You are free to take the cartoon however you like, but I feel compelled to say that I intend it in a spirit of camaraderie. It's an incredibly stressful time — the fires, the floods, the ongoing pandemic, all whipped into a frenzy by the upcoming election. I'm with you. I feel you.
So when I read the headline this week, "Rare mosquito-borne virus suspected in Michigan," I thought, "Yeah, that seems about right." I laughed and then went looking for something that would cheer me up.
I think most of us have certain go-tos (songs, videos, stories, etc.) that we have seen or heard over and over and yet they always bring the joy. One of mine is "Learn to Fly" by the Foo Fighters. Specifically, the video of the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JozAmXo2bDE">1000 people playing the song back in 2015. A young man, Fabio Zaffagnini, wanted to have his favorite band come play a concert in his hometown of Cesena, Italy. So he organized an effort to have 1,000 musicians play "Learn to Fly" in the hopes of attracting enough attention to make it happen. (Spoiler alert: It did.) The video just fills my heart.
A day or two ago I happened to catch the recent story of Dave Grohl, founder of the Foo Fighters, who wrote a song for a 10 year-old girl, Nandi Bushell. She had recently beaten him in a drum-off competition, and he took the time to acknowledge her incredible talent. Again, fully filled heart.
All that to say, there are a lot of truly terrible things going on right now. A little humor and a bit of joy can go a long way toward making it tolerable.
John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.
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