Simple Living Sunday – National Absurdity Day

Journal with "Celebrate the absurdity" written on the page
Simple Living Sunday16 Comments on Simple Living Sunday – National Absurdity Day

Simple Living Sunday – National Absurdity Day

It’s National Absurdity Day today. The goal of this day, celebrated every year on November 20, is to celebrate the absurd. With that in mind, today’s Simple Living Sunday post has 7 examples of absurdities I’ve seen lately. I hope they’ll make you laugh or, at the very least, roll your eyes and smile. Because, let’s face it, we could all use a reason to smile.

Never underestimate the healing power of silliness and absurdity.

Steve Maraboli

    Three simple pleasures and highlights

    Continuing my practice of celebrating the simple things in life, here are three simple pleasures and highlights of the last week.

    • After my dental surgery last week, I was very grateful for the large batches of homemade soup that I had made ahead and stored in the freezer.
    • On Tuesday, I spent the day at our sales conference. It was great to see colleagues that I haven’t seen in person for almost three years.
    • The coleus plants that I brought indoors from my garden are thriving on our sunny front window ledge. It’s nice to have a little bit of outdoors indoors at this time of year.
    Two coleus plants on a window ledge

    This week’s simple living focus: National Absurdity Day

    Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines absurd as “Extremely silly or ridiculous”. So, National Absurdity Day is a day to celebrate the ridiculous—those things that just make you shake your head. It originated with the absurdist movement (yes, there really is such a thing) in the post World War II era, but has morphed into a day just to be silly and have fun.

    Pinterest image - Journal with "Celebrate the absurdity" written on the page

    This isn’t the first time I’ve written about the value of laughter and humour. In Why you need to laugh today, I wrote about the health benefits of laughter and shared 10 ways to add more laughter to your life. Then, in an earlier Simple Living Sunday post, I discussed why laughter really is the best medicine.

    So, with a goal of making you smile, I’ve chosen 7 things I’ve seen or heard lately that I think are just plain silly.


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    7 silly things I’ve seen and heard

    Can I put these ice cube trays in the freezer?

    I couldn’t help but smile when I took a close look at the package of ice cube trays that I bought. Now, I understand why they’d need to state that they’re dishwasher safe, but freezer safe? I would expect nothing less!

    Rubbermaid ice cube trays marked "Freezer Safe"

    Hey! Someone stole the chives and butter from my potato bag!

    I spotted this warning on a bag of potatoes beside the picture of a steaming baked potato garnished with butter and chives: “Suggested serving: package does not include chives or butter.”

    Would anyone really expect to find butter and chives inside the bag? If we must state the obvious, I wonder why they didn’t also state that the potatoes in the bag aren’t pre-baked like the one in the picture.  

    Bag of potatoes with an image of a baked potato with butter and chives

    Campfire not included?

    Is there anything more fun than making smores around the campfire in summertime? A couple of years ago, I bought a PC Smores kit and was puzzled to see “Campfire not included” on the box. (I wish I had taken a picture at the time but I do remember us laughing at the absurdity of that statement.)

    Perhaps the original wording was an attempt at humour, but I noticed the picture of the campfire has been removed from the package, and it now simply says “Perfect for campfires”. I suspect they had customers complain about the lack of campfire in the box.

    President's Choice S'Mores kit

    Why can’t Bell filter out scam emails from Bell?

    I get dozens of spam and scam emails every day. I suppose it would be nearly impossible for my Internet provider to filter them all out. But this one that landed in my Inbox this week really made me chuckle.

    I had to wonder why Bell wouldn’t be able to spot and filter a scam email that supposedly came from their own company.

    Spam email from "Bell" about a declined payment

    Harmful if swallowed

    Many of the silly, and sometimes tragic, TikTok trends really do make me shake my head. After hearing about people getting sick and dying from eating Tide Pods, I shouldn’t really be surprised to see a “harmful if swallowed” warning on the package. But really—aren’t some things just common sense?

    Small sample package of Tide Power Pods

    A kiddie pool in a hotel room

    While we’re on the subject of common sense, can you imagine anyone putting a kiddie pool full of water in a hotel room and letting their kids play in it? That’s exactly what some guests at the hotel my older daughter worked at during the summer did. I have to wonder what they do at home.

    Things people do to get a refund

    Finally, I’m always amazed at the things customers at the supermarket where my younger daughter works will do to get a refund. One of my favourite stories is the customer who brought in a foil pie plate and cherry pit, wanting a refund because they found a cherry pit in their pie. They said the pie was delicious but still wanted their money back.


    The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but only a beginning.

    Albert Camus

    That’s all I have for today. I’m going to start a new list for next year because silly and absurd things are all around us.

    Let’s keep the National Absurdity Day celebration going. Drop me a comment below with your examples of extremely silly or ridiculous things you’ve heard of.


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    Hi there! I’m Michelle and I live in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. I am married with two young adult daughters. I’m a big fan of reducing waste, using less plastic, decluttering and simplifying life as much as possible.

    16 thoughts on “Simple Living Sunday – National Absurdity Day

      1. Ha ha. I think I was born knowing how to eat crisps…especially salt & vinegar flavoured! As for the chainsaws, hormones do sometimes get the better of us when we’re pregnant so keeping us away from chainsaws might not be a bad idea. LOL Thanks for dropping by Joey!

    1. To add my 5 cents : in the gym club I go, there is a sign saying – it’s forbidden to dye your hair -. If they put it, it’s because they found someone doing that. People are funny and sometimes they don’t use their common sense (to some extent they don’t think either.).

      1. Thanks Kim. One of my kids’ favourite books when they were small was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. One of the lines in that book is “Funny things are everywhere.” It’s true.

          1. LOL. I guess the sign maker didn’t have a proofreader. We often comment on that when we watch the news. So many spelling errors in the on-screen graphics and captions.

    I'd love to hear your ideas. Drop me a comment below.

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