greetings loved ones

"Well, it’s that time again. I mark mid-summer by the sharing of this photo on its anniversary. This photo has spent six years circulating in the internet’s many corners and in the stories of people who have both found new relationships and/or ended friendships. 2017, New York, I was invited to a track-by-track celebration of Carly Rae Jepsen's EMOTION, where each writer was assigned one song to give a presentation on. I wanted "Warm Blood" but picked too late and got "Your Type," and made a presentation on my phone on the plane, but this was the only slide, and I read a long thing about desire, and about that thin veil between realizing you like someone and realizing you LIKE someone, about falling in love with friends, about being platonically in love with friends, about treating platonic love with the same generosity and rigor as romantic love. But mostly about the bravery of Big Declarations Of Emotion. Because of the nature of the party, and the fact that this photo has circulated for years without context, I think it has led to more Big Declarations Of Emotion than anything, and I don't mind that, I suppose. I still get people, to this day, telling me they were at this event or they've seen this photo and that they were inspired to tell someone they were in love with them. It feels especially exciting to share this year, in a year where I’ve gotten to be the most excited witness to my friends and their fluorescent joys. Marriages, new houses, new kids, their bravery and openness with the world. Being an audience to that makes me bold in my capacity for love, for care. We ascend to better versions of ourselves through our love for each other, and that is romance. The best kind. The results are sometimes mixed, I’ve heard. They always are. If you told a friend you love them and things got weird, I apologize. but to be fair, I wanted Warm Blood. As I say every year, there are so many ways to fall for someone. If you are at the edge of the cliff anyway, consider taking the leap. The ground might be soft enough to hold you and whatever comes next, and if it isn't there will always be more cliffs, more edges."