The scientific fact about my brain activity in seeing this delightful Vogue Portugal ‘Voyage Issue’ fashion story ‘Pool Party’ is that my dopamine receptors probably lit up. I smiled and felt a bit silly.

Am I addicted to more small pleasures like this one? Personally, I think the world could use a bit more gaiety, and models Lebuhang Ndlovu. Olivia Sang, and Zana Niko show us how it’s done. Anthony Dane Hinrichsen styled ‘Pool party’ for images by Armand Dicker [IG]

In fact, my Dearest and I discussed just last week how I would never put a life preserver on my head and join a conga line, one that grew to a spontaneous group of at least 10 humans dancing all silly across the patio mid-afternoon in Tobago.

But every time I think of the experience, my heart smiles. And while I just couldn’t bear to become the queen of the conga line with a life-preserver on my head, I drew the line when the eight-year-old said “Anne’s not going parasailing.”

After refusing the first sail with a skull and crossbones on it, saying “No way,” the two kids ages 8 and 11 said, “She’s not going. Excuses, excuses, excuses. She’s chicken.”

Now that is humiliation!

After getting out the credit card to pay for the time to procure a new sail that was also suitable for the wind conditions, I was airborne alone under a beautiful rainbow-colored sail, screaming to earth “Pay more money.” I did not want to come down.

Take that, Ron DeSantis! Humans feel good about rainbow colors, until some authoritarian white dude arrives on the scene to turn pure dopamine-generating, rainbow colors delight into a mortal sin. According to the governor of Florida, God’s children do not embrace rainbow colors.

Contrary to all the killjoys out there promoting ‘dopamine fasting’, the New York Times drilled down on the topic last week with “We Have a Dopamine problem: The neurochemical has become a boogeyman for people worried about addiction and indulgence. But the real story is a lot more complex.”

Better yet, the Harvard Medical School newsletter tried to nip this “dopamine fast” concept in the bud in February, 2020 by reaching out to the author California psychiatrist Dr. Cameron Sepah.

He came clean, admitting: “Dopamine is just a mechanism that explains how addictions can become reinforced, and makes for a catchy title. The title’s not to be taken literally.”

Not to get all scientific with you, but one can’t “fast” from a naturally-occuring brain chemical. So let’s have a bit of dopamine dressing in fashion and not let the killjoys tell us how to dress. ~ Anne