Ten Good Things

Let's put cynicism aside for a moment. Ouch. It's hard. Deep breath. Here we go......Ten things that really do ease the insanity of the world.

1 - Seeing parents being kind and loving towards their little kids. When I see a guy in a mall with his little 5 year-old tagging along, and I hear Dad say with obvious affection, "Hey buddy, how are you doing?", I immediately feel better.

2 - Music. One of the world's saviours, music allows us to get lost in ourselves, and takes us, however briefly, completely off the hook from the madness that usually surrounds us. Everlasting thanks to rock and roll, especially The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

3 - Movies. Serves the same purpose as music, only with a different cast. And like music, you have to sift through the junk to find the good stuff, but it's well worth it.

4 - Books. Fantasy in fiction, and knowledge in non-fiction. A perfect break from the action.

5 - Spring Training baseball game in Lakeland, Florida. A classic way to hide from the world.

6 - Playing catch. The end of "Field of Dreams", where Kevin Costner plays catch with the spirit of his father, may be corny, but it does inspire goosebumps, and not just because it's the classic father and son bonding moment. More to the point - playing catch is just so much damn fun. Maybe it's my love of baseball, but I think anyone, sports fan or not, cannot find many activities more serene or perfect than tossing around a baseball.

7 - Junior Hockey in Kitchener, Ontario. Winter at its very best.

8 - David Letterman and "Seinfeld". Eternally silly, goofy, and really, really funny.

9 - Sitting near a beach, or a lake, and staring at the water. I don't like actually going into the water, but looking at it from a safe distance provides one heck of a peaceful feeling.

10 - Live concerts. If you love the artist, you can become immersed in the moment in a way that no one but you can really understand.