There’s a park by my house where I take my dog daily, where I played with my kids for years. I thought I knew every inch of this park.
Until I noticed Spongebob Squarepants staring down from between ridges of bark in a tree I’ve walked past thousands of times. I have no idea how long he has been watching over our park. How could I have missed him? Who put him there? And why?
Whimsy, perhaps.
Merriam Webster defines whimsy as “a fanciful or fantastic device, object, or creation.” Whimsy also frequently has to do with upturning expectations. I would not have smiled if I stumbled across an acorn lodged in the same spot. It was the incongruity of seeing a child’s toy lodged in a tree trunk just above my head that brought a microdose of joy to that daily walk. It disrupted expectations and demonstrated a possibility I had not considered - that it is possible to decorate tree trunks with toys.
It’s also a lesson I’ve learned from resistance leaders over time: whimsy is an act of resistance. Joy is resistance. Laughter is resistance.
The work of faith institutions in a secular world is also, often, the work of resistance.
