Author: Jason

I love fall, but I’m not ready for summer to be over. 

The problem is, I’m not sure it is.

I know kids are back in school, which is a convenient but not universal guidepost. But when exactly is the first day of fall?

Valentine’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day. Christmas. We all know the dates of those holidays. They’re burned into our memory. Knowing when Cinco de Mayo is even makes you feel smart and proud that you sorta kinda almost know how to speak Spanish. 

Informally, I often think of the first day of spring as the first day I see a robin. By that logic, is the first day of fall the first day I see a Spirit Halloween store?

Our family was recently talking about the start of fall, and my daughter Lucy confidently declared it was September 1st. That didn’t sound right to me — I always thought it was one of those “roving” holidays, like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Opening Day in baseball. 

So I looked it up. It didn’t take long to understand why there’s so much confusion. 

As I suspected, like Easter, the first day of fall depends on the specific position of objects in space. (Naturally?) The moon determines Easter, and the sun dictates the beginning of fall, which is when it aligns directly over the equator and varies from year to year. 

But that’s not the only reason for confusion. It’s exacerbated by the fact that there are TWO definitions of fall.

You see, I just described “Astronomical Fall.” There’s also “Meteorological Fall,” a fixed three-month period that makes it easy to track climate and weather data. It starts on September 1 and runs through November 30. 

So Lucy was right after all. Sort of.

If there are already two definitions, might I suggest a third as the day Starbucks starts pimping their Pumpkin Spice Latte?

According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the astronomical first day of fall in 2026 is Tuesday, September 22, at 8:04 p.m. EDT (7:04 p.m. CDT)

Ha! There it is! For those not ready for summer to be over, you are validated! It’s not!

By the way, isn’t it ironic how a holiday with a date no one knows actually begins at a specific minute?

If you are like me and are not yet ready for summer to be over, might I suggest one last hurrah?

Go bananas and build the ultimate banana split.

It’s hard to imagine a food that feels more like summer than a banana split. (Downing one mid-February just feels sad.) It’s also hard to imagine a food that brings more joy than a banana split. Slide one in front of anyone and a smile is sure to follow.

The banana split must have been invented by a child – or someone very childlike* – because children show no restraint. They care not one whit about calories. Three flavors of ice cream, because that’s superior to two and three times better than one. Drench everything with rivers of chocolate and mounds of strawberries. Pile up that whipped cream as high as it will go. Throw on a cherry for good measure – make it two because, why not? – and let it rain with sprinkles.

This is a metaphor for how kids live life: Big. Bold. Generous. Colorful. And a little ridiculous.

A pretty good definition of summer, too, if I do say so. 

Unfortunately, as we grow older and Adultitis settles in, we often do the opposite. We play small. We become more restrained, more reserved, less willing to take risks, less colorful, and, unfortunately, less open to joy. 

Slowly but surely, our zest for life fades as the proverbial leaves fall from our tree. 

This need not be our fate, however. We can dream big again. We can be bold, say yes with abandon, and risk biting off more than we can chew. We might have to be willing to look silly, but we can renew our enthusiasm and rekindle the true joy of living that came so easily to us as children.

Can making a banana split achieve all of that? 

Perhaps not, but it’s a good place to start.

If you need to, feel free to sprinkle on a little pumpkin spice. 

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☕ Are you still hanging on to summer, or happy for fall to arrive?

Forget about liberal and conservative; if you really want to stir the pot, call someone a pessimist.

I recently shared the benefits of being optimistic, and the response it generated was fascinating. I enjoyed these creative takes:

“The glass is always full… don’t forget about the air inside.”

“Not only is the glass half-empty; it’s the wrong beverage!!”

“It doesn’t matter if the glass is half-full or half-empty; the glass is refillable.”

And then there’s this one from an engineer: “A pessimist sees the container as half-empty; an optimist sees it as half-full. An engineer sees that the container is twice the size that is needed.”

It turns out that the labels “optimism” and “pessimism” are like the concept of “life balance” — everyone has a different definition of what it looks like, and a strong opinion of whether it’s possible at all.

No one likes to admit they are a pessimist. So they call themselves realists instead. In my experience, self-proclaimed “realists” are quite good at telling you why something might not work, but less effective at sharing examples of how it might go better than expected.

To be fair, I’ve always been suspicious of people who seem almost too optimistic, in the Lego Movie’s “Everything is Awesome” sort of way. A vital component of creativity is the ability to look for problems, then work to find positive solutions.

The hidden danger of optimism is letting your assumption that everything will work out prevent you from trying to get better. On the other hand, pessimism feels like a synonym for Adultitis, so I can see the vitriol against it as a label. 

So let’s put labels aside in favor of a few things that are really real:

1. “Optimist” and “idiot” are not synonyms.
2. Being an optimist does not preclude one from identifying weaknesses and potential roadblocks.
3. Seeing a flaw in a plan or identifying a reason why something might not work doesn’t make you a pessimist.
4. It is not “realistic” to assume a plan will work out without any hiccups, setbacks, or wrong turns.
5. It’s also not “realistic” to assume there will only be hiccups, setbacks, and wrong turns.

We should all strive to be realists. But a true realist would acknowledge that things might go worse than we hoped, and they may also go better than expected. Failing to imagine a successful outcome or a better way forward is a lack of hope and a form of pride, believing one can see all possible scenarios.

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds, arguing over labels and definitions, and justifying why our point of view is best. Most importantly, whether you label your worldview as optimistic, pessimistic, or realistic…is it helping?

Is it moving you forward, or getting you to stop?

When optimism becomes a form of laziness that believes everything will be fine without you having to put in any effort whatsoever, that’s a problem.

Equally troublesome is when pessimism turns you into not just someone who sees the glass half empty, but a person who gives up and encourages others to give up, too.

Worst of all is giving ourselves the label “realist” to sound smart while providing cover for throwing in the towel.

Screw the labels. Here’s the question that matters: what do you do when you uncover a reason your plan might not work or encounter a setback that threatens defeat?

What then?

If you stop, that’s a problem.

Is it half full, or half empty? Our default tendency to assume the best or the worst in a given situation might be out of our control.

But that matters less than whether we let it make us stop or keep moving forward.

Don’t make being realistic the same as giving up. 

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☕ When was a time you refused to give up and transformed a setback or a potential pitfall into a win?

Yesterday, August 8th, was Escape Adulthood Day. You won’t find it on any calendar, unless it’s a Celebrate Everything calendar (the 2027 edition is coming soon!) We invented it because the idea that you can’t make up your own holidays is a rule that doesn’t exist. It coincides with the launch of our website and the publication of the first Kim & Jason comic strip.

Despite our business evolving in many ways over the years, the paper airplane remains our symbol.

I can’t think of anything more appropriate.

From watching birds to the development of the airplane to the exploration of outer space, flight has always been a source of wonder for mankind, and the paper airplane embodies it.

Imagine a squadron of paper airplanes encircling a classroom or cubicle farm, representing an escape from the tyranny of Adultitis, especially if the paper is a test, homework, or a bank statement. It becomes a small rebellion against taking oneself too seriously.

Although seemingly silly, rudimentary, and unimportant, a paper airplane represents powerful truths. In many ways, the paper airplane is the ultimate reminder.

The paper airplane reminds us that with a little imagination, we can rise above our circumstances, challenges, and limitations.

The paper airplane reminds us that if we don’t like how things are, we have the power to change them.

The paper airplane reminds us that even basic, boring, and unremarkable things can be transformed into something interesting and fun.

The paper airplane reminds us that although we might want to crumple up and throw away the things that bring us pain, the more rebellious act is not destruction but turning them into something uplifting.

Then there’s this peculiar quality about paper airplanes.

Even children can make one, and they are more inclined to do so than any grown-up. But adults have the ability and skill to optimize them to become well-engineered flying machines. The paper airplane reminds us that a successful life requires both a childlike spirit AND the knowledge and maturity of adulthood.

The paper airplane represents freedom, reminding us that we can’t control life’s winds, and that the truest freedom comes when we surrender to the mighty winds of the Holy Spirit.

The whimsical, unpredictable flight path of a paper airplane adds a magical spark of serendipity to life.

At its core, the paper airplane reminds us that we can fashion what we have — our circumstances, resources, talents — into something better.

And we don’t need anything we don’t already have.

We just need to be willing to change.

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☕ What reminder from the paper airplane did you most need to hear?

Every single airplane was grounded by the storms surrounding the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

I wasn’t worried.

Kim and I had a three-hour layover in Detroit. Plenty of cushion!

We sat on the plane for over an hour before the storm passed. Then the pilot came on to tell us that our fuel tanks were too hot — is that bad? That sounds bad… — and that we had to return to the gate to have them checked. 

We deplaned, re-boarded, and eventually made it to Detroit.

Four hours late.

The rest of the night became a cavalcade of crushed hopes. 

At least we’ve been automatically re-booked…for a flight the next afternoon.

At least the airline will cover our hotel…if we wait behind 137 people in the virtual customer service queue.

At least we could smother our sorrows with Detroit-style pizza…except the restaurant had closed ten minutes earlier.

At least McDonald’s had frozen Cokes…except the machine was broken.

Good thing we’d checked our carry-on to avoid dragging it through the airport. Unfortunately, that also meant no toiletries and no clean clothes.

Near midnight, we finally reached the Marriott, only to discover that the “last room” we’d booked might not actually exist. After fifteen painful minutes of watching two exhausted employees stare blankly and motionlessly at their computers as though decoding an alien language, we were finally handed two toothbrushes that I swear each only had a single row of bristles and, most importantly, a room key.

To a room with a broken air conditioner blowing lukewarm air at full blast.

Congratulations, level Hell has been unlocked.

Ah, the glamour of travel. 

The night before, after my speech, one attendee paid me perhaps the greatest compliment I’ve ever received by comparing me to G.K. Chesterton. I thanked him and shared one of my favorite Chesterton quotes:

“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.”

Those words echoed in my ears as we endured our day from hell. Because that’s really all it was. 

Inconvenient.

We saw parents trying to entertain exhausted toddlers. A couple from India who had already been traveling for twenty hours missed their flight home. We were fortunate that our delay happened after my speaking engagement rather than before. Nothing to reschedule and no panic required.

But perspective is hard when you’re busy collecting tiny paper cuts of disappointment.

Pithy quotes make wisdom sound easy. It isn’t.

But it is a choice.

It took every ounce of gumption to reframe our inconvenience as an adventure.

It didn’t help that the hotel breakfast was picked over.

But our quest for deodorant ended in victory when we found the last overpriced stick on the shelf at a nearby gas station. We celebrated with slightly stale Krispy Kreme donuts and a few ridiculous selfies that lifted our spirits. Who knew donuts and deodorant could be so good for the soul?

Instead of hanging out in our lukewarm hotel room, Kim and I spent the morning in the cool air conditioning of a nearby smoothie shop.

A smoothie never tasted so good.

While we were discussing a book we’d been reading, a young woman asked to borrow our phone charger. She turned out to be an artist who also worked as a chef. She showed us her work, and it was terrific. I could tell she was a hard worker and had a ton of potential. I signed a copy of The Penguin Who Flew from my bag and gave it to her as we walked out the door.

Who knows? Maybe the whole reason for the delay was so we’d meet her. Maybe the encouragement we offered was exactly what she needed.

Meanwhile, the book Kim and I were discussing over smoothies sparked the idea for The Collector Club, which just launched with over 100 collectors.

God probably could have accomplished all of these things more efficiently. Perhaps we’d have arrived at the same ideas anyway. Or maybe there are dozens of reasons for the delay that have yet to be revealed, or my bird brain will never understand.

At the very least, it gave me something to write about.

I’ve said many times that we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can always choose our response.

Inconvenience or adventure?

A simple choice, but not an easy one.

It’s a choice that changes everything.

The great adventure continues.

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☕ Do you have a travel inconvenience that turned into a grand adventure?

Twenty-five years ago, before kids, when Kim and I were living on Hamburger Helper and couldn’t afford to run the air conditioning in our apartment, I made a list.

It answered one question:

How will I know that I’ve made it?

1. I am doing what I love. (That was the one I could already check, as I was spending all of my time making art and building a business I was passionate about.)
2. The business is supporting us. (This proved to be harder than I anticipated and took a full five years to materialize.)
3. We have a cool office. (I dreamed of a water view, but frankly, any upgrade from the bedroom of a sweltering apartment would have qualified.)
4. Paying Jenna. (After years of her volunteering because she believed in us, actually being able to pay her was a milestone that often felt impossibly far away.)
5. Own a home. (Speaking of impossibly far away, affording a mortgage felt like it was in another solar system.)
6. Have kids. (Not only was starting a family not financially viable in the early days, but it’s also not something completely within our control. Once we decided to go for it, it took more than a year before we finally conceived.)

I felt like I was already a success for deciding to chase the dream in the first place, but there was no doubt about it; achieving these six things would serve as conclusive evidence that I had made it. Why, I’d feel like the richest man alive!

It took eight years to finally do it. Although technically, adding the “s” to “kids” would take eleven.

Of course, all along the way, Adultitis whispered that it was impossible. That I was foolish to even try. That I was wasting my time.

Once they all came true, Adultitis moved the goalpost, like it always does.

It tells us we won’t be successful until we get a raise, earn the promotion, eclipse a certain income, win this award, work for that company, or become a bestseller. 

Adultitis says success is never enough.

When I introduced The Collector Club a few weeks ago, I honestly didn’t know if five people would join.

We crossed that threshold in fourteen minutes.

Today we’re almost to eighty.

That’s eighty homes where a surprise print and a little dose of wonder will arrive each month.

One membership became a gift for a friend. Another for a grandson. One lady signed up twice; once for herself, the other is destined as Christmas gifts.

Twenty-five-year-old Jason, sweating in that apartment and eating Hamburger Helper, would think eighty collectors sounded completely impossible. He’d probably think I’d made it.

Adultitis disagrees.

“Yeah…but what about one hundred?”

It never lets us enjoy the miracle that’s already happening.

What about you?

What miracles in your life does Adultitis want you to take for granted?

How amazed would twenty-five-year-old you be by the life you’re living today?

Adultitis doesn’t want you to answer that question.

It wants you looking over the next hill instead.

Sometimes “enough” is right where we’re standing.

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P.S. If you’ve been watching from the sidelines wondering if you should become one of the Founding Collectors, this is your week. Join us by July 31, and you’ll receive the inaugural print (#CC-001) and forever be able to say, “I was there when it began.” There will only ever be one first edition.

☕ What miracles in your life does Adultitis want you to take for granted?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Adults are ruining everything.

Exhibit A is the art of collecting.

Take baseball cards. At the risk of sounding like Grandpa Simpson, when I was a kid, packs cost fifty cents and came with fifteen cards. My brothers and I rode our bikes to the card shop and spent our allowance chasing the last card we needed to complete a set. Every pack felt like an adventure. Occasionally, we’d save up for a whole box or get one for Christmas.

Then adults took over.

Collecting stopped being about the fun of trading with friends and became all about rare inserts and making money.

I’d love to share the hobby with my sports-loving son, but it’s barely recognizable. Back then, a $15 box held 36 packs—540 cards. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $40 today.

Now, a box costs around $70 and contains just six packs, for a total of 72 cards. The selling point isn’t the cards themselves—it’s the chance to find autographs, relics, patch cards, and color parallels (whatever those are). It even warns that special insert packs may contain fewer cards.

Cool, cool. 

Sorry, son, no baseball cards for you. Dad has a mortgage to pay.

I don’t begrudge people who treat baseball cards as an investment strategy; I just wish there were still an option for those who want to collect them for fun.

For kids, that’s the whole point, and it always has been.

We recently hosted a virtual Ice Cream Social in The Wonderground. We had an energetic discussion about the collections we had as kids. Things like stickers, stamps, bottle caps, tigers, tractors, unicorns, Matchbox cars, and Garbage Pail Kids were brought up. (You had to be there for Kim’s explanation of her empty Tic Tac box collection.)

The subjects were diverse, but the common denominator was FUN. 

Until adults proceed to ruin it.

Believe me, Adultitis is all over the art world, too. I created Wondernite to help counteract the stuffy galleries, pretentious gatekeepers, and astronomical prices that are more about reflecting status than the quality of the work. 

I believe art collecting should be fun and accessible to everyone. Sure, I sell original paintings, but I consider anyone who has ever owned a print, calendar, or even a sticker with my art on it as an art collector.

That’s what inspired the creation of The Collector Club, which is open to Founding Collectors who want to secure the very first release. I wanted to make it affordable and fun. And there’s little more fun than receiving a surprise in the mail every month. I can’t wait to see the diverse and creative ways people will store, display, and enjoy their collection. If you like my art, I hope you’ll check it out, but more than that, I want to offer a warning and some encouragement.

Collecting as an investment strategy or a way to show off can invite Adultitis to take over.

These days, I collect Funko Pop figures. I took my stand against Adultitis early on. Retired ones can go for a pretty penny, but I specifically remove mine from their boxes and throw the boxes away (gasp!) because I collect them for FUN, not a retirement strategy. 

Again, there’s nothing wrong with collecting things with the intent of making money. I just want to remind you that it’s not the only reason to collect something. 

You’re still allowed to collect things just for fun!

I hope you are already collecting something that brings you joy, even — especially? — if it’s nerdy, weird, or completely devoid of any possible commercial gain. If not, maybe today is an opportunity to resume a collection from your childhood. 

Remember, the best part about collections is the connections we make with others.

Making a trade with a fellow collector and admiring one another’s favorite pieces.

A parent keeping an eye out on their travels for the thing their child is missing.

The celebratory joy of finally finding that long-sought-after treasure with your spouse at the out-of-the-way antique store.

The conversation with a person elated that an important possession from a late relative is finding new life with someone who will appreciate it just as much.

The crazy stories you can tell about how you secured your rarest item.

The memories you make in sharing your collection with grandchildren.

A one-of-a-kind gift from a friend who said, “I saw this and thought of you.”

Collecting anything for the love of it is extremely anti-Adultitis behavior. 

Those stories, connections, and memories we accumulate along the way are the best collection of all.

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☕ What do you still collect?

Attention all members of The Collector Club! There are nearly as many ways to store, display, and enjoy your collection as there are collectors! (Adultitis Fighters tend to be a very creative bunch.)

We love these beautiful self-standing acrylic magnet frames, and how easy it is to swap artwork to match your mood or season. Plus, they are two-sided so you can display them on a countertop or island!

Below are additional resources we recommend. (We get a small commission from purchases, so thank you!) If you have any other tools we should add to the list, let us know!

• Red Classic Leather Album
• Clear 6×6 Pages

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• Black 8×8 DIY Scrapbook Photo Album
• Self-Adhesive Photo Corners for Scrapbooks

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• Red Plastic 6×6 Storage Binder
• Clear 6×6 Pages

Additional Options to Consider…

• 12×12 Black Solid Wood Frame with 6×6 White Mat
• 6×6 Black Solid Wood Frame (Set of 2) Also available in white.
• 8×8 Vintage Scrapbook Album w/ 80 pages (available in multiple colors)
• Mini DIY Scrapbook Album w/ 40 pages
• Large Photo Album with Linen Cover and Self-Adhesive pages (lots of colors and sizes)

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.

“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.”

― Andy Warhol

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)

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☕ What’s something to look forward to that you can add to your calendar today?