Under the napkin

“Under the napkin, there is no COVID.” It was April 2020 and my wife Anna had turned loopy at the dinner table. She put a napkin over her head and proclaimed everything was better. “Under the napkin, Barack Obama’s still president. Under the napkin, I’m at a party with all my friends.”

We needed some relief — early 2020 were dark times — but we still find ourselves talking about going “under the napkin” all the time. It’s become a shorthand.

“So-and-so knows how to go under the napkin.”

“Under the napkin, such-and-such assumption can be true.”

“Under the napkin, this-or-that never happened.”

Going under the napkin is a game. It’s collaborative. It requires practice and the right mindset and a willing collaborator. It requires patience and silliness and grace. (Kids are great at this; they just live under the napkin all the time.)

Certain places seem to be the napkin. What is it about certain rooms, certain households, certain groves of trees, certain intersections, and certain cities that seem to create the space for imaginative play? How can we make more of them?