Talk and Tales from Coco, Optimist in Charge at The Shiny Butter Blog
Come alive, stay real
It makes sense, Reader,
Long before the dawn of what we now call technology,
and certainly before the likes of AI,
well before the telephones where you had to ask the operator to place your call,
before the internet and these pocket computers called "smart" phones,
and definitely before we had screens in front of us constantly and cameras watching and listening to us with barely a moment's relief anytime or anywhere,
we craved getting together with each other.
This hasn't changed.
Even during 2020 people would sit spaced out in someone's yard, just to be together.
Human-to-human life.
We've all got the things that keep us busy, yet even if it's one person at a time, we want to talk to someone now and again.
Make contact. Feel alive. See signs of life. Be with humans, even if a little goes a long way for some of us.
Even if it's being by yourself in a crowd, people still want to go out in public, or be somewhere where there are other people.
I love this about humans.
It's so simple. It's so human. It's so real.
Even with all the mental and moral gymnastics we do to justify our opinions and judgments of one another, and even though we have ourselves sorted into this, that, and the other category, we still want to be around each other.
To hang out. Chat. Snack on things. Lounge about. Do nothing of worldly value.
And we particularly like to be outside together, which says something grand about life on this planet.
We crave being around other people, even when we're by ourself doing it.
And it makes sense.
We're social. It's baked right into humanity. Very few of us can go it completely alone or want to in this life.
We're all on this orbiting home together (no matter what lengths we go to trying to sort and separate ourselves).
So do this:
Go places where people are lolling about, like a park, or sitting around, like a café. Try to leave your phone out of reach. (Be present.) Go alone or meet some friends somewhere or invite people over.
Do something of no worldly value.
Sit around, read, daydream, smile at a kid, doodle or draw, lie in the sun with a hat over your face while you talk back and forth till one of you falls asleep, chat with a cashier and try to remember their name for next time, stare at the clouds, play croquet, sit under an umbrella at the beach, play in the sand, walk in the woods, float around on a blow-up seat shaped like a flamingo, watch a thunderstorm, get soaked walking in the rain and laugh about it when you make your way inside.
Whatever you do, don't be productive.
Be around people now and then for no productive reason whatsoever.
And do nothing of worldly value together.
We need more of this.
Thanks for being on the other side of the screen today
Stay peaceful, curious, and very real.
Shine on, my friend!
Coco
p.s.I offer one:one private coaching for those who want to optimize your pure enjoyment of life. If you feel like somewhere along the way you got off track and really want to get back to living a life that lights you up—or find that life for the first time, even while doing nothing of worldly value, visit me here or simply reply to this email with a few times you can talk for an hour.
I love me some shiny things, but with all of AI's promises and assurances, I still choose the slow, hands-on, manual, analog, self-reliant, old-school, defiantly non-plagiarized path of writing—without asking any form of AI for ideas, inspiration, or even proofreading and grammar correction (because I've discovered it's not as good or "intuitive" as it claims to be at those, either).
[Also, as of 5/6/25 all photos are my own (not stock) unless otherwise stated.]
