Grief and Hope

I am sad. Yes, I do think sad is the simplest descriptor for what I am currently feeling. Sunday evening I was sitting on my sofa, knitting a grief project for a friend, while generally feeling restless and unsure about the future. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now which can lead to a sense of unease when left to ponder it for any significant period of time. But there I was, knitting and pondering, when I received a text from my brother, “Bob Saget died.” 

What? That can’t be right. I have tickets to see his stand-up show later next month. I do a quick Google check and sure enough, America’s dad has left us. Now, I was already thinking about mortality and loss as I was working on a grief project for a friend. For a loss that was local and tangible but I was still nearly brought to tears by the loss of a celebrity, a tv personality, someone that I have never met. 

We mourn for the loss of celebrities and characters but not everyone understands why anyone would be upset about the passing of a celebrity. But Full House in some form whether it be prime time, syndication, DVD box sets, or streaming has been making its way into my living for my entire life. The hijinx of Danny, Joey, and Uncle Jesse are just as real to me as adventures I’ve experienced in real life with my own friends and family. Then when you add social media into the mix it blurs the lines between real life and the celebrities we follow even more. In any given scrolling session my feed is mixed with people from my real life and people who have come into my life through an entertainment medium. I think that makes it harder when those personalities leave us. 

There are three things I have learned about Bob Saget with his passing. I have learned that he was incredibly kind, he was very funny, and that he never shied away from telling those in his circle how much he loved them. And now I’m knitting this grief project, making stitch after stitch and row after row and hoping that as we continue to move through these times of sadness and exhaustion, of unease and restlessness  that maybe we can all be a little bit more like America’s dad. 

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Grief project. Cast on Sunday 1/9, Pattern Goonies Never Say Die Cowl, Yarn is Meeker Street