The Best Books Club: Awesome!

You couldn’t escape the recent solar eclipse even if you tried. In the weeks leading up to the event, local shops showcased commemorative T-shirts and memorabilia, businesses offered special promotions, and media outlets bombarded us with tips about where and how to safely watch the show in the sky. And on the big day, social media feeds were filled with pictures of backyard watch parties, people wearing funny cardboard sunglasses and the eclipse itself.

A month later, social media was filled not by photos of an eerily Midnight-dark sky in the middle of the afternoon, but of a nighttime sky filled with an array of colors not typically seen in the heavens above Southeast Missouri.

For a few minutes or more, these phenomena distracted us from the world around us. From terrorism and wars, from skyrocketing expenses and crime, from political squabbling and campus unrest.

Then the sun reappeared, the dazzling colors faded. So did our amazement, our sense of awe and wonder. And back we went to paying bills, folding laundry and checking off items on our to-do lists.

Sigh.

In “The Book of Awesome,” Neil Pasricha explains awe-inspiring things are not uncommon — we are, in fact, surrounded by them. Crucial to our experiencing them, he shares, is intentionality in noticing — even looking for — the awesomeness that abounds in the course of our everyday lives.

The other side of the pillow, for example. No doubt we’ve all had a night when sleep eludes us. We count our blessings, change position repeatedly, lay motionless and relax our bodies a bit at a time. Covers off, covers on … until mounting frustration causes us to grab our pillow, punch and squeeze it a few times, and flip it over. Ahhhh … the cool side of the pillow. Awesome, right?

And no doubt every one of us have experienced the awesomeness of remembering a name — of a person, a restaurant, a song, a book — that has been on the tip of our tongue but just out of reach for a few minutes.

I don’t know about you, but the past six months have been the cherry on the top of my own personal “difficult sundae.” For a while, I felt mired in pain and loss and general yuckiness.

But then I discovered “The Book of Awesome” and savored one entry every morning. What I found: Meditations on dangerous playground equipment, that one square in the waffle that’s the most loaded with butter and syrup, generational dancing at weddings, sweatpants, the tabs at the end of tin foil boxes I didn’t even know existed. Trust me, it’s awesome!

I smiled, even laughed out loud, as I read and often nodded my head not only in recognition but also in honor of an entry’s awesomeness. And I noticed I began to be more aware of the awesome in my own everyday life. For example, hitting every green light on Broadway from Kingshighway all the way to Main Street. Holding one of my grandchildren on my lap as we went down a slide at Melania’s Magical Playground. The courtesy and joyous smile of Larissa, the little girl who held the door open for me one afternoon at the library and excitedly told me books are full of happiness and are “the most awesomest thing in the world.”

The eclipse and the Northern Lights were indeed awesome. But you and I are surrounded by awesome every day. Thank you, Neil Pasricha, for reminding me of that.

And Larissa, you’re absolutely right!

__What we’ll be discussing during our Facebook Live chat in The Best Books Club on The Best Years Facebook page at 4 p.m. Monday, June 3:__

1. What constitutes “awesomeness” to you?

2. Which of Pasricha’s “awesome" selections spoke most to you?

3. How did Pasricha’s book impact you? Do you see the world differently after reading it? Have you done something differently?

4. What do you think keeps us from seeing all of the awesome things in the world and in the people around us?

5. What is the most awesome thing you have encountered throughout the past 48 hours?

__Up Next__

Summer is here, and even if you’re spending it on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi, it’s time for a beach read! And what better selection for The Best Books Club than a book about a book club?

Don’t let the title fool you, though: “The Lonely Hearts Book Club” (Lucy Gilmore, 2023) is not a romance novel. So, pick up a copy at the Cape Public Library or your favorite book seller, pour your favorite summer beverage, and enjoy our July selection.

Patti Miinch, a resident of Cape Girardeau, is an author, mother and mother-in-law of two, grandmother of five and retired educator; while she has many loves, spending time with her family, sports, travel and reading top the list.