I Call Bullshit

*I apologize in advance for the number of times I say “bullshit” in this newsletter. But, maybe not.*

Sometimes I wake up and think it’s all bullshit. All of it. Everything. Everything is bullshit. This newsletter is bullshit. The new Brené Brown book I am reading is bullshit. Instagram is bullshit. Facebook is bullshit. Weddings are bullshit. The current protests are bullshit. But, not being able to protest is bullshit, too. Trying to parent better is bullshit. Everything is a façade, even our vulnerability at times. It’s all bullshit. That’s how I feel today.

I know the feeling will pass.

There is a ‘cure’ — albeit a temporary cure, for this pervasive feeling of bullshittiness. This cure is very simple and very, very complex, all in the same breath. Go outside. Go outside and study the veins on a leaf. Leaf veins are not bullshit, they are essential functions that are required for producing oxygen, which is the key to life. They are function and beauty all wrapped into one.

Go study the way water flows over a rock as it lays in the sunlight, melting and evaporating in front of our eyes. That is not bullshit. Again, function and beauty. Go and stare at the clouds, watch how they move in the wind. It’s random and also incredibly scientific at the same time. Definitely not bullshit. Go listen to the way the wind sounds whooshing through layers of branches and leaves, dead or alive. Watch a leaf fall to the ground. Study the intricateness of a pinecone. Function and beauty. Nature, even in its smallest digestible units within an urban jungle is not at all bullshit.

“The natural world creates beauty every day, yet the only rules of composition it follows are those of function and chance,” said the famous cartoonist Scott McCloud.

When in doubt, go outside, and experience the beauty and simplicity (or complexity) of function.

Love, Erika

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