Epistle.

Dear,

When Did We Forget Our Dreams?

Stick figure #1: You should be more careful what you write.  You never know when a future employer might read it.

Stick figure #2: When did we forget our dreams?

Stick figure #1: What?

Stick figure #2: The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind.  The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I’m sitting here refreshing my inbox.  We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out ahead of us.  We see the same things each day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us.

And no, I don’t have all the answers.  I don’t know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could become.  But I do know one thing: the solution doesn’t involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold.  It doesn’t involve tempering my life to better fit someone’s expectations.  It doesn’t involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up.

This is very important to I want to say it as clearly as I can:

FUCK. THAT. SHIT.

-XKCD

Real talk, Jon Lovett.  

One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything. Jon Lovett. Read more here. (via aauw)

fashionfever:

“I’ll never forget the day Marilyn and I were walking around New York City, just having a stroll on a nice day. She loved New York because no one bothered her there like they did in Hollywood, she could put on her plain-jane clothes and no one would notice her. She loved that. So as we we’re walking down Broadway, she turns to me and says ‘Do you want to see me become her?’ I didn’t know what she meant but I just said ‘Yes’- and then I saw it. I don’t know how to explain what she did because it was so very subtle, but she turned something on within herself that was almost like magic. And suddenly cars were slowing and people were turning their heads and stopping to stare. They were recognizing that this was Marilyn Monroe as if she pulled off a mask or something, even though a second ago nobody noticed her. I had never seen anything like it before.” - Amy Greene, wife of Marilyn’s personal photographer Milton Greene

(Source: beautilation)