These days we need to find our happy place

Bojangles' is apparently the comfort food that people need during a pandemic. It must be true -- they really do serve ‘famous chicken n’ biscuits’. The proof is in the parking lot, where there’s always a line of cars wrapped around the restaurant.

Bojangles’ makes people happy. And most of all, they’re willing to wait for it.

We’ve all had to grow our patience muscles just a little more lately. Reduced capacity means increased wait times. We’ll wait longer for the things we love.

It’s become a part of everyday life now. There are lines to enter stores, lines to be seated at restaurants, and now, there are lines just to be allowed to enter the swimming pool area.

People are lining up at pools all over the state to get in just so they can mentally check out. Next to the beach, there’s no better place to stop the world than sitting by a swimming pool on a hot summer day.

The pools are open, thank goodness, albeit at 50 percent capacity. Lifeguards now also serve as virusguards. In addition to saving your life, they now have to spray and wipe down all the high touch areas (e.g., doors, doorknobs, rails) multiple times an hour.

The same rules from last summer also apply. No running. No diving. But now there’s no dunking, no Marco Polo, and anything else that your grandmother would deem as ‘horseplay’. Social distancing is still being enforced, even inside the pool.

You can still splash, but just don’t touch anyone.

Despite the new restrictions, the kids are still jumping into the pool with wild abandon. Mothers and daughters are still laying out trying to catch some rays. Even the old men are still swimming in slow motion up and down the length of the pool, getting in a little aerobic exercise where they can.

For a moment, if you close your eyes long enough, you can temporarily escape from this crazy world that we’ve somehow been thrust into lately.

It’s like we need a vacation from real life -- or rather -- from what real life has become.

The world seems to grow more divisive, more angry, and more chaotic with each passing day. Living in the midst of a pandemic is hard enough. Add in some economic uncertainty and a lot of social unrest, and you have yourself a recipe for disaster. Maybe the fire and fury of the late 60’s is now repeating itself.

Some of us used to wonder what it was like living during that particular time in our history. We may be getting that answer now -- only now it’s fueled by the endless 24-7 news cycle. It’s just one click away.

Straight news is hard to find anymore. It’s mixed in with everyone’s opinion now. Everyone has their slant. And then, in between all the hype and hyperbole, they try to sell me insurance, or they tell me to ask my doctor about this drug and that drug. The sky is falling, but you should still go out and buy a new car.

They try to get our attention anyway they can. Show me the horrific pictures. And make sure you show them to me over and over again. Tell me things are bad. Make me scared. Instill so much fear that I tune in again tomorrow so we can do it all over again.

It’s a vicious cycle. The only way to break it? Take the advice from Willie Nelson’s son, Lukas Nelson. The title of his latest album tells you all you need to know: “Turn off the TV. Build a Garden”.

I say turn off the TV and find your happy place. Maybe that is in your garden. Maybe it’s at the beach or sitting by the pool. Maybe it’s in the form of a giant bowl of ice cream.

Try not to let the endless news cycle suck you in. Life isn’t perfect. We are living in hard times, having to face tough problems. It won’t be easy. But you can’t let it overwhelm you. You can’t let it steal your shine.

You just “gotta wanna needa getta hava” happy place of your own. You owe that to yourself.

You can email columnist Ben Dungan at ben@thebendungan.com and read more from him at www.TheBenDungan.com