This week the news of the Ever Given, a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal took the Internet by storm. It’s causing massive delays in global shipping and losses upwards of $400M an hour. In the tradition of Boaty McBoatFace, the Internet has fully embraced this nautical comedic gold.
Is it just me or does this tiny excavator make you feel seen? After this past year’s reckoning with systemic racism, climate change, gun violence, and the pandemic, could there be a more perfect image to capture our current state? Everyone’s trying but the problems are so giant it all feels ridiculously ineffective. That’s how things go viral — it’s hilarious, but on some level feels deeply relatable and strikes true.
On the home front, the kids had major meltdowns on Wednesday. It’s been calm for awhile so we were probably due.
There are two young trees in front of our house that we’ve been watering with a bucket since our hose is too short. Watering started as a group effort because so much water is heavy, but it quickly became a task I did alone for a year before I decided it was time for the kids to make up for lost time. I delegated it back to them two weeks ago.
Week 1 went fine. Novelty helps, I think. 7yo mistakenly over-watered the plants by 20 gallons.
Week 2: things go off the rails. Both children come storming inside in anger. Through his tears, 7yo tells me what happened in bursts. The gist: his sister wasn’t doing her share of the work, possibly pinched him and told him he had to be her servant. After he described what happened with the trees, other grievances started to pour out, some unrelated, many from weeks ago. It was like he was peeling back the layers of a very emotional onion.
I guess that’s how frustration and anger work — you go for many days appearing like you’re fine, until something happens that triggers an explosion that seems too big to be about one specific thing. Because what you’re really upset about is the whole onion, not just what set you off.