The Impossible Task of Optimism

Week 18: The Brilliance Experiment

Hi, Softies! Thanks for the kind feedback on last week’s new format. It felt really good to make this pivot for the Brilliance Experiment, and I hope you enjoy today’s letter. See you in the comments!!!

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Optimism feels like an impossible task lately.

Last summer, I read Basilica by R.A. Scotti about the construction of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome during the fall of the Roman Empire. It was absolutely unhinged! These Kings and Popes were off their asses, intoxicated by power.

It reminded me of how fucked up things have always been. Not saying it’s gotten any better, but things were hectic in the 1500s, you guys. We lose sight of that when we stop reading history.

There have always been a groups of people watching horrific things unfold and thinking what in the absolute fuckery is going on now??? And yet, somehow they kept believing in progress and change.

Someone has to fight for a better future and choosing optimism is part of that. Choosing optimism when there is absolutely no reason to believe in it at all is part of progress and change.

That’s how we got Spirituals and the blues.

It’s why Picasso painted Guernica and Judy Chicago created The Dinner Party.

It’s how we got Night, and The Diary of Anne Frank, and Man’s Search for Meaning.

Because art is optimistic. It’s absurd and we do it anyway, because we can’t help ourselves from trying to make sense of the senseless.

Don’t let them take your optimism and thus your creative life force. We need it.

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🪁 A note for free subscribers and new faces:

I always get to a writer’s paywalled content and I’m like, okay well wtf would I even be paying for??? joie de vivre is a peek into my real life, what I’m learning and processing about the relentless pursuit of staying connected to small, simple joy in the modern world.

Here’s what you’ll get in today’s issue:

• I’m working on a piece about what all the screen time is doing to our physical and energetic bodies. You’ll get my initial thoughts on this and some helpful recs for people who feel like prawns from sitting at their desks for too long.

• I spent the week looking for the color yellow and it taught me a lot about fighting for whimsy and joy.

• I’m sharing how I’m using Internal Family Systems therapy to change my beliefs about money

• My Summer 2025 Playlist

• An experiment to heal your Inner Teenager

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This is your body on too much Internet

I recently interviewed my internet friend

Nate Horton, PT

, who is a physical therapist for ADHD people. I wanted to speak with a professional about wtf all this time on screens might be doing to our bodies.

Nate’s approach is holistic, and while I went in looking for a bunch of quick-fix corrective exercises to write up in a listicle, he reminded me that this is much bigger than stretching out your neck and shoulders.

And when I am scrunched over on my phone, curved spine, tense shoulders, heavy hands, and squinting my eyes… it is definitely a bigger issue than finding the right stretch. That’s a disconnected body and mind. Yikes.