A Matter of Perspective

"Oh my god, I had the worst dream ever!" Jason exclaimed as he burst into the living room on Sunday morning. (I say burst only because he has this habit of, in my opinion, talking much louder than the situation warrants. He was not doing anything physically that suggested "bursting." And he will want to rebut here that he does not speak too loud, my ears are just potentially abnormally small and therefore funnel noise so as to amplify it by the time it hits my eardrum.) Anyway, Jason's worst dream ever was that Texas beat OSU this year, at Texas.
"Really," I responded dryly. "I had a dream that a plane to New York crashed while I was right there at the airport, waiting for my own flight to New York, and I had to call you to tell you that I was still alive and it wasn't my plane."
"Oh," Jason responded, crestfallen and now notably muted. "Wow, that is worse."
In another part of the "worst week ever!!" a neighbor (also named Claire) recently called a group of us who were hanging out on the deck Saturday night to attention by asking, "Do you want to hear the saddest thing in my life, ever? It's really sad." I braced myself, preparing to be empathetic, understanding, and if needed, offer a comforting hug. She began to explain that because of travel plans made months previous: "I'm going to miss Ben's last day of puppy class!" Some other neighbors asked concerned questions about the travel being cancellable or if photos might be taken to remember the moment, when I interrupted, "Wait, that's the saddest thing ever? Really?" Yes, apparently they put little graduation caps on the pups and might even give them little diplomas.
I offer these stories not to chide Jason and neighor Claire for being shallow or melodramatic, while I spent all day wondering if the day before yesterday might be the last day of my life because of my 6:00 pm United to LaGuardia. (Landed safe and sound, thanks very much.) It was just a funny coincidence of lots of declaratives in just a couple of days. And I must have only had that dream because I saw something on the news about the anniversary of TWA Flight 800, which does sadly put this all in a sharp perspective, making me grateful that there are careless days when OSU vs. Texas is a big deal (The photo I'm featuring was titled "Annoying" on flickr, and included the comment "This got old fast.") and missing puppy graduation is the biggest regret.
I'm also certain by the way that Ben will be super cute in his graduation cap. Google image search "puppy graduation" and you get quite a few adorable photos, one featured below. And someone who recently posted a photo tribute in honor of her cat's first birthday really has no legs to stand on in the belittling of puppy graduations. I think Jason and I might have even offered to take Ben to his last day as his godparents. Don't tell the cat.