I couldn’t remember, at first, who this guy was but I would like to channel his everything for a bio photo. And then there it is, right at the top of my screen shot: Don. I recalled where I had seen that photo, from an email celebrating the life of Don Richard Ruso, one of the co-authors of the book The Wisdom of the Enneagram. This is not a post about Don or the Enneagram but can we please have a moment for that jacket??
Yesterday I noticed I was writing while wearing a fleecy red bathrobe and drinking out of an owl mug (photo not available) and thought yesssss. I don’t know what this says about the whole dress for the job you want maxim, but I felt like I nailed it.
I took the kids to a park yesterday and there was a toddler bopping around in a yellow shirt with a lion on it. I wanted to photograph that lion so bad but wasn’t up for asking their dad “hey, can I take a picture of your totally-not-mine kid?” The graphic was just perfect - sweet, simple, and effective because it made me look at that kid and soften. His body toddled perfectly imperfectly over the squishy ground and he was a perfectly fine example of what a toddler should be (lol?), but he was also pretty basic (also lol - what is a basic child??). Because of that lion, though, something in me really felt open to that kid.
I’m not saying the clothes make the man or anything but what I’m trying to say is I need a lion shirt. Some signal that says be gentle with me.
I know, of course, that what I’m craving is a shirt that will cue that message for me when I’m talking to myself. (I feel like Austin Powers right now, when he’s trying to follow time-travel logistics: “Oh no, I’ve gone cross-eyed.” There are a lot of psyches and facets of psyches floating around this scenario! When I re-read that sentence, I know this is what I’m craving because I start to tear up.)
I was scrolling through my phone for (silly?) photos to show you, to play along on the internet and throw people a frickin’ bone in all the screen text, when I came across a photo from a very polished living room and thought it was my own. HA! I’m going to show you the two.
Photo from the internet:
Photo from my life:
Oh wait, that’s the wrong photo. Here:
It’s not that my living room feels in any way like the one above or my mind thinks my living room is finished. But scrolling through, I was like, oh there’s my room! Cognitive dissonance for sure but it’s also, like, wow, my mind can also be such a friendly place! I guess it’s fantasy but fantasy can be useful, right?
Here’s a photo of an alligator my 5 year old and I collaborated on two days ago. He feverishly created it in parts and then just as feverishly taped it all together. He likes to “make art together” by which I mean tell me exactly what to do and how to do it, and then complain if I divert slightly from his vision. I complain right back that he’s not being fun to work with (sounds like a work partnership from hell) and he backs off for a minute or two. It’s hard for me to give in to these moments, because I often want to “work on my own stuff” while he’s coloring or painting or going through three rolls of tape in a day. Later I found this alligator which, even at the time I was like, “that’s okay, not bad,” now abandoned on the second-floor landing and was like, “oh sh*t! I really like that alligator.”
Here’s to scraps and pieces that are sometimes (always?) better than the plotted thing. And to all the Fragile labels on my many cardboard boxes. Someone send me a cuddly lion shirt.
That alligator is awesome! I can picture the collaboration, haha.
“oh sh*t! I really like that alligator.” LOLOL Ahhh, love this substack, Kara!!