So I went to Mexico City to join my Media Ecology pals for our annual conference.

A couple days before we left my husband and I were at an Allison Krauss / Union Station concert and he was noticing my distraction as a started typing into my phone. I blame live music in the best way, as it seems to open and expand thoughts that a normal day doesn’t usually allow 💖. Music forever.

Anyway, so I typed…

“Name of you favorite person. Overalls.”

No one is nothing 

Someone is something

The next day I bought some fabric markers and kept the thought safe with me. They day after that, we got on a plane to elsewhere.

I spent the week intentionally meeting people, forcing our mutual existences to collide. I asked strangers not to write their own names, which is a kind of simple, assumed, yearbook sort of flex…but the name of their favorite person. Not someone they have never met and admire from afar, but someone who makes their life better just by being in it. I love what happened next.

They seemed surprised to have to think. To have to pause. To contemplate.

“But I’m not here for the conference.”

Doesn’t matter.

“But I’m just a student.” Perfect, please write the name of your favorite person.

And then the gentle smiles appeared.

Can I do more than one?

Can I take a picture of this to show them?

Can I write my local bartender?

My professor?

My kids?

My husband?

My best friend?

My boyfriend?

My cat? (Nope)

Writing your own name is easy. We are asked to do it all the time. Deciding who and what matters to you takes a little more time, and it’s worth every moment spent getting there.

Now I have a wearable artifact built through individual people with individual experiences who were willing to interrupt whatever it was they were on the way to to pause. Consider. To give value to another human, and respond in kind.

The space from nothing to something is smaller than we think.

The shift from meaningless to meaningful, or purposeless to purposeful starts with with paying attention.

In this case, intentional attention created affection.

It was a privilege to experience. I’m keeping the overalls.