Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3
Vacations are the time for rest, sun, fun, and unfortunately, Miggy Moments!
We all have Miggy Moments.
We lose control, we lose rational thought, we say things we later regret, and we lose empathy. Then, a moment later, when control, thought, proper speech, and our feelings return, we regret what we did or said during our Miggy Moment.
I use the word “Miggy” as it refers to an actual part of our brain called the amygdala.
The amygdala is a walnut-sized part of the brain that initiates our fight-or-flight reaction to danger. Unfortunately, living in anxiety and fear can cause Miggies to be the norm, not a once-in-a-while reaction to difficulty.
Danger! Danger!
Science has proven that there are more Miggy Moments per capita of summer vacationers than at any other time of the year. With all of us “vacation deprived,” the Centers for Disease Control may relax mask requirements, but at the same time require “Miggies” to be reported to local health authorities.
I think the governor of Michigan will soon forbid Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day celebrations because of the potential for crowd-spreading super Miggies.
Just as older people were more prone to COVID, fortunately, we have more tolerance toward Miggies. When I was a child, we drove an un-airconditioned car through a desert with no mobile devices or Starbucks to arrive at our vacation destination.
We didn’t have seat belts, airbags, or four-lane highways. Our only salvation, when stuck behind a monster-wheeled slow pick-up truck on a dusty road, was our Mom yelling at us to shut up or we would all turn around and go home.
We kept yelling.
Dad would then enter the fray with his patented vacation Miggy – a combination of threats and a good spanking. No one spanks today, a direct correlation to the increase of back seat Miggies.
What will happen this summer? How about a Honda minivan, with backseat individual entertainment systems, traveling through a tunnel on a West Virginia interstate and losing the network? What is the expectation for the back seat?
A very big Miggy Moment!
Be prepared for this summer’s Miggy Vacation Moments by:
- Planning an interactive car game. Which child or parent can count the most differing state license plates? Just kidding. I hated that game when I was a child. But do have one or two thousand videos on your playlist just in case a back seat urchin screams, “There’s nothing to watch!”
- Not making threats that you won’t keep. Every time one of my kids ruined something on vacation, I would have a Miggy and tell them, “There goes the money for your college education.” They remember this today and now say to me when, in my old age, I ruin something, “There goes your retirement!”
- Demonstrating supernatural peace when the photo-extravagant perfect vacation home rented on Vacasa has roaches and clogged toilets. In the travel heydays of the ‘60s, my generation expected bugs and a dysfunctional AC unit. Read and memorize Philippians 4:7!
Following the OGV prepared guidelines above, Miggy Moments will be kept to a minimum during the summer of 2021. Life can return to normal.
Children, it is inevitable that a parent will have a Miggy meltdown on vacation. Video this moment and send it to me. Let them know that I will post it if they ever threaten your college education.
Miggy Vacation Moments – what we remember most about vacations.
Read more about Miggy Moments in Interruptions numbers 214, 215, 255, and 264!