Some days you just want to jump into a bowl of rice

Liberty Mutual Insurance Company has produced quite a few memorable television commercials during the past few years. There is one ad that I found really hilarious and also informative. A young man is dressed up like a cell phone, and passing out flyers for cell phone repair. As he stands near the upper New York Bay, with the Statue of Liberty in the background an announcer tells him of the benefits of having Liberty Mutual insurance.

He pushes a button on the phone and it lights up with the yellow Liberty Mutual color and had the words Save. Within seconds, however, he is splashed with water from the Bay and the phone then displays the red warning sign. The young man dismally replies, “Not again.” It’s obvious that this is a recurring situation that he dreads, yet it’s happened to him at least one more time. I know we all can relate to having such days. It used to be said of such days that they were the ones where you did not feel like getting out of the bed.

I believe most people, if they were honest would admit to that moment when a cell phone is dropped in or splashed with a liquid and is no longer usable. In that moment you have lost your method of contact with the world and feel so vulnerable. This scenario is the same with those issues of life that are like a thorn in the side that keeps on sticking you no matter what. This is especially true now that COVID is among us.

Each of us has our own, “ Oh no not again,” the situations that continue to happen no matter how we try to prevent them. Just like the young man in the commercial we are going about our day, just trying to earn a living when suddenly there is an interruption. We get splashed by the cares of life that leave us wet and shivering. No matter how many prayers, or hail Mary’s are uttered, the thing you feared comes upon you. It makes no difference that you have been paying it forward, making positive confessions and doing good deeds, because that one unwanted issue that you detest happens to you anyway.

The water covering the guy dressed as the telephone envelopes him from head to toe. It causes me to ponder these days since the pandemic when so many people feel that they are in over their heads with no relief in sight. Soaked to the bone, cold, shivering and dripping wet without any relief in sight.This is what COVID-19 has done to so many.

The moment the red warning sign comes on it could be a warning of problems in your vehicle or other situations you would like to avoid and deal with another day. You know you must handle what has come upon you but just not right now. Even so the warning light must be addressed. In the Liberty Mutual commercial there seems to be a quick fix as the phone jumps into the bowl and says “ Rice do your thing”. Obviously the rice had worked before and got the phone up and running. I can’t speak for anyone else in the real world but rice has never restored a telephone for anyone in my family.

Whether or not rice has worked to dry out and restore your cell phone, there is a deeper meaning here. The Liberty Mutual guy trusts the rice and has confidence in its ability to come through. Decades ago there was a television commercial for Calgon bath beads. Women would fill a bathtub with water and pour in the solution. They would soak in bubbles up to their necks and say, “ Calgon take me away.” The implied message was that taking a bath with that product would wash away the cares of the day.

The Liberty Mutual phone believes the rice is the answer to getting him back to normal the same way Calgon was advertised to south and relax. In this pandemic age in which we now live and coming out of the Trump years here is something to consider. If we acknowledge the truth of our current situations, we all long for a day we don’t have to get out of bed and for Calgon to take us away, We do wish it were as simple as jumping in a bowl and saying “ Rice do your thing.”

I know we have been told not to speak negative and to always voice what is positive and draw from good vibes and energy but none of that has stopped all the repercussions from the Coronavirus. For that reason we might as well just have a moment of truth and clear our heads and admit what is real and factual. There are days we wish all we had to do to solve our problems was to jump into a bowl of rice.