187. Mattress Message

Nora once received a very important message from the universe via a sidewalk mattress in Brooklyn, and now she is ready to share the wisdom with you.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

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INTRO MUSIC

I’m Nora McInerny, and it’s going to be okay.

In 2009, I was, as I’ve been numerous times in my life, deeply depressed. I was working in beauty public relations, which sounds fun, and could and should have been, but I was depressed. And I was anxious. And I had undiagnosed and untreated ADHD and living inside of my brain was like walking through a series of funhouse mirrors. I had was dating a boy I loved, or thought I loved, or thought loved me, but we were always breaking up or on the verge of breaking up because I wanted grown-up things like marriage and babies and a home and he wanted different grown-up things like to smoke weed every day and work when he wanted to work, and for me to just chill out and stop being such a lunatic. But I couldn’t stop being a lunatic! I was so, so deeply unhappy and every single interaction I had with every person affected me so deeply.

Emails from clients sent my heart rate spiking — what had I forgotten to do? What had I done wrong? What was I even doing with my life? Emails from my BOSS made me feel like I was going to die, because I had done something wrong or I had forgotten to do something or I was doing a bad job and everything was just too much, all the time.

I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at the time, and I worked in Midtown Manhattan, and every single night after work, I would go out. And man would I drink. But I would also walk. And walk. And walk. 

Through the streets of New York, wearing ballet flats with literally zero support, wearing holes through them while I listened to music on my first generation iPhone and cried. 

One night, after drinks with my friends, walking walking walking to the train to take me back to Brooklyn, I saw a sign: 

Tagged on a dirty mattress left on the curb for pickup. Written in all caps. The message I need that day, and pretty much every day of my life. The message I am bringing to you here today, even though I have hardly ever heeded this very simple, very sage advice that is 100% unimpeachable.

It said:

DON’T LET IDIOTS RUIN YOUR DAY.

I stopped. I took a very grainy photo. I kept walking.

And of all the photos I have lost because our photos were not automatically uploaded to the cloud…this photo has somehow remained! It survived, even though I have barely any photos of my life from that time. 

And every so often, Google photos will pull it up to the top of the app, and I will see it and I will stop and I will think, you know what, dirty mattress? You’re correct. I shouldn’t let idiots ruin my day.

But I do! 

And I’m sure you do, too. We can’t help it. Idiots are just so persistent! They’re everywhere! 

But the mattress is correct. And I bet you’re a better listener than I am.

So today, let’s listen to the mattress.

Don’t let idiots ruin your day.

OUTRO MUSIC

CREDITS