Life lessons from rubber duckies

Yellow rubber ducks

Holy mackerel!

No, no, no! Not holy mackerel. ‘Tis holy rubber duckies in this particular moment.

Rubber duckies?

Yep. Ready to move on?

Okey-doke.

During a recent Sunday scroll online, a very dated NPR headline caught my eye: “When 28,800 Bath Toys Are Lost At Sea.” Betting it would’ve caught your eye, too. Of course, it would have. C’mon, be truthful. How many of us have soft hearts and a fondness for yellow rubber duckies? Takes us back to our leisurely childhood baths and wading pools.

….. but moving on.

In 1992, a ship-bound consignment of 28,800 rubber duckies was washed into the Pacific Ocean during a storm. (28,800!) Over the documented course of 15 years, our plucky rubber duckies made landfall in widely disparate places such as Hawaii, South America, Australia, the Pacific Northwest, the US Eastern seaboard as well as British and Irish shores. Some of those yellow rubber quackers are probably still riding the waves, honing surfing skills, awaiting landings in unexpected places.

This lost-at-sea rubber ducky cohort actually morphed into a tool for observing ocean currents across the globe. Who would’ve thought a covey of cast adrift rubber duckies, showing up in Zanzibar or Costa Rica, would ultimately become teaching tools? Not me. Quite honestly, although I’m very, very happy for all you oceanic scientists out there, I don’t really care.

I, however, am truly captivated by the metaphor of unexpected rubber ducky arrivals, well, everywhere. Everywhere! My god, you turn around and suddenly it’s “What’s a rubber ducky doing here? In my living room of all places!” (OK, just use your imagination.) And suddenly, I’m smiling and feeling happier. Wouldn’t seeing an unexpected rubber ducky in your living room give you pause to smile?

The 1992 rubber ducky sea catastrophe lead me directly to the creation of a new theorem, “Life lessons from rubber duckies.” In short (is that really possible?), the world-wide rubber duck odyssey shows me that, at any moment, or place, expect the joyfully unexpected. Feeling a bit bored, I look around, imagine I see a yellow rubber ducky out of the side of my eye, and just light right up. I mean it!

Those cast adrift rubber duckies have wandered all over the globe, likely, giving joy to whoever finds them. Me? My psyche just basks in the reality of those rubber floaters and welcomes them into the way I see the world.