Blog / 2020 / For the Love of Stickers

Even when I’m stressed or sad, I try to be positive, both with others and with myself. I have a mantra that I repeat when I’m feeling anxious. Under normal circumstances, I say it to myself at least once every other day to help me find my balance:

Since the physical distancing and stay-at-home orders started, I have not had to use my mantra even once. In other words, it appears as though my fear of the pandemic’s destructive powers has cured me of my fears about myself, and this is exactly as splendid and terrible as it sounds. If I survive—if society survives—I plan to figure out what it might mean for my future well-being.

In the meantime, there’s this. I know that a holographic cow-unicorn sticker can’t undo the current and still-to-come devastation of COVID-19, but I also know that, when it feels like nothing at all matters, human connection saves us.

That’s why I am mailing this shiny rainbow creature to my Patreon sticker club members in April. I had been saving the cow-unicorn for later in the year, but, in light of everything, it seems silly to wait. If you want this sticker, all you have to do is sign up to send $5 or more every month to me through Patreon before the end of March.

Mailing out stickers every month to my 78 sticker collectors has become a ritual I look forward to. Their microdonations mega-uplift me by keeping a portion of my income steady, and writing each of their 78 addresses by hand puts me in a sacred state of mind. With each envelope I complete, I reflect on how it’s only by working together that we thrive.

The video below is from 2018, and it shows the making of the cow-unicorn image while explaining where it comes from.