i like bugs

This shirt was made for my beloved Alie Ward. She hosts the Ologies podcast and as long as I’ve known her she has liked bugs. The bugs you see here are a monarch butterfly, an orb weaver (technically argiope appensa sometimes called banana spider or Hawaiian garden spider), a tarantula hawk, and a praying mantis. These were the first bugs that came to mind when I thought of how Alie likes bugs. They are all big bugs, really beautiful bugs, bugs with a lot of personality and wonder to them. They remind me of Alie. One thing I love about Alie, and other people who like bugs, is that they have transcended one of the most basic moral failures of most human beings. To fear what they don’t understand, to allow their fear to dictate their actions toward what the fear, to often times destroy the thing they fear rather than deal with their own feelings. When that feeling of fear can be transcended you are able to see the exquisite beauty of those things we previously feared, or perhaps still fear but manage to now surpass. We can talk to the fearful part of ourselves like a spooked horse, caressing it and saying… it’s okay bud. I know it looks scary but it’s not gonna hurt us. We can marvel at it now, learn from it and be inspired by it. The world is full of such things. I guess I think it’s almost a revolutionary act to simply be able to with a full heart say something as simple as what this shirt does. I like bugs.

Prints of this shirt are made on demand, so it will take a bit longer than a normal shirt to get to you. In my experience a couple weeks is not unusual.