Last Day of the Year Lessons

Mission, Museum and Musings...

1. You do not need all the clothes you have.  Give them.
2. Homeless are you and me with less shelter, oh, and more manners. 
3. Choose to look beyond someone's appearance and circumstance and find their story.  The Year I Was Homeless
4. It still is okay to take a whole booth and eat a whole meal by your whole self.  You're a whole grown up.
5. Coleslaw is awesome. 
6. It might seem silly to you in your rush to go to the next place and do the next thing but STOP!  Breathe.  Smell all the smells.  Listen to all the sounds.  Hear all the conversations.  Pick out the ones that interest you the most.  Look around and see all the colors. 
7. It's okay to stop your car on the side of the road if you have a thought and want to write it down.  It's not okay to do it in the right turn lane.  People don't really like that. 
8. Making out in underground museum parking lots is hell o' sexy.  I wish it was me in that car.  I wish it was me in that car with you.  Yes, you.
9. If you need to, go ahead....impress people with your knowledge of art.  You don't need to impress me.  I'd like to know what piece makes you smile and what piece makes you frown and what piece makes you mad.  I'd like to know what piece you think is a waste of your "hard earned money" and what piece makes you want to fall in love. 

10. Some paintings seem so overwhelming and emotional when you are young.  And then you grow up, well, not so much.  It's the same with difficult people.
11. A homeless woman wearing a glittery New Year's Eve hat?  That's some fkn' perspective.
12. There was this piece in the Eli Broad building at LACMA.  You sit on a bench, one of many, and look at what appears to be a, ummm, black wall.  It's not.  It's for you to do what you will with...think, create, cry, dream, grieve, whatever.  Rest even!  Not everything has to be covered with something.  Not every moment between two people has to be full of conversation...there can be lulls and there can be space and that's really beautiful in relationships, I mean...uh, art. 
13. Hip Museum Girl said she saw me walk in earlier and loved my shoes.  Sometimes it can feel SO lonely being alone and then you realize someone is watching you.  Or someone has noticed you.  You're not so alone, little bird.  Go out and have those little adventures all by your lonesome. You'll be just fine. 

Much love,
Cole