Dear Reader,
Please welcome today's guest author, Nancy Thayer back to the book club...
I'm going to confess to you all, for the first time ever, my new number one guilty secret.
I'm addicted to animal videos.
My favorite, which I play over and over again, is on YouTube. Just type "cockatoo dances to Elvis" and you'll see a two-minute video of me trying to get my husband's attention. The dancing cockatoo is just like me, flaunting my feathers and bobbing to the beat and trying to nuzzle, while the cockatoo husband (I'm pretty sure it's the husband) just wants to read his newspaper. Or that's how I interpret it. Each time I play it, I laugh so hard it hurts.
And guess what? Studies show that watching animal videos is good for your health! I'd watch them anyway, but it's great to know that they lower your blood pressure and relieve your stress. Also, I've read that laughter boosts the immune system and burns calories, although I'm not sure I believe the calorie-burning thing.
Of all the many gifts technology has brought us (even as we swear at our computer and phones for glitches), animal videos are one of the best. Who hasn't seen the video of a soldier coming home to a dog who races to him, his whole body wagging with joy? Dogs have no composure, no pretense, especially when it comes to love. And who knew how much love there is between species? I've seen videos of cats curled up with dogs, dogs playing with goats, a cow in a barn singing with a woman (I'm not making this up) and a cat riding around on the back of a horse, to name only a few.
In this spring of 2020, we're all especially emotional, but I think adults have become better at hiding their emotions (my mother-in-law would say having a little dignity) than we did as children. Of course there are times when we should. It would alarm my grandchildren if they saw me sobbing at a baby elephant stuck in a trench as the lions creep closer. (Don't worry. The elephant mother and friends take charge.)
The Greeks used the word "catharsis" to mean the release of emotions, allowing us to laugh and cry and take a deep breath and bravely go on. We all need that sometimes. Sometimes we need it a lot.
Therefore, I recommend to you: Facebook, Ladible: Goats Stumbling over Fence. Did you know that goats faint?
-- Nancy Thayer
You can reach out to Nancy, https://nancythayer.com/contact-nancy
Nancy is the New York Times best-selling author of 33 books, including Girls of Summer, out May 26. Born in Kansas, she has lived on Nantucket for 35 years with her husband Charley. They have two children, four grandchildren, and a fifth expected at the end of May. In 2015, she was awarded the Romantic Times 2015 Career Achievement Award in Mainstream Fiction.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
* This month's Penguin Classics book is BLACK SHACK ALLEY, by Joseph Zobel. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading and enter for your chance to win.
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