HEAVENLY BODIES AND THE INEXORABLE BRILLIANCE OF SMILING SOULS
(Or Shits & giggles)
Whether you have been following our little project for some time or found it recently, I say welcome back. The last few months have been pretty incredible around the CLP and the enormous growth we’ve experienced is all thanks to you. We thank you for your company, your generosity, and your overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Like always, we encourage you to share us with your friends, your family, the stranger down the street and that cute guy/girl at your favorite coffee shop (hey, it’s a good conversation starter).
As a token of my gratitude for all of your goodness, I’d like to share something I was lucky enough to learn over the last months.
Shits
Maybe it’s a law of nature. Maybe it’s a common truth lost somewhere behind an all-too-banal, not-shocking-enough headline in the corner of the internet. Maybe it’s even in a book (I believe it’s pronounced like hook, but with a b instead of an h).
“We’re all slaves to gravity and it’s simply easier to fall to the ground than reach for the clouds.”
I could chalk it up to the universe. We walk on one small rock floating around a much larger rock and because of that, we have to live with the consequences. We’re all slaves to gravity and it’s simply easier to fall to the ground than reach for the clouds.
But some people prove the reach is always a worthwhile endeavor.
&
Mr. James Justice passed away little over a month ago. I knew him for 6 hours. It took me 6 seconds recognize the light bursting out of him. I could live 6 lifetimes and not forget him.
The overwhelming amount of feedback we’ve received since posting his profile seems to prove this light to be another law of some sort (maybe natural, maybe something else).
“What a great person to be in his presence, with a smile so quick to appear when he saw you.”
His family and friends all saw it.
Total strangers to us, who only knew Jimmy for brief times in their lives, reached out to tell us they felt it too.
Visitors to his profile expressed their similar sentiments after having known him only through this website.
His light apparently travels over wi-fi.
Giggles
It’s just too damn easy to be cynical anymore.
The kids are messed up. The established don’t get it. The rich don’t care and the poor don’t don’t work. Look at the news or a newsfeed for too long and just wait for the rage, frustration and jealousy bubble up inside of you.
You fall into your darkest self and it’s so incredibly easy. Being angry, or hurt is seductive. It gets attention, even if it's the ugliest kind.
Luckily for us, people like Jimmy show up every now and then. People like Fosca, Gene, Vira, Herman and all of our other incredible friends show up. They show up and show us something better.
They show us light.
They’re walking -however slow- proof, that the right attitude and a good laugh will overcome anything. It’s miraculous that these people even exist, and yet, they're all around us. Encouragement surrounds us everywhere we go if we simply look for it.
So what stops us from being like Jimmy for someone in our lives? Is it even possible to be so thoroughly good that people can’t help but feel our light? I don’t know. We’re human and we forget things. We get cold. We get dark.
If Jimmy proved anything though, it’s that the light is out there. Maybe, we’re all capable of reflecting some of it.
Enjoy
Thanks for stopping by. If you’ve made it this far, I commend you. This article turned out to be a little longer than I expected, but these things happen. I encourage you to enjoy James Justice’s profile if you haven't already. Or check out all the others. We have some pretty incredible stories just waiting for you.
As for Jimmy, it’s no wonder he spent part of his life flying. The man’s spirit was so strong I’m surprised he stayed on the ground at all. I’m glad he did though, for everyone’s sake.