Here’s an old picture of me crying at the Vincent van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. I’d just read the story about his brother’s unwavering love through his lifelong struggle with mental illness. Until the day he died.

Also, the sunflowers were fucking pretty.

This past weekend some activists in #juststopoil shirts threw tomato soup at one of the paintings from the sunflower series on display at the London National Gallery. This was meant to draw attention to the urgency of taking action to address the climate crisis.

This is a creative & strategic kind of protest, meant to command the focus of public attention. It’s the latest in a long series of similar events – i.e., the Mona Lisa, the man who set himself on fire on the steps of the Supreme Court of the United States, etc..

They asked, “which matters more, art or life?”

Without life, there is nobody left to appreciate art.

John Green wrote somewhere that every species has a temporal range, that out there in the future there will be a kind of headstone for the human race with two dates and a dash in between.

There will be a day when there won’t be anyone left to appreciate all of the things humans created and found lovely. (Including the sunflowers, safe behind glass and back on display.)

That day might come sooner or later. I think that’s going to continue to depend on what each of us is willing & able to do about the situation we face.

Think of the things y’all love that might could be lost. Let that become a reason to find ways to help, to continue to do all the things you may already be doing. Even when it’s hard.