I’ll start off with the “no smoking” symbol (red circle with a cross hash over a smoldering cigarette) I see in most restaurants nowadays. I know I will be able to enjoy my meal without the unpleasant attack on my lungs (or resulting smell in my clothes).

Contrary to most people, I love to see an orange traffic cone, it means a road is being repaired and that I have continued job security, one does have to pay the rent and feed one’s children, after all.

My favorite symbol on the news every night is a smiling sunshine face for the weekend, we’ve had so many clouds with snowflake symbols this year, it’s a refreshing change.

I can hardly contain my excitement when I open my email only to see a little mailbox with a letter peeking out, it means that someone wrote me a message, and the one email account I use for personal correspondence is typically SPAM-free, so I usually know it’s a real note.

I like to see my alma-matter’s MU symbol just about anywhere; I like to feel like I’m part of a large ever-present community of scholars…though the scholarly-ness of course varies from alum to alum.

You might have been looking for bigger symbols, like a bald eagle (how a scourge of the dead became a proud nationalistic figure, I’ll never know) but I find that most of my days are not comprised of tremendous occurrences, but are instead made up of many small happinesses sprinkled in unexpected places.