By Gwen Rockwood, newspaper columnist and mama of 3
If you’re not feeling delightful this December — often called “the most wonderful time of the year” – you’re not alone. It’s been a hard year for millions of people in many ways. You’re not required to fall in line with the holly jolly hustle of the season.
But maybe these four simple words I read recently in a Katherine Center novel will give you the same surprising lift they gave me: “Sometimes things get better.”
Simple, right? But if your brain, like mine, is hardwired to assume a worst-case scenario, that single sentence can feel like a revelation. Doom and gloom don’t have to be the default position. When you allow for the possibility that things can get better, you realize that sometimes they really do.
To offer proof, here are three brief examples of things that got better.
It sucks in a good way: A scientist at King’s College London bit into a peach, and the furry skin of the peach stuck to the roof of his mouth. He thought about the dental patients he’d seen over the years who struggled to wear dentures because they so often slipped out of place. (My dad hated his dentures so much that he “accidentally” left them in easy reach of his dog, who was all too eager to turn them into a thousand-dollar chew toy.)
Once the scientist got the peach skin unstuck from his mouth, he began studying the tiny suction cups found on octopus’ tentacles – so strong they can anchor the creature to slippery rocks. Eventually, he and his team used a 3D printer to incorporate tiny suction cups into dentures, covering the plastic in a thin lining of keratin to create a stronger bond with the soft tissue of the human mouth. After testing, they found that the new design doubled the ability to keep dentures in place. That’s a big win for literal stick-to-itiveness that could save the smiles of more than 300 million people around the world.
Low-flying ferry: If you visit Lake Tahoe at the end of 2025, you may see a strange boat hovering above the water. Soon, the United States will have its first “flying ferry” designed to take people and equipment across the 21-mile-long lake in half the time it would take to drive there. Produced in Sweden, the boat is called a Candela P-12, the first “hydrofoiling electric ferry.”
It looks like it’s levitating above water because it has underwater wings that lift the boat’s hull into the air. It can travel at up to 30 miles per hour, and its computer-controlled steering readjusts itself 100 times per second, creating a smoother ride and less seasickness for up to 300 passengers. Because the ferry runs on renewable energy, it doesn’t need oil changes, has zero emissions, and is quiet enough to avoid stressing out the wildlife in and around the lake. Sounds better, right? (If you’d like a sneak peek at the country’s first flying ferry, you can see a video on the FlyTahoe website. It’s cool to see it in action.)
On a personal note: Late last year, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. By March of this year, she had two cancers – a colon tumor and bone marrow cancer (called Multiple Myeloma). Doctors found the second cancer while doing scans on the first. We had to make hard decisions about when and how much to treat each cancer. As you can imagine, my mind went to dark, scary places for much of this year.
But we did the homework to learn about what was happening. We had the tests. We talked to doctors and got second opinions. We did as much treatment as her body would accept, keeping in mind that her quality of life would always be more important than test results.
And then, two months ago, things got better. My 80-year-old force-of-nature mother is cancer-free again. No one is more surprised and thankful than we are. Like any family who has faced cancer, we know those unwelcome cancer cells could come back unannounced. We can’t control that part.
But what we can do is enjoy this gift of remission, time, and good health. We can thank God for the incredible doctors, nurses, friends and family who have walked this path with us and help keep my mom in remission.
Plenty of terrible things happen to people, including us. But kindness, persistence, and innovation are ever present, too. They’re the best reasons to remember that, even when circumstances feel devastating, sometimes things get better.
Gwen Rockwood is a syndicated freelance columnist. Email her at gwenrockwood5@gmail.com. Her book is available on Amazon.
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