It can sometimes feel like loving the beauty that surrounds us is somehow disrespectful to the many horros that also surround us. But mostly, I think I'm just scaed that if I show the world my belly, it will devour me. And so I wear the armor of cynicism, and hide behind the great walls of irony, and only glimpse beauty with my back turned to it, through the Claude glass.

But I want to be earnest, even if it's embarassing. The photographer Alec Soth has said, "To me, the most beautiful thing is vulnerability". I would go a step further and argue that you cannot see the beauty which is enough unless you make yourself vulnerable to it.