant children get dolls that look more like them. It's a small gesture, but Lakin says seeing children receive their own little piece of hope in the midst of so much change makes a big difference.
Read the whole story here.
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Championing a cause
Golf champion Collin Morikawa has announced he will donate $1,000 for every birdie he makes on the PGA Tour this month to support those affected by the devastating wildfires in Maui, Hawaii. Though Morikawa was born and raised in California, his family emigrated to Maui from Japan. So far, he's added at least $6,000 to the pot and has encouraged sponsors, supporters and friends to add to the pledge. “The people of Hawaii are going to need all the support that we can give them," he wrote in an Instagram post. He says the funds he raises will go to support Maui United Way and World Central Kitchen.
Read the whole story here.
Plus, here are more ways to help those affected by the Hawaii fires.
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Tee hee!
What happens when you tickle a rat? A whole lot of scientifically significant things, apparently. Researchers at Humboldt University in Berlin tickled and played with rats to get a better understanding of their brain function and collect observations about the importance of play. While most animals have some form of play, it's not something researchers say they understand in depth. Among the takeaways: Rats laugh, and not just when they play. They laugh when they're (gently, briefly) tickled, too. “Rats really love to be tickled,” one of the researchers said. It's not all fun and games, though. Learning more about play and how it affects the brain lets us know more about an animal's health in general, and could yield important insights about how we learn, grow and adapt.
Read the whole story here.
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In rural Ghana, the nearest hospital could be hours away, rendering even treatable conditions a matter of life and death. Osei Boateng grew up in one such rural village and felt a strong call to help. After studying biology at Cornell University and earning a master’s in Healthcare Administration, he started looking for a flexible way to tackle the problem. Boateng started his nonprofit, OKB Hope Foundation, and in 2021, he converted a van into a mobile doctor’s office to bring health care directly to those in need. A few times a week, the mobile clinic and a medical team travel to remote communities, running basic labs like bloodwork and urinalysis and providing medications. Since its launch, Boateng says the Hope Health Van has served more than 4,000 Ghanaians across more than 45 rural communities. To supplement the mobile clinic, Boateng’s organization has also trained 20 volunteers to serve as local health advocates.
Read the whole story here.
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Don't worry about the Leaning Tower of Pisa! I know it's in your thoughts every day, so this must be a relief. The wonky monument has long been feared to be in danger because of its precarious position, but its guardians recently gave it a clean bill of health as part of its 850th birthday celebration. “Today the bell tower is a stable monument,” Andrea Maestrelli, the president of Opera della Primaziale Pisana, the 1,000-year-old body that looks after the cathedral complex that includes the tower, said this week. That wasn’t always the case. In the early 1990s, the tower reached a lean of 4.5 degrees and fears for its stability led to an international effort to stop it from toppling over. Now, experts say its future is “bright,” with satellite and terrestrial surveillance currently keeping tabs on even the slightest shift in its position. That makes the famous bell tower one of the most monitored monuments in the world. Phew!
Read the whole story here.
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To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but…
If we're not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?
- Gregory Orr, poet |
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Rec of the week
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Shameless animal video
There's always time for cute animal videos. That time is now.
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