Needle, Meet Haystack

Hey guys, got a bit of bad news.  Today’s post was seized by Canadian customs and deemed “inappropriate for the purpose of creating a false scapegoat to explain why there’s no post today.”  Just terrible, eh?

New post this evening or Wednesday morning.

When I was sitting in the Toronto airport (Pearson, for all you airport story completists out there) this past week on a five hour layover, I noticed something about people that I’d never really paid much attention to before: everyone waits differently.

When we’re sitting around, anticipating the arrival of anything, from a sandwich and coffee to a plane coming in, we engage in certain behaviors that are unique to each and every one of us.

Some people prefer the traditional toe tap.

Others will fall asleep.

Some will run around, screaming and being chased (these are usually toddlers).

There are those who paint a look of annoyance and grumpiness on their faces.

Many will zone out to do work, not even conscious of what they’re waiting for.

The occasional person will walk to and fro, looking for things to do to pass the time.

And some people stuff their faces with as much food and drink as possible during the interim, loudly chomping, spraying bits of partially-chewed detritus all over.

These patterns say something about us: how we deal with stress and excitement, how we control our anticipation, and how we focus.  Waiting styles are small vignettes that can tell us stories about other people, where they came from, and what they’re like.

And as for my waiting style?  I just tried to get some work done while staying away from the airport bars.

“I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles.” – Pete (Paul Rudd), Knocked Up

Do you remember being thrilled by the smallest things when you were a kid?  Like playing with the box your toys came in more than the toys themselves.  Maybe you just ran around in the backyard with imaginary friends.  Or maybe you turned an empty paper towel tube into a sword, telescope, cane, magic wand, or drumstick (with the help of a second tube, of course).  Perhaps you made up stories with your dolls or action figures, having Destro and the Shredder team up to fight Batman and He-Man.*  You were fascinated by anything and everything, eager to explore the world, whether that meant that the world was your bedroom, the backyard, your neighborhood, or somewhere entirely new.

So what happened?  As we grew older, cynicism and realism replaced curiosity and wonder.  We exchanged fascination for perspective, traded in joyful exuberance for haughty indifference.  Ask anyone to discuss something that they’re passionate about, and you might see a flicker of that old childhood happiness.

But for anyone who wants to recapture the spirit of youth, there are two choices: reversion or expansion.

Reversion is something that we’ve dealt with before in the form of revertigo.  But rather than just experiencing it with friends, we can experience it with things.  But I’m not talking about going out to get a DVD box set of an old cartoon favorite (He-Man kinda sucks in retrospect, fyi) – I’m talking about diving in headfirst, completely unironically, without the pretensions of “retro cool,” into something that you used to love.

I do this with comic books, in case you haven’t noticed (explicit examples can be found here, here and here, lesser examples here, here and to a lesser degree, here), and lemme tell ya – it works.  Every time I crack open a four-color adventure (or a black and white one, if you know what I mean), it returns me to the joyful escapist days of my youth.  And that infectious energy has at least a short-term transitive effect on whatever else I’m doing, be it blogging, working, making music, or relaxing.

But the problem with reversion is that the more you use it, the less potent it becomes.  So you might want to go the other way, with expansion.

While reversion is all about going back to how things were and reliving memories, expansion is all about trying new things and getting the feelings back.  And while it’s more effective and has a greater influence, it’s also riskier and has a larger chance of failure, especially since the results are not guaranteed in any capacity.

Here’s a couple of examples of how expansion works.  Since its triggers can be different for every person, these come from myself and some friends.

• Spend the entire day pretending to be a foreign tourist (complete with accent).  Do the things that you would normally do, but come up with a complete back-story, and stay in character at all times.
• Burst into song in public.  This works especially well if you have a cohort of friends, as you can harmonize.
• Try out something you always wanted to do.  This can be anything from having ice cream for breakfast to buying that toy you always wanted but never got.

Expansion is all about moving outside of your comfort zone, wish fulfillment, and experimentation.  One of the best examples I’ve seen recently is over at Sydney Owen’s blog, with her new love, skydiving.

Sydney started out talking a bit about having wanted to go skydiving, then having done it, then to talking about it with alarming frequency, to getting to the point where her passion for it has literally consumed her entire blog.  Her last month and a half’s worth of posts have only been about that subject.  And you can tell that she’s enraptured with it.  She’s found a new outlet that lets her recapture the feeling that so many of us struggle to find.

So if you’re looking for a bit of lost childhood, whether it’s due to a quarter-life crisis, a case of the mopeys, or just because, you’ve got some choices to make.  You can reconnect with your past self in ways that are familiar or brand new.  And while you don’t have to start reading comic books en masse or try jumping out of airplanes, you can probably find some way to make yourself smile.

Maybe you should try bubbles.

* Okay, I clearly have more experience with one side of that example than the other; sorry, ladies.

It happens once every year – for one week, a bunch of people on Facebook get excited about the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.  This annual event consists of the home of Mythbusters and, well, I’m not sure what else is on the Discovery Channel these days*, devoting an entire week to sharks.  And while I don’t mind getting to know more about our aquatic and toothy friends, I don’t really get why everyone goes so crazy over it, especially when many of said Facebook fans don’t watch it.

But, in an effort to follow the advice of 30 Rock‘s Tracy Jordan, I will “Live every week like it’s Shark Week,” or at least enough so that I can understand this phenomenon.  First, let’s figure out some lessons from the sharks themselves:

• Sharks have lots of teeth.  While this one is pretty obvious, consider what happens when a shark bites into something.  If that thing is hard, like a turtle shell, the shark will lose teeth.  But it has rows and rows of chompers, and very strong jaws.  So if it loses a few pearly whites in the pursuit of a meal, it doesn’t mind.  In fact, that might make the shark more determined (I don’t know for sure; I never studied marine psychology).  Through their teeth, sharks can teach us about resilience and commitment.
• Sharks can smell things very well underwater.  You’ve probably heard all about how sharks can smell blood from miles away in the open water.  Now, consider what that entails: determining exactly where the scent is coming from, swimming to the location as fast as possible, and fending off other predators to claim the prize.  Though it is but the first step in a long process, the shark’s olfactory workings share with us how to take action and commit to a plan.
• Sharks have skeletons made of cartilage.  As anyone who’s ever smushed their nose against glass or flicked their ears around knows, cartilage is both flexible and resilient.  Having an entire skeleton full of the stuff gives sharks the advantage of freer movement, less susceptibility to damage, and the ability to bounce back quickly from an injury.  It bends, but does not break, and easily returns to its original shape.  The skeleton of a shark offers an example of how it’s possible to be both flexible and firm when faced with stress.

Shark Week itself is another matter.  While the event itself has run for over 20 years, it’s gone through numerous changes that reflect not only the prevalence of the event itself, but the development of the Shark Week brand.  These changes offer insight into key branding strategies that have helped to make Shark Week, as one Facebook status message notes, “the most wonderful time of the year”:

• Cross-brand promotion.  Whereas Shark Week used to be a more insular event featuring shark-related nature shows, the theme has expanded to other programs, like shark-themed episodes of Mythbusters.  Discovery Channel leveraged the popularity of its different brands to bring new viewers and publicity to both programs.  While this could have backfired spectacularly, it instead became a success because the network decided that it’s okay to mix things up every once in a while, brand-wise.
• Adding new features.  For the first 16 years of its life, Shark Week didn’t have a host.  But once it could legally drive, the Discovery Channel added hosts, starting with members of its own programming at first, graduating to bigger names like this year’s host, Craig Ferguson.  By acknowledging the power of its brand, the Shark Week folks at Discovery were able to increase it even more by pulling in other powerful brands.
• Going crazy with promotions.  Look at this picture.  Seriously, look at it.  Would you want to ride in that pedicab?  OF COURSE YOU WOULD!  It’s like you’re riding in the mouth of a shark!  And promotions like that helped to make Shark Week ingrained in the public consciousness as a big event worth celebrating.  The event itself became successful in part because of Discovery’s willingness to be innovative with brand promotions.

So what does it mean to live every week like it’s Shark Week?

I have no idea.  But there are definitely a few lessons that can help us learn how to motivate and brand ourselves like Shark Week.

*I just remembered they have that show that’s super-awesome to watch while bored or intoxicated, Time Warp, where they show things happening in 300-style slow-motion sequences.  Oh, and Dirty Jobs is pretty great.