Spidey Sense

Color/Word/Feeling of the Year

Ok listen - I wrote a post a few days ago
But it wasn’t quite fully baked.
So I left it sitting in drafts.
As you do.

And now I’m kind of freaking out
In a good way?
About my Spidey Sense.
I mean check this out.

The post was about the OED word of the year.
Which is rizz.
Meaning charisma. Or game.
In case you are not hip to the lingo.
Which Spellfuck is not.

As I said two days ago:
Spellfuck wants rizz to be fizz.
Which makes me wonder
Is Fizz going be the Pantone Color of the Year.
I really think it could be fizz.
Things are bubbly.
Effervescent.
Also chaotic.
Champagney.
Fizzy and not quite clear.
If it’s that
I hope I get some bonus points!

And then yesterday Pantone announced
The color of the year.
And ok.
It isn’t fizz.
But it is fuzz!
Woah.

SpecificallyPeach Fuzz.
You have to admit.
Insanely close.
And the color itself really does look a lot like champagne.

Their reasoning includes this:
”A warm and cozy shade highlighting our desire for togetherness with others and the feelings this creates… a fresh approach to a new softness. {A NEW SOFTNESS? IS THERE? I HOPE SO!} Subtly sensual… a feeling of tenderness and communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration….”

Desire for togetherness
Is how they describe
My half baked 12 second Spidey Sense short hand
Effervescent and chaotic.
Chaos is the change agent that creates the desire for togetherness.
Effervescence is one way to describe
The joyful feeling that togetherness brings.

And besides sounding like rizz
Fizz
And Fuzz as they call it
Are about connections.
Not just in the way
The two z’s
ZZ
Look together.
Almost like they are spooning.
And TBH that zz formation is giving good sleep vibes.
Good sleep may be what happens after rizz.
Which is about hooking up.
That charisma that makes hooking up easier.
I mean that’s so ZZ.

I bring it up
Not just for the extra credit bonus points I might get
But also because
I had a client recently who was doubting her Spidey Sense.
And I want to take time to emphasize
For her, for you, for me.
If there has ever been a time to trust your Spidey Sense
It is now.
Information overwhelm.
Facts.
Fake news.
Spidey sense is one of the benefits of the creative life.
Creative work helps develop it.
And you need it to do creative work.

But still.
I might not even have done this piece.
It felt a little bit like look at me I was right!
Ok I was almost right!
But I was working at a friend’s fancy kitchen island
And I looked up from the computer
And there was a leggy spider.
Dangling from its invisible thread.
Right in front of my face.
Like it was just floating.

I took it as a sign to write about Spidey Sense.
Because as far as signs go.
When things are loud - listen.
Like if that had happened out in the woods.
No big deal.
Or when I hadn’t been exactly thinking about Spidey Sense.
No big deal.
Repeated things.
Out of place things.
On the nose things.
Signs.

And why?
Why really write it.
Because of the loneliness epidemic.
Rizz and the sexual hook ups.
Peach fuzz and its soft emotional longing.
They are both loneliness referential.
And more than a word or a color
It’s the emotion of the year we need to get.

And how perfectly perfect
To have Taylor Swift on the cover of Time.
The You’re On Your Own, Kid girl.
Who has stayed steady and grown strong
Not giving in to gossip or gotcha.
Filling stadiums
With Swifties (a contender for word of the year!)
Leaning into loneliness to find a way out of it.

Dr Ruth that groundbreaking elf of therapy
Has given up her work with sex
To address this loneliness epidemic.
And during this holiday season when it can be so much worse
Be soft with yourself.
As soft as Peach Fuzz.
Listen fully to the signs.
Think about the rizz it takes to hook up
With your real story
The work ahead of you
The projects that you wish would flirt with you.
Next year’s work awaits.
But there is no rush to get there.
Enjoy some z’s.