The comic strip is about a short yet oozingly meaningful talk I had with a friend of mine.
One lazy Tuesday morning, as our crew was having our ever-important customary McDonald’s coffee break and daily chit chats and banters, a conversation suddenly sparked amongst the group. One of the guys, my good friend (let’s just call him Big Daddy D) blurted something out. “I had a perfect day yesterday Jasper…how about you?” I got curious. Nowadays, how often do you hear someone say “I had a perfect day”? In world headlined by newsfeeds from our smart phones, stuffed with negativity, rants about every speck of issue, war and whining about this and that…then you suddenly hear “I had a perfect day”. I had no answer but “I had a good day”. He has a “Perfect” day? How can my “Good” measure to it?
It got me baffled. What is a perfect day? How can you brand a day “Perfect” when it is always clouded by petty things that we worry about? Somehow, the situation bothered me. If I cannot define “perfect”, how can I live a “perfect” day? This guy sitting right beside me must have figured everything out about life because he has “perfect days”. I was envious.
I then asked Big Daddy D, “What is a perfect day?” Without hesitation, he answered:
“I wake up 5:00 in the morning, I watch TV then I eat a toast and drink, then get my work boots, and my gear, my safety vest, then walk to the bus stop, then ride the bus to the Treehouse, then I work and bug everyone I know, then at 2:00 time to go home, take a warm shower, sit outside, eat my dinner, think about my friends, what they are doing, then at 7:00 I go to sleep, dream about my girlfriend Sandra Bullock, riding my Harley Davidson to the sunset, come visit you and run you over with my bike bwahahahaha”
Straight up. No second thoughts. He answered my question without falter. That is his perfect day. It was a beautiful moment. A myriad of thoughts stormed my mind.
I asked him then, “What can you do to make the next day perfect again?”
He just answered, “Do the same thing again, happy, happy, happy”
I drooled at the simplicity of his answer. How can something like the “perfection of life” be that simple? How can someone infuse such wisdom into a phrase? It felt like I was talking to an enlightened soul. (Well, taking into consideration what his words just did to me, perhaps he is enlightened). It made me rethink about my life, my priorities and my views. I realized that we all have the ability to make our days perfect. If my buddy D can do it, why can’t I? Why can’t I have a perfect day every day? He marked everything we take for granted as pieces to his “perfect day” puzzle. Why can I not do this? I better get started on having these “perfect days” for I may have missed out on my first 30 years. I should do an inventory of daily blessings I get. Perhaps, time will come I can answer the question “what is a perfect day” with such fervor. Pretty much like how confidently Big Daddy D answered the same question. For now, I have to work on doing that. Practice and live a perfect day.
Sure, we will still be hounded by problems quintessential to our existence. But taking them as vital parts of our lives, with a view that explodes with rainbows of optimism and ponies of appreciation, then maybe we will be less burdened. I read somewhere that “Thoughts alter reality”. Then positive thoughts then can make my reality bright and shiny, the same way my good old friend D thinks of things around him as perfect, ergo making his life perfect.
The mere fact that we are alive, breathing and able to love is enough to spark our zest for life. That is what I learned from my friend. Appreciation of things at hand is always a struggle for we are bound to forget. There will be days that appreciation is the last thing that we might choose to feel for we are facing the haze of negativity, pain, fear and disappointment. But at the end of the day, appreciation is just around the corner, waiting for our call, earnestly wanting to help us to have our “perfect day”
I work in an environment where I am supposed to support people with disabilities and yet on a day like this, I felt supported. Thank you D, you old Goat! I owe you a senior coffee double double.
By Jasper Macabulos — Support Worker with Employment, Training and Support Services at Semiahmoo House Society
Semiahmoo House Society, a non-profit organization located in Surrey/White Rock, exists to provide quality services and supports to people with disabilities and their families in the community. The Semiahmoo Foundation exists to fund, support and enhance the programs and services delivered by Semiahmoo House Society.