Pay attention

Tiny Pantsuits USA (TeePeeUSA, patent pending) exists because sometimes the only way to understand the present is to spend time in the past.

History can offer perspective. A little wisdom. A sprinkle of inspiration. A dash o’ whimsy. A reminder that people have always been people, which is more comforting than it sounds.

Usually, that’s the assignment around here.

But this week?

I don’t think we need that.

I don’t think we need the archives.

The world is currently overflowing with reminders that being alive is, at least occasionally, a delightful experience.

My heart is full from the pure joy pouring out of New York, a city long overdue for this much collective, slightly chaotic happiness.

My world got a little bigger hearing Michelle Obama talk about democracy not as an abstract institution, but as a place where someone might one day spread out a blanket and have a romantic picnic. A reminder that the point of all this civic machinery is not the machinery itself, but the life that happens around it.

The World Cup is producing a seemingly endless supply of hilarious, wholesome, deeply human stories from city after city. Every athlete seems to arrive with a backstory engineered to wreck you emotionally.

The good stuff is everywhere right now.

It’s not even hiding.

You just need to pay attention.

The world is trying to hand you something lovely.

Big Evil Tech Algorithm, Inc. — BETA, naturally — is working very hard to convince you that despair is the only intellectually serious response to the modern world.

I can assure you, as someone who can confirm the simplicity of despair is much easier to navigate, that this is not true.

There’s a Persian proverb that says: sorrow comes unbidden, but happiness? happiness must be snatched.

First of all: wow, guys. Cheer up.

Second of all: point taken.

So memorize the moments that make your world feel bigger. The ones that bring a smile to your face so easily, like when someone’s Reddit comment perfectly captures a niche topic you can’t believe anyone else knows about.

It doesn’t always have to be Michelle Obama.

I mean, it usually is Michelle Obama.

But it can be other people, too.

So shake off whatever sad vibes you’re rocking, we have so much time for that. Lip-sync to a Tina Turner song, put on a fab outfit, and look around. Find the things.

Collect them without apology.

Store them away.

Because difficult days will come. They always do.

And when they arrive, all of these moments will still be there.

The laughter. The absurdity. The kindness. The beauty. The proof that people are trying.

Over time, they get stitched together.

And one day you’ll realize you’ve spent years making yourself a quilt. A big, cozy, quilt-of-many-colors made from every lovely thing you bothered to notice.

And when life dropkicks you, as life guarantees that it will, that’s what softens the landing, what breaks your fall.

Now go watch videos of babies hearing their mama’s voice for the first time. For democracy.

Reporting live from the good timeline,

xo,

S