What’s holding you

Hello friends,

While vending at Punk Rock Pride last month, something on the pebble dash sidewalk caught my attention. It was a safety pin. I smiled, because safety pins are a hallmark of old school punk. They were a way to keep clothing together even if you didn’t know how to sew. Safety pins were handy for attaching patches and badges to jackets. Best of all? They lacked the respectability of neatly mended clothes.

Safety pins could also be seen to represent the fierce way community holds together. Community isn’t neat or tidy. And sometimes holding it together hurts.

The same is true for our lives. Our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical states. Sometimes, we need a quick solution, even if it isn’t a long term fix. Sometimes, we must take a stab at making things right.

Imperfection is a punk rock ethos. So is DIY. We don’t wait for the perfect moment, or the inviolate solution. We make things up as we go, stitching life together in the most basic way possible.

When I want to complicate things, or my childhood perfectionism rears its head, I take a breath and try to remember: sometimes a safety pin is all I need.

My motto for work and creativity is “Let it be easy.” And that holds true even when the world is burning and life feels hard. A safety pin says, “I can help you in the moment. Let’s keep going.”

A safety pin holds us together until we have enough space to breathe more deeply, to strategize, to cut a new pattern and sew stronger seams.

If a safety pin is what you have to offer yourself and others, use it.

Don’t give up.

Best wishes — Thorn