This week Taylor Swift - American singer-songwriter, performer, and businesswoman, widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 21st century - got engaged. The viral news spread from a social media post across the globe and fans lost their minds with collective excitement over a couple they have never met.
We are a household of Swifties. We were lucky enough to get tickets to Taylor’s London leg of the Eras tour with our good friend and spent the night singing and dancing at the top of our lungs with thousands of fans.
My wife was beaming as she told me how happy she was for her, and we both shared our excitement at having some positive love songs coming from this happy life event in the future. Being happily married and singing along to break up songs feels weird.
On the same day, not to be outdone by my wife’s exciting fandom news, Apple announced their “Awe Dropping” iPhone event will stream on September 9th. I was just as thrilled. iJustine said it best:
My wife called our good friend as soon as she heard Taylor’s news.
“Did you see?”
“See what”
“Taylor Swift got engaged!”
”What!? No! I need to pull over!”
Sadly, I didn't have anyone to call about the iPhone event.
The jaded among you may say that, during a week of missile attacks in Ukraine, school shootings in the United States, and flooding in Pakistan, we shouldn’t be paying attention to comparatively frivolous news. And yes, I could don the traditional sackcloth and spend my days lamenting the smallness of my life against the vast expanse of disaster and human conflict. But I’m not sure that would add much value to the world.
Sometimes it’s worth pausing to celebrate someone else’s joy - even a billionaire’s. Or to get excited about advances in technology - even if it’s incremental. We’re exposed to more bad news than ever before, our brains hardwired to focus on the negative1.
So here’s to the newly engaged celebs finding their happily ever after and to Apple releasing something shiny for us to froth over this month!