Who’s to question what color looks best on you when the hue always has the final say? The most deceptive tints possess glints of emerald and wishful thinking. You notice how lovely the neighbor’s front lawn is but are disappointed when you walk by and realize it’s a sprayed-on evergreen façade. There goes the neighborhood and welcome naysayers’ creditability to the community when a lie is manicured and advertised as having front curb appeal. No pile of leaves will rake themselves up if the shovel lacks a handle and has a hole in it. If only there were cruise control for navigating how we leap from one place to another in our lives but also guides us to how those places leapt into us. Who can recall what prompted the shooter to storm into the schoolyard after recess? Who can confirm the number of bullets it takes before we begin caring about the color and consistency of kindergarteners’ blood?

It is difficult to look at a rhinoceros & remain proud of one’s couch. —Mathias Svalina

I didn’t write the rules, but finding change between the cushions is the most unimaginative way to save up for a rainy day; everything is generic in its natural habitat. Even the most ferocious wildlife is mundane and tame compared to a heartfelt moment shared among two baristas in between making drinks. If you are lucky enough to witness the outpouring of a soul, that’s a scene less voyeuristic than vultures circling overhead waiting for the lion to finish eating his kill. The rusty button I saw in front of the coffee shop said I love compost, and as I read it thought, we should all be so bold as to declare our fondness for fertilizing and decay, while sipping my $7 drink. The degree to which we measure acts of compassion is the difference between what moves us to act rather than to bystand. Some of us simply sit on the furniture before we buy it to see how our bodies conform to the cushion, and others jump up and down on it as if testing how much weight it can withstand because we know there will be days when we need a safe place to absorb the crash.