Pro Fidget Spinners

Are they a substitution for the stress-ball? A knick-knack to fiddle around with? Or a path to ultimate nirvana? Perhaps it’s coincidental that Fidget Spinners—the latest toy craze sweeping the nation—have three aerodynamic wings to represent each of the aforementioned descriptions. Maybe it’s luck that these contraptions, as they are passed around in classrooms and on playgrounds, begin to form friendships from the breadth of a one-trick pony that doesn’t try to be something it’s not. It may even be fate that put Fidget Spinners in the hands of Americans as ADHD rates rise and the iPhone steals our waking consciousness, fate that they are here now when we need them the most.As I pen this open love letter to these great contraptions, a piece of my soul is empty. Reason being I was once a proud owner of not one, but four fidget spinners, but like a crazed lottery winner, I was so eager to share my newfound wealth with friends and family that I ended up without a single spinner for myself. I trusted people close to me to take care of my spinners, but you see, in today’s world, even the smallest act of kindness will be capitalized on by those who will do anything to enrich their own lives.  At first, I sat at home fuming with anger, pacing back and forth my bedroom like a father who left his kids at the park and is deciding how to tell his wife. I was formulating a plan to retrieve what I had lost, when suddenly, as if a divine force of natural understanding had passed through me, I realized that these spinners had given me happiness and it was time to let them go and do that for others (the kids in the park analogy does not apply anymore). For isn’t that what Fidget Spinners are designed to do? Bring happiness? Retailers claim they do: offering stress relief and a healthy activity for those suffering from ADHD and PTSD. And while there isn’t much official research to create a proven list of benefits, there certainly are not many cons to twirling a silent device as one works, reads or relaxes. In fact, I would argue that the Fidget Spinner’s biggest upside is the reality that if one is holding a spinner, he/she is therefore not holding something harmful. As humans, we are intrinsically inclined to have something in our hands or to be doing something—many find it hard to sit still. So I find it a great development that thousands of Americans are spinning, rather than smoking a cigarette, drinking from a whiskey bottle or holding a dead cat. For while not too many consequences are set in stone, it’s safe to say that these spinners are not hurting the heart, mind or body of its users. If anything, they are refining motor skills and offering many a much-needed trance as they stare into the seemingly endless oblivion of a fidget spin.Spinning is natural, it is weaved into the fibers of our beings and accounted for in the blueprint of the universe. Our heads spin with ideas and emotions, wheels on our cars take us where we need to go and hell, even our beloved Earth spins at unfathomable speeds to keep its inhabitants grounded. The slightly slower spin of the Fidget Spinner is no different, and in my eyes, one who doesn’t believe in the Fidget must not believe in creativity, transportation or daytime and nighttime. For at the end of the day, while it is nice to point to reasons why Fidget Spinners are so crucial to American livelihood, their true value lies within each individual spinner.In my case, I see these colorful, three-pronged boomerangs as a gate to spirituality. When I stare into the blur of the Fidget Spinner, I am given a moment to reflect upon my life. My triumphs, mistakes, hopes, fears and destiny is all laid out before me on the meditative plane, and I become one with myself. If I know one thing to be true, it’s that the human race is bad at keeping secrets: the icecaps are melting, democracies are falling ill with corruption, innocent children are starving in the desert heat. These are the signs of the times and an unspoken diagnosis that declares that our world is being reduced to ashes. However, the Fidget Spinner is another poorly-kept whisper that has a chance to do some good. When I spin, I feel like I want to go make a difference, I want to be a better man. For in our fast-paced society it is hard to get a moment where one can look themselves into the window of their soul and know the answers one is dying to know. I believe, that if for just one minute everyone on Earth took a nice, long spin from a fidget spinner, the sky would open up and we would all see God’s smiling face (spinning perhaps?) and he would see that unity has been achieved in our war-torn home, thus curing us all of evils that have plagued the world for too long. And if not, if when we put our faith in him (or possibly her) he/she does not show, then we will get on with our lives as we have done many times before, only this time a little more focused, a little stronger and a little more ready to take on whatever life spins our way.