Are there two kinds of people?
- People who write love letters…
- And people who don’t?
More important: Which are you?
(Let’s find out.)
First: What Is a Love Letter?
A father’s lullaby. A mother kissing your scraped knee.
A favorite book loaned by a friend. A neighbor shoveling your sidewalk.
A “saw this and thought of you” text.
A wagging dog tail. A laughing baby.
A signal that says, “You exist and I care.”
I see you. And I’m here.
Second: What Isn’t?
Fear.
Which leads to hate. Which leads to violence. Which leads to fear.
Road rage. Crusades. ICE capades.
Our worst selves at our worst moments — that sometimes last a lifetime.
Crashing through lives, destroying all the peace in their path.
Snuffing out kindness and gentleness and love.
Inside and out.
But Then…
There’s a neighbor in a red sweater singing about imagination. A military-trained, poofy-haired painter teaching you about happy little trees. A won’t-give-in scientist making a stand year after year after year.
Some people LOVE. And it shows.
You’ve Seen It
It looks like delight: Excited, rambling kindness. Welcoming you into whatever-it-is with wide open arms.
Love says, “Join in!”
It looks like expertise: Music flowing through fingers and instruments into the air. Something practiced for a lifetime.
Love says, “Enjoy.”
It looks like a dog with a bone: The won’t-give-up. Can’t help but stick-to-it-iveness. Always finding its way back to you.
Love says, “I’m here to stay.”
What if Love is the Default?
Despite seeming evidence to the contrary what if…
The factory settings of the human condition are empathy, connection, and love?
“Everyone agrees that life is beautiful, and we all accept that it is fragile. But do we always remember how interconnected we are? How everything we do touches other people’s lives and echoes far away in other places. If we do not, perhaps we should. Our reach is so much greater than we know.”
-Narrator from Call the Midwife S14E03
“That’s what happens when you’re in a war and nothing makes sense. We survived as a species because we learned to cooperate and communicate, so when we’re in the middle of killing each other, it defies the very logic of our existence. Your brain starts to short-circuit.”
-Dr. Abbot from The Pitt S01E15
“It got easier just being cynical. Checking out. But I also hated myself a lot more. I went from being a motherfucker with a heart to just being a motherfucker. But you know what? Giving a shit in a world where nobody gives a shit? It ain’t soft. It’s hard as hell. And that’s the real me. And that’s the real you, too.”
-Mother’s Milk from The Boys S05E07
Three very different narrators. All telling the same story.
For Example
If you can’t quite see it yet, try these:
Mister Rogers
Gentle, thoughtful, neighborly.
Our first therapist.
(Maybe because Margaret McFarland was a child psychologist and worked as Fred Roger’s consultant.)
Fred wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano, wrote over 200 songs, created the characters, and played most of them himself. His “simple” puppets were described as “complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings.”
He kept producing Neighborhood until age 73, the final original episode airing in 2001.
If you don’t know him, watch him testify before congress to save PBS.
Bob Ross
I used to think The Joy of Painting was boring… until I needed a break from burnout.
Relaxing. Encouraging. Joyful Bob Ross.
He had to paint quickly on his breaks when he worked as first sergeant in the United States Air Force. His job was to act tough and yell.
But in his true element, he spoke softly, painted with a big brush, and told us, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Passionate. Fun. Brainiac-next-door.
Bill taught us from his TV show filled with noise and laughter and colorful jump-cuts.
Not just facts, but a love of learning and experts and figuring out “why.”
To this very day, he advocates for climate policy and science education.
That’s LOVE
It’s ALL CAPS, italics, and bold.
It’s laughter and flow state and dogged determination.
What you do when no one’s looking. What you come back to over and over. It’s what you make time to do.
A Magic Moment
When you’re in the zone, time stops. Or it stretches out in front of you like an evening shadow.
Doing what you love is a time warp either way.
A blink and an eternity.
In Words
Is it what we call “purpose”? Is “talent” misinterpreted when it should be “obsession”?
Painstaking is a funny way to describe love.
You want everything to be just right. Because it’s important and you can’t stop thinking about it. And it’s all one big canvas to draw on and you can never quite get it right. But everyone else thinks you did.
Paradise covers those moments when everything lines up.
You’re able to express it and someone else says, “Me too!” And you share a Eureka.
Passionate is another two-sided coin.
You stick to it because you can’t shake it. Your toe taps to the music. You read all night again. Your algorithm shows you nothing but sculpting tutorials. Or algebra. Or woodworking. Or crochet. Or astrology.
The Point
I hope to encounter more love than not. And send out more love than not.
My secret dream is that all my work is a love letter. Sent through time and space.
Joy and frustration that looks so easy from the outside. Something I can’t put down. That shines a beam of light even when the world is dark.
Work that connects for a magical moment with… you.
To help you decide: Are you writing love letters?
Or not?
Words About Stuff by Amy the Copywriter | Art by RAD Studio