Radio

Many of us listen to the radio. We listen to it when we don't have our phones or other sources of music, a radio is available, and we want to listen to some "popular" songs. This situation usually happens when we're in the car and just about nowhere else. So, this is the fate of radio: it has been permanently relegated to playing cruddy music in a place where there's so much other noise that it can barely be heard. So much for that.

The above description is generally true: most people only listen to bad music with their radios, but the simple yet elegant sound box can offer more than that. There is, for example, news broadcast over the air waves. If we wanted, we could catch up on the latest headlines. Many sporting events are also played with a radio announcer sitting in a nearby booth, so we could make sure that pitiful team we root for isn't losing again.

At this point, I'm struggling, because there really isn't much more being broadcast anymore other than news, sports, and disgusting collections of noises some call music, yet the radio used to offer significantly more. People used to turn to their radios for all sorts of entertainment, namely that thing we are unconsciously desperate for: radio shows.

A radio show is a unique form of entertainment. By providing the sounds of conversation, a radio show allows freedom in the way we imagine a scene, but it still allows the ease of sitting back for easy listening. It's the perfect thing to wind down to. As you try to bring your brain out of overdrive after a hard day's thinking, focusing on the sounds of a humorous, dramatic, or engaging radio show can help to turn off the unnecessary parts of your brain so you can relax properly.

If you're thinking, "that's what television is for", frankly, you're wrong. Television is too severe of a drop in brain activity after lots of thinking. It requires no thinking at all, providing everything that each scene is comprised of. There's nothing left for the viewer to do. If you try to stop thinking that quickly, you'll be plagued by an excess of thought, and you won't be able to appreciate the show you're watching.

The only problem is that people don't appreciate a gradual drop in thoughts enough to care about radio shows. They simply don't want to put in the effort, even if it does assist relaxation better than television. Radio shows, therefore, have all ended. The only decent ones left are recorded on old, stretching cassette tapes, and radios are permanently ruined by a lack of variety, a lack of interest, and a lack of appreciation.

Squirrels

Squirrels are such adorable little pests. They make themselves utterly cute when they hop around, enjoying their days. They've got wonderfully fuzzy tails that seem to move so effortlessly through the air when they run. They run quite often, and they dig quite often too.

When I talk to most people about squirrels, they simply can't get past their negative tendencies. People seem to think that a squirrel's only natural function is to deface lawns. They see them as ugly rodent pests. My mother is one of those people. Whenever she sees a squirrel, she remarks, "look at it there, digging up our lawn", even if it's resting harmlessly on the pavement. She also focus on their habits of taking much of the food she tries to grow in her garden. "How", she aggressively wonders, "can such a small animal steal an entire tomato?" Very effectively, it seems.

But surely the odd tomato and three square centimeter patch of grass can be sacrificed in order to sustain the population of these fuzzy little creatures. If we could overcome our tendencies to ignore all their good qualities and focus only on the minor irritations, then we would realize how much joy squirrels could bring to our lives. Simply admiring them can put a smile on anyone's face.

Have you ever looked a squirrel dead in the face? If you did, you would have seen beautiful, clear black eyes revealing the squirrel's uplifting attitude, a furry little nose begging for some kind person to come and give it a boop, and a hesitant mouth slightly ajar, wondering whether to find more tomatoes to eat or to keep looking into your pleasing eyes. Such a kind face has rarely been seen on a human, but this face is common on squirrels. Why should we not peer into those beady, squirrel eyes more often?

Have you ever seen a squirrel taking a nap on the top of a fence post? If you have, you saw a creature in utter peace. Sprawled out over that fence post, the squirrel has made a tranquil bed out of what you had previously thought of as only a lump of hard, unforgiving wood, and it looks adorable doing it. Could you really imagine it dreaming about maliciously robbing you of tomatoes?

Squirrels are so much more than thieves and miniature plows. They brighten our lives with their chirping, their fuzzy underbellies, and their cute bushy tails. We shouldn't look at squirrels with disgust and anger over their instinctive habits. We should appreciate that they are just as cute as any other small fuzzy animal and admire them as such.