Some people might say I live in a bubble of my own making. Perhaps they’re right. Inside my bubble are people I love, people who make me think and laugh, and people who simply make life better. I’m always open to meeting new people, and if they enter my bubble, they stay. If they don’t, that’s okay too…oil and water are separate, but they both have a role.
Why the bubble? It’s like climate control. If your home is too hot, you adjust the thermostat. You take control of your environment and create comfort.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: there are very few things in life we actually control. Our response. Our words. Our choices. That’s about it. Everything else—the news cycle, the economy, other people’s behavior or beliefs—comes at us whether or not we’re ready.
We waste so much time worrying about things we cannot change, while assuming we have unlimited time. We rarely stop to contemplate that we might not wake up tomorrow. Self-preservation is powerful that way. But one day, we find we’ve run out of calendar pages.
This is why I avoid the news. It’s rarely good, and it’s toxic. If a nuclear missile is heading my way, well, what can I do about it? It’s just an endless scroll of anger, finger-pointing, and behavior we’d never tolerate from our own children.
Enter Theo of Golden.
This is a novel about a mysterious older man who arrives in a small Southern town and does something radical: he pays attention to people. He finds 92 pencil portraits displayed in a local coffee shop and begins buying them, one by one, returning each portrait to its subject along with a handwritten letter and an invitation to share their story.
What unfolds is quiet magic. Each encounter becomes an act of generosity—not charity, but genuine seeing. Theo listens without judgment. He asks questions. He cares. And through these small moments of attention and kindness, people’s lives shift.
In a world obsessed with what we cannot control, Theo of Golden reminds us of what we can: our presence. Our genuine interest in others. Our choice to see people and make them feel seen. Each of us has a reserve of kindness, love, and compassion—use it.
This book matters right now because we desperately need to be reminded that small acts of acknowledging each other are revolutionary. That the time we have is precious and the people in our lives—the ones we might overlook—need to know they matter, because they do.
The magic of this book is that people from all walks of life, political views, and ages have shared it with others. A bright spot of unity and a reminder that we all strive to matter. It reached the #1 New York Times Bestseller list through word of mouth—not a publisher or agent or a bunch of marketing but simply by people who want to feel good again about something, and that something is a simple reminder that we all share this same bubble called Earth and that no matter our station in life, we’re all heading in the same direction.
Read this book. And then share it with someone you love.