feed yourself beauty

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I've been spending time with a writer who is writing a

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substack called Everything is Amazing. The focus at the moment

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is color and the way we perceive it and the way we interact with

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it and whatever else seems interesting. The beauty is not

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about the color, the beauty is about the nourishment of

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thinking about the color. I'm told not everyone's brain works

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like this. That some brains don't thrive on new and

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interesting, intricate information that connects us to

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the world around us. But a lot of us do. And even those of us

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who don't generally or always thrive on it might thrive on it,

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sometimes. We might. Worth finding out. There is, in fact,

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wonder and beauty everywhere. And the thing about that wonder

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and beauty is that it keeps me... it keeps me glad that I'm

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making the world a better place to be. Keeps me glad that I'm

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making the world a better place for every one; it keeps me glad

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to be glad. And that is absolutely critical to good

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leadership and good ethics because it demands so much of

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us. It demands so much of us to be out front or beside or behind

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or wherever you lead from. It demands so much of us, it asks

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so much of us to make the right decision to be the good example.

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Parents have no idea how much burden they're putting on their

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children, when they tell them they have to set a good example

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for someone else who might not be that far away from them and

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is almost certainly poking their buttons. Also, parents are

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terrible at setting good examples, unless they are very,

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very conscious, because see, all of the leadership in our world

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is subject to the same basic humanity that we are, we are all

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basically human, we are all basically tempted by things that

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would make life easier. At least in the moment,

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at least a little bit of relief, at least a little bit of rest in

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the chaos, in the stress in the desperate clawing of the world,

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at our flesh.

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And at the same time. And at the same time we have so much we

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each have so much somehow we have wisdom or experience, we

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have street credibility or we have college degrees or maybe

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both. We know the rhythms of the place that we spend the most

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time the rise and fall of the tide perhaps or the rise and

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fall of the sun, the texture of grass or different concretes and

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asphalts underfoot. The feeling of stepping on shards of glass

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and pulling them incompletely loose. The different ways our

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tires interact with the surfaces under us rolling around on dirt,

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rolling around on a bed or a sheet or a meadow. staring at

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the sky or staring at the ceiling or staring at a corner

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or staring at a leaf or bird. I find solace in nature. I know

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this is not true for everyone. But also I find solace in the

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textures of silk and linen. texture of cotton, the

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complicated story of cotton. Every one of these little things

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is Beauty to me. Every one of these little things, if I

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remember can be my nourishment can feed me, even if it's just

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enough to get the pump going again, even if it's just enough

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to prime it. There's this story that goes around periodically

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that lives in several places on the internet. About a well. it's

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in the middle of the desert. It's far from any other source

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of water. sometimes it's in the mountains, far from any other

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sources of water there. No streams nearby no oases. Just

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this this one place and it is far, it is far from everything

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else that could be water. It's a well and under the cover of the

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well which is quietly marked there's a single cup with water

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and a little card of instructions and the card of

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instructions says if you drink This water, there won't be any

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left for you or anyone else. But if you have trust in the way the

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pumps work in these instructions and the people who have come

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before you, in the possibilities in the magic of existing in this

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world, that pour this cup of water down into the pump to

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prime it, and then start pumping. And when you do, you

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will have as much water as you need as much water as you can

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drink. And the last thing you need to do before you leave, is

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fill this cup again and leave it here under this cover. So the

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next traveler can also prime the pump. Some people make this into

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a big Christian allegory, but I don't think we need to. I think

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it's complete just the way it is. We all have internal pumps,

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things in us that allow us to bring ourselves into connection

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with the things that will nourish us that will allow us to

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continue to do the important work that we do, to run our

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companies to engage with our families to live in the world to

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exist. And all of us have moments, people places,

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experiences, where we have to decide whether we're just going

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to drink the water that's in our hand. It's warm, it's a little

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brackish. But you know, it's wet. And it's here. Or whether

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we're going to pour that cup down into the wall and start

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pumping. And I tell you, every time I hang on to that cup,

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staring at it, wondering what I should do, whether this is the

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time that I need to drink this water, and hope that things are

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different. Or whether I should pour it down the well every time

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I hang on to that cup. Things get worse every single time. And

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every time I take a deep breath, pour the water into the well.

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Everything opens up. I don't know what that's about. It's

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bigger than me. It's more complicated than me it is

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physics. And also it is not physics. It is something else.

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Because obviously, I'm not always talking not usually

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talking not mostly talking about actual water in actual wells.

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Although we do have an actual water problem in this world. And

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we are going to have to come to terms with it. Basically

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immediately. But if we're not talking about actual water, then

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we're also not talking about the same kind of physics. We're

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talking about a physics that most of us do not understand

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cannot grasp. All we know is that when we pour a little bit

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of ourselves into the world, not enough to kill us.

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When we pour a little bit of ourselves into the world, and

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then we pump we get water but a dry pump yields nothing. So feed

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Feed yourself beauty, feed yourself pleasure. Do not be

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yourself beauty.

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afraid of the pleasure that you need to stay in the world.

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Because you staying in the world, while it's not the only

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way for things to get better, it is certainly one way for things

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to get better for you and for everyone else. So feed yourself