3 Things!

I really like the improv game “Three Things.” Or “Five Things” or “Fifty Things” depending on how the group plays it.

The game is simple. The group stands in a circle, because good improv always starts in a circle. One at a time, each improviser gets a suggestion. They create a fictional character inspired by the suggestions. Next, the improvisor is challenged to say three things about themselves in character. For example, my suggestion might be the word blaze. And so I imagine a firefighter. Then I become a firefighter. Then I might say things like: “I carry a heavy hose” or “my mustache is yellow” or “I’m thinking of leaving my wife.” I go wherever my soul wants me to go because, in improv, you go wherever your soul wants you to go.

Playing “Three Things or “Five Things” or “Fifty Things” is a fun, easy way to attune yourself to the different versions of yourself that exist inside of you. To surprise yourself by the new versions of yourself you might imagine in any given moment.

I’m doing this blog a little differently this week. Rather than an excruciating honest telling of all the things that are giving me anxiety and sorrow right now, I’m going to attune myself to three things that are currently giving me joy. If we were in a circle, I might ask you to shout “1,” “2,” and “3,” after each thing I share, because that’s what we would do in “improv”Three Things.” Don’t do that here. Especially if you’re reading this in a public place. People will think you’re a weirdo.

Okay, here goes:

***

My son Solomon made me a level to play on Super Mario Maker 2 while he was playing with the Switch last Saturday. Solomon knows that Super Mario World is my favorite Mario game, so that was the kind of course he made. He makes the levels almost impossible. Then he crawls up close to me so he can watch, and giggles as I get decimated trying to beat his level. That is something that makes me happy.

One!

One of the perks of my job is that sometimes I’m free in the afternoons. Which isn’t to say that I’m not swamped by my schedule. This job as professor at The University of Iowa keeps me busy. I teach at night and have meetings scattered around my calendar. Still, there are usually a few days a week when I’m free in the afternoon, at home with my wife Katie. We drive downtown Iowa City, walk to Heirloom, and order a soup and sandwich. Heirloom has good soup and sandwiches. Sometimes we pick up a chai at Java house, the coffee shop attached next door. We drive back home and eat lunch together. That is another thing that makes me happy.

Two!

After I get home from teaching and the boys have gone to bed, Katie and I sit next to each other on the couch. An old married couple. We binge bad reality TV shows on Netflix. The Amazing Race, Top Chef, Married at First Sight. These are mostly mindless, stupid shows. And yet we binge away. I usually drink an Izze Blackberry Soda. Eat some popcorn. Mindless and domestic gluttony, curled up next to my wife on the coach at the end of a long day. That is something that makes me happy.

Three!

Those are three things that make me happy.

***

I don’t know the best ways to deal with aging. I don’t know the best ways to deal with anxiety. I don’t know the best ways to deal with the raging and often difficult complexity of being alive and conscious in an always-changing universe.

I do know that, as my favorite author Kurt Vonnegut wrote, it is easy to notice when you are unhappy but important to notice when you are happy. The three things above make me happy. That’s all.

Oh, and I stole the image for this week’s blog from Happy Valley Improv’s website. I always go there when I’m looking for pictures of improv. The four pictures above show me, Andrea, James, and Nate leading improv workshops. Makes me so nostalgic. There’s lots of joy in the four pictures above. More than three things for sure.