Several years ago, I started a list in the Notes app on my phone. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I just needed it. It was a landing place for any names, quotes, or ideas that answered some strange question I didn’t yet know how to put into words.
I collected words that sparked something in me. I took notice when I witnessed examples of people fully alive or freshly engaged with life. People who embraced living not as a bystander or a critic, but as something more. People living as activists, artivists (thank you, Nikkolas Smith), students, creators, curators, collaborators.
People who make being a person look… not miserable.
In his novel, The Moviegoer, Walker Percy wrote:
“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.”
The search! I was on a search! I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, but I knew it when I saw it. And I wrote it down.
Looking at the list now I can see what I was searching for: the opposite of despair.
Today I want to share some of these. These are stories of people I came to categorize as enthusiasts. Maybe they’ll be helpful to you. To me, it feels like they are answers to the question:
What does it look like to live well?
EXPLODE EVERY DAY.
An interviewer asks Ray Bradbury, “We hear this term ‘grow up’. Do you feel like you’ve grown up? How have you been able to stay connected to your inner child over the years?’ Bradbury, age 89 at the time, slowly but passionately responded:
“You remain invested in your inner child by exploding every day. You don’t worry about the future, you don’t worry about the past, you just explode.”
Obviously, this isn’t about literal fireworks (though, who’s stopping you?). It’s about finding something each day that ignites your spirit. Bradbury’s exuberant answer meant so much to me when I first read it. Here was a vision of growing older while also remaining deeply passionate about life and living. I want that.
Even better than reading it was when I found the audio! Because I love you, I present it to you here:
THE TONI MORRISON QUESTION.
This question changed so much for me. I’ve worried a lot about saying the right words in life — especially to my children. This conversation with Toni Morrison, though, turned my thinking upside down. I hold it close and think of it often.
She asks in the context of how we react to children,
“Does your face light up?”
This, she argues, is what they’re looking for. I believe this same sort of soul-on-fire bright care and attention can be extended beyond children. What would it look like for people to see our faces genuinely light up when they’re around?
Watch the clip and listen to her words here:
THE ENTHUSIAST’S OATH
“And I will never look at the stars and yawn,” - Madeleine L’Engle
This promise is made by L’Engle in the preface to her book, ‘Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children’s Books.’ I found it at a used bookstore several years back while traveling and immediately scooped it up. The opening lines explore how wonder shaped her earliest view of existence and she vowed never to lose it.
I love this starry promise so much. May it be so.
Here’s to embracing your inner enthusiast.
In a world where there are so many reasons to dial it down, fit in, or adhere to whatever the algorithms ask of you, we need your spark. We need more people refusing to yawn at stars - or humans. It’s not just an act of rebellion - it’s an act of radical joy. We need it. We need you.
Keep exploding.
What say you? ‘What’s an enthusiast?’ Add to the list! Leave me a comment!
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Being an enthusiast - genuinely finding pure joy in the happiness of others. Irrespective of the impact it has on your life - being enthusiastic about their happiness and contentment.
Thank you Brad! There is a feeling of familiarity and ease that lands with me whenever I read your posts, and it seems these lessons you share are very embodied in the ways you show up. I hope you remember that.
For me it is the moments when I tap into someone and see the person in front of me lights up that I know this random conversation is to turn into gold.