Happy Sunday, Reader!

Greetings from Sheboygan, where my kids may think I'm old, but at least I'm not as old as America, amiright?! And thanks to everyone who joined us for the Ice Cream Social on Tuesday night. What fun!

How many sleeps?

The "sleep" is a standard unit of measurement in the universe of childhood.

At least it was in mine.

How many sleeps till Christmas? How many sleeps till vacation? How many sleeps till the cousins come over?

Although it's an alternative measurement of time — most old people tend to use the term "days" — it almost always carried a spark of excitement. As the number of sleeps decreased, the level of joyful anticipation grew more abundant.

And frankly, torturous.

Remember the days when you'd use most of October to dream up and analyze myriad Halloween costume ideas before settling on the perfect one? Remember the Herculean effort it took to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, as visions of what might be in Santa's bag made it nearly impossible? Remember fantasizing about what sort of Valentine message you'd get from the person you secretly had a crush on?

Anticipation is the electricity of childhood and a power source we adults don’t plug into nearly enough.

It's not that anticipation doesn't exist in adulthood. It surely does. But it mostly takes the form of worrying about bad things happening. As Aristotle noted, "Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil."

The joyful brand of anticipation, however, is in short supply.

And that's one of the reasons Adultitis is so rampant.

As noted, anticipation often feels unbearable. (Even the good kind.) But as kids, there's not much you can do about it. You could beg Dad to let you in on the surprise he announced was up his sleeve, but he'd never budge. So you were forced to wait, your stomach tied up in knots, certain you'd die from rising levels of giddy anticipation.

As adults, we like not knowing even less than we did as children. It makes us feel powerless and out of control. But alas, now we have the power to do something about that torturous netherworld of not knowing.

And so we do.

In our haste to cut to the chase and avoid the torturous space of not knowing, we discard one of the best parts of life. And we only have ourselves to blame.

Anticipation of a positive experience is at least as valuable and enjoyable as the experience itself.

The weeks leading up to vacation are just as valuable as the week you're actually on it. Those weeks of waiting cost exactly zero dollars, effectively making them free happiness. That’s what anticipation does. It makes you happy as you live good moments in advance, through your imagination. It fills you with a sense of hope and extra excitement, making it easier to navigate the valleys of your day-to-day.

One unconventional thing Kim and I did was opt out of learning the sex of our babies before they were born. Many people elect to find out this not-so-little detail as soon as possible. That's fine, but I find it funny how often they use a lot of responsible-sounding grown-up language to justify it, as if knowing were a necessity. There are too few surprises in the world, and we decided to keep it under wraps for the full term. Some people thought it was cool; others thought we were crazy. One woman in an airport even went so far as to say, dumbfoundedly, "Oh. I guess that can be fun too."

To be sure, it drove me crazy not knowing. Absolutely bonkers. I was up to my eyeballs in anticipation, and you know what?

I loved every torturous minute of it.

As another, more modern-day philosopher, Willy Wonka said, "The suspense is terrible; I hope it will last."

We introduced The Collector Club this week, and I've been thrilled by the response. It turns out there are lots of people who not only like my art, but also appreciate the element of surprise. Because that's something we intentionally built in. Every month, you receive a mystery Mini*Print in the mail (and a story to go with it!), and you get to see it before anyone else. I love that I can share my art and stories in a new way, but the best part might be the opportunity to deliver surprise and delight every single month.

Anticipation on autopilot.

As of today, there are officially twenty-six sleeps left before your opportunity to receive the first print as a Founding Collector ends.

Regardless of whether The Collector Club is for you, I encourage you to figure out ways to build more anticipation into your life. At the very least, you should always have a vacation on your calendar and something to look forward to next week.

In adulthood, you have the power to eliminate anticipation in ways you never could as a child. But doing so creates a vacuum that fear is eager to fill.

It's quite tempting to skip to the end, to sneak a peek, to make the magician reveal the secret to his trick. Especially when you can. Resist, my friend. Don't rob yourself of the misunderstood and unheralded joy of anticipation.

Because it's never much fun to unwrap a present when you already know what's inside.

I'll leave you with a quote from one last philosopher.

“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” (A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh)

What's something to look forward to that you can add to your calendar today? Share your thoughts with me, join the conversation in The Wonderground, or spend time this week recording them in your journal.

Stay young and stay fun,

Join The Collector Club! 💌 For people who love my art and still believe there’s magic in receiving something meaningful in the mail. Join by July 31st to receive the inaugural print. Become a Founding Collector!

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