Decades ago, while hiking in Austria, Bill and I came upon those little wayside shrines, nailed to a tree or sitting on top of a post. I remember one dedicated to St. Wendolin, who I had never heard of.
I’ve been making some 3-dimensional work this year (including dioramas! picture book coming in May of 2021), and I decided to make a little wayside shrine for our Christmas card. An InstaShrine, if you will. It’s not really suitable for outdoor placement. Aside from the cottony “snow” which would become InstaSoggy, the little light is a battery-operated votive, which would soon be InstaBurnedout.

I had seen the words here and there, and they spoke to me. While working on the piece I thought, I should find out what they’re from. I was a little dismayed to find that they aren’t the words from Ghandi or Nelson Mandela or one of the other oft-attributed internet icons, but a line from a movie called The Bunny House, about a Playboy bunny who gets kicked out of the mansion because she’s too old, and finds a home in a sorority of misfits, where she teaches them how to be attractive to men. Jeez. The actual line is, “Kindness is just love with work boots on.”

I still like it, though. Here’s to that screenwriter. Let’s all pop on our boots.