by Marty Coleman | Jun 30, 2010 | Technology - 2010, Walter Lippman |
Day #3 of Technology Week at The Napkin Dad Daily. By the way, I am up for an award. Check at the end of the blog today for details.
But YOU can still plant flowers if that same steamroller feels like it is running over you!
Machines can perhaps create a desire in you to achieve something. You see a new iPad and think ‘Wow, just imagine what I could do if I had that’. That is desire.
But initiative is something else. It is desire in action. It is doing something with your desire. An iPad, or any other technology, will never be able to give you the initiative. You have to have it, or build it, or borrow it, or fake it, but however you get it, it must, in the end, come from within you.
But if you do find it, in whatever way, then a steamroller is no match for you. Of course, it’s best to avoid known steamrollers (read negative people and situations) but that is not always possible. How you deal with the steamrollers of your life, both intentional from negative people and unintentional from the Universe itself, will be the deciding factor in how far your initiative will travel with you.
The light is green.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steamroller will not plant flowers.” – Walter Lippman, 1889-1974, American writer, political commentator & journalist.
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 29, 2010 | Joseph Campbell, Technology - 2010 |
And for the most part the corporate world isn’t much different. It isn’t spelled out as exactly as it is in computer code, but it’s severity can also be just as strong.
To survive you have to adapt to that world, understand it’s boundaries and rules and play along even when there is an absurdist logic working within the company just as you have to do with a computer and other technology. For the most part, technology or a company will not bow to your individuality, you must bow to it.
That is why I was never all that great in a corporate world or in getting along with that Old Testament dude!
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“A computer is like the old testament God, lots of rules and no mercy.” – Joseph Campbell, 1904-1987, American writer, lecturer and mythologist. I saw Joseph Campbell lecture on James Joyce’s Ulysses back in 1982. I knew nothing about the book but he kept me, and the rest of the audience, enthralled for 2 hours. Now THAT is a good lecturer!
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 28, 2010 | Max Frisch, Technology - 2010 |
My late father-in-law, Dwight Johnson, who I have mentioned a number of times, was a photography buff. He was always taking photos of the family and of stuff. It was to the point where I sometimes felt he wasn’t really experiencing the event or scene, just recording it for future sharing or memories.
Now I am a photographer and have Flickr and Facebook and Twitter and a digital camera and an iPhone. Next thing you know I am seeing things the same way. I am wanting to both experience and record the event and I want to share it.
But I always make a point to experience it first, I want to know what it is I am recording. Last night for example we had incredible thunderstorms coming in from the west at sunset. I had to get out in the backyard and take the pics right then or it was over. I experienced the wind, the humidity, the wildly flying birds being blown about. I experienced the clouds taking shape, the light moving around the edges, the rising mountains and deep crevices of the clouds and the flashes of lightning. In some ways I feel like I experienced it even more intensely because I had my camera in hand. I was anticipating, waiting, watching, feeling changes happen.
But I know it is a different type of experience than simply looking at something. But overall I feel blessed being able to share the visual world I experience with others so I am not sure I would change a thing.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Technology: the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it.” – Max Frisch, 1911,1991, Swiss architect, playwright and novelist
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 27, 2010 | I Draw in Church, Sketchbook History Tour, Tulsa |
It’s ‘I draw in Church Sunday’ here at The Napkin Dad Daily. I draw a lot. In bookstores, trains, plains, waiting rooms, and my favorite place to draw, church.
She sat in front of us on a warm summer day at church. I enjoyed seeing the cosmic message from the pulpit on the skin of a person right in front of me.
Drawn at All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, Oklahoma. 6/24/07 © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 25, 2010 | Benjamin Franklin |
I was midway through drawing this napkin this morning when I realized I have a problem. No, not my ‘have to run to the bathroom problem’, another problem. This one revolves around this quote. Within a well-balanced person this quote can take hold and be of value. You try to find the best in others, but because you want to be improving as you move forward in life, you know it’s a good idea to be aware of and figure out how to cope with, your vices. You already know your virtues, you don’t really need to go searching for them.
But I don’t live in a world of well-balanced people. I live in a world of terribly imbalanced people. How so you ask? Because so many of the people I know are already obsessed with their vices and ‘flaws’. That is all they see in themselves. They see the speck of dust in the corner of the room, not the entire beautiful home they live in. They see the pinch of fat on their tush, not the great shape they are in. They are obsessed with guilt about what they did or didn’t do, how they don’t match up, why they haven’t accomplished what they want, how they let someone down, how they look.
They don’t see their value, their contribution, their beauty (inner and outer), their humor, their impact, their wisdom, their sexiness, their progress. The reflection in their mirror is not the flower they are.
Can I, or you, do anything about this? I sometimes think I can, and other times I think whatever I do will be minimal at best. But we really only have 3 choices, right? 1) we can ignore it, just let it be. 2) we can agree with them, backing up their skewed version of reality. 3) We can do our best to help them see what they can’t see themselves, yet.
I choose #3. I will always choose #3. If I am successful in helping them, cool. If I am not, I know I have tried and perhaps my effort might still help out further down the road, the way lessons to a child often are understood many years later in life.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Search others for their virtues, thy self for thy vices.” – Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, American printer, publisher, writer, politician, scientist, inventor, statesman, soldier, and diplomat.
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 24, 2010 | Jose Ortega y Gasset |
I heard a report yesterday that with the turn down in the economy and more people unemployed a survey company thought it would be interesting to find out what people are doing with this new extra time they have. Guess what the survey showed? I’ll be back at the end with the answer.
Ever remember being in the middle of this dialog as a kid or an adult? “I am bored, there’s nothing to do.” the kid says. The adult responds: “Well, quit sittin’ around pickin’ your nose and go find something to do!”
Basically that is what this world famous literary giant (Jose Ortega y Gasset) is saying. It isn’t about being unemployed at a job. It’s about being unemployed in life, job or not. If your entire life was employed, what would it’s job be? Is it employed on behalf of something or? Your family, charities, friends, causes or? Is it employed in the pursuit of beauty, or truth, or the meaning of life, or the meaning of death, or the meaning of meaning or? Is it employed in creating art or science or a beautiful back yard or a great neighborhood park or?
The survey showed Americans are spending this new ‘extra’ time watching TV more and sleeping more. In other words, picking their noses. Don’t let that be you.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“An ‘unemployed’ existence is a worse negation of life than death itself.” – Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1883-1955, Spanish writer and philosopher
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 23, 2010 | Johann Zimmerman |
Another simple this = that statement. It’s akin to ‘you are what you eat’ and ‘you become what you think’.
It comes down to this. What do you pay attention to? Would you rather go get another 6pack of beer for the cookout or play in the pool with your kids? Would you rather work overtime non-stop or forego a bit of extra cash so you can have a date with your boyfriend or girlfriend? Would you rather watch mean spirited people act like they are real on TV or do some needed project around your house?
You will rise only as far as that to which you pay attention. Where is your attention today?
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“The value of what we love is the amount of our own value.” – Johann Georg Ritter Von Zimmerman, 1728-1795, Swiss physician. Author of ‘On Loneliness’.
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 22, 2010 | Communications - 2015, George Bernard Shaw |
I was raised in a somewhat loud, somewhat opinionated, somewhat verbose family. With an Irish heritage we blamed it on the Irish ‘gift of gab’. My mother was loud, funny and quick to throw a barb if she saw something pretentious. My father was argumentative and assertive in his voice and style while still being a charmer.
I married into a family in 1979 that was the exact opposite. They were instilled with a quiet and respectful way of talking to each other. Calm, cool, minimal in outward expression. They believed in saying nice things, well mannered things and not raising your voice.
Can you guess where this is going? My way of communicating, which I had always thought was pretty good, turned out to be so strong and aggressive compared to what my wife was used to, that most anything I said with any outward expression was taken as having much more meaning than I meant it to. She heard anger where I thought I was expressing passion. She heard insistence where I thought I was expressing enthusiasm.
In the meanwhile, my wife’s method of communicating, which I am sure she thought was pretty good, turned out to be so quiet, deferential and subtle that sometimes I didn’t even know that she had communicated at all. The passion she felt came out in such a way that it was easy for me to either not hear it, or dismiss it as not being all that important.
As you can imagine it took a long time before we clued into what the other person was really trying to express. We weren’t ever completely understanding about that and it was an underlying issue among larger issues that led to our divorce in 2000, after 20 years of marriage.
The reason I tell this story is to give you insight and an admonition. The insight might seem obvious to some, but we all have blind spots. Remind yourself that each individual hears uniquely, both sounds and meaning behind the sounds. The admonition follows from that. Do not go into any relationship, casual or serious, with the assumption that your way of communicating is the best way. You might have a good way, but chances are so does the other person. You might have blind spots about how you talk, the words you use, the manner in which you deliver them, that others see and don’t necessarily appreciate or understand.
Evaluating yourself to become better includes evaluating your words and their delivery.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish playwright. Just imagine, he was old enough to be aware during the American civil war (1861-1865) and lived to see WWII being fought and resolved (1939-1945). That is an amazing span of life.
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 21, 2010 | John Finley |
We live in Tornado Alley. For those of you not in the US, that is a swath of the American landscape that goes through the middle of the country, south to north, west to east. It is the line where the cold air from the northwest comes in and meets the warm air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico in the south.
When the 2 air masses collide and the conditions are right, we get very severe thunderstorms, unlike anything the rest of the country sees. Those thunderstorms sometimes generate tornados with winds up to 300 miles an hour. Nothing will survive if hit by one of those F5 (the most severe) twisters. We are always uncertain exactly when, how or where they will form.
I used to live in California. We had earthquakes there. I was near the epicenter of the Loma Prieta / World Series earthquake of 1989. As the building I was in shook hard, I ran like hell, uncertain if I would get out without the glass wall right next to me shattering or the second story overhang collapsing. I was uncertain for hours whether my wife and kids more than 30 miles away and over a large hill, were ok (they were).
I have been blown up on a boat and badly burned. My family was uncertain for weeks as to whether I would survive. My mother had a brain hemorrhage just over 6 months earlier. We were uncertain if she would survive (she did).
Certainty is not the default setting for life. Uncertainty is. If you want to live a successful life, a mature life, you learn this lesson and you deal with it. It takes practice and is hard, but the alternative is to be disfunctional and immature, never good at coping with reality.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty.” – John Finley. There are a lot of John Finleys listed. But one was the first person to study tornados intensively, so I am going to say the quote is by him. It’s just too ironic not to.
1854-1943, meteorologist, tornado specialist
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 20, 2010 | Glenpool |
Looky here! Remember me mentioning that I was going to do an animation of drawing a napkin, line by line. Well, here it is, in a very cool multimedia interview from our local newspaper, the Glenpool Post. Jaclyn Cosgrove came over to record an interview me & take photos. Meanwhile I had taken 295 photos of my line by line creation of a napkin for her to use in the piece. Here is the result. Pretty cool work on her part!
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 19, 2010 | Francois de La Rochefoucauld |
Vintage napkin from 2004. Drawn for my youngest daughter (at the time) and put in with her lunch.
So, maybe the key to enduring our own misfortune is to act as if we are someone else. Nice thought but we truly only have to endure our own pain first hand. Empathy and sympathy are the closest we can get to feeling what others feel. That is why those traits are of great value in having others feel love from you. Yes, it does increase our pain a bit, but the love and solace we give by being empathetic and sympathetic to others is well worth it.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“We all have the strength to endure the misfortunes of others.” – François de La Rochefoucauld
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 18, 2010 | Father's Day, William Shakespeare |
This is easy enough, yet so difficult for some fathers (and mothers) to put into practice. The purpose of a parent is, besides feeding and keeping your child safe, is to find out who your child is and help guide that unique individual towards a successful and fulfilling life. It is not about molding them into who you are.
That means:
You are that child’s defender to the teacher who says they should be more this or that. Not making excuses for your child if they have done wrong, but making sure your child is accepted as themselves, not forced to be something they are not.
You are the explainer and reassurer to the child about their individuality and unique character not being bad or odd or unworthy.
You are the example to the child about enjoying and embracing your own individuality and personality.
You are the example of allowing and embracing others, including your own brothers and sisters, who are different than you are. Living out the truth that they are not a threat to your identity just because they are different.
You are the comforter when your child feels something someone else, including you, may not feel in the same circumstances. You allow the feeling, not disparaging or dismissing it. You don’t have to think, as an adult, that is is a valid feeling for you to have. You just have to acknowledge and understand it is a legitimate feeling for your child to have at that moment.
Be those things and your children will be secure in knowing they are truly known.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” – William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. English playwright
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 17, 2010 | Anonymous |
It’s the second day in a row that I found a fantastic quote online as I did my morning reading. I wrote it down so I wouldn’t lose it. Then of course I lost track of who posted it! Dang! If you did, tell me, ok?
I love this quote. It helps clarify both things by having comparative definitions. Innovation is usually attached to business oriented creative work. A management team is innovative. Or a chef/owner of a restaurant is innovative. It’s recognized by action.
But what about in your own individual life. Are you innovative? Are you open to new ways of doing simple every day things? Do you practice being open minded or are you closed to new methods? I am not proposing that all you do needs to be changed. The way I walk through my grocery store has already been created by me being innovative long ago. I don’t think I need to innovate in my trail through the store every time I go. Many things are fine just the way they are.
But what about the areas you aren’t all that sure are going well? What about your social or relationship life? Same old rut? Time to innovate. What about your attitude towards life in general and those around you in particular? Unhappy about the baggage you carry in that regard? Time to innovate.
Innovate means to do something new. To build in a new way, to function and respond in a new way. When the moment comes to do that, remember you are capable of acting and responding different. You are not trapped. When the moment comes, the small little moment to be kind, to forgive, to have a different attitude, remember you, and only you decide. There is nothing outside your own brain and body that is forcing you to behave or respond as you once did. Whatever action you take, it’s yours and as such you can choose, as hard as it might be, to choose differently.
Innovate the hell out of your life.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Creativity is thinking new things. Innovation is doing new things.” – Anonymous
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 16, 2010 | John Wooden |
I often don’t have a particular quote or theme in mind for my napkin when I wake up in the morning. I might read some blogs, tweets, news reports, FB updates, newspaper articles, hear something on the radio or watch a particular TV segment before I actually sit down to draw.
This morning I was reading one of my favorite blogs, The Hollywood Housewife. Our said housewife is a new mother, the wife of a successful director/producer she calls ‘The Gorilla’, a recent survivor of moving to a new home and a really cool woman. I found her blog because she is originally from Oklahoma and one of my Okie connections had her blog in their list.
She is about to turn 31 (happy birthday!) and she was ruminating on her busy life. Her simian husband, the Gorilla (I suspect he has substantially more brain power than one of the giant apes) gave her the above quote from John Wooden, the incredible basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins. As soon as I read it I knew I wanted to use it. That is the great thing about using quotes all the time. You really can’t be accused of stealing or plagiarizing since that is what quotes are supposed to have done to them! I like that.
So, for HH and all my other over the top successful friends who are a whirlwind of activity but want to build a bit more achievement into your life, I have this to say. You will never get rid of activity that seems a bit useless and mindless. You will always have activity that takes up time but doesn’t seem to return much. Life is filled with it and it won’t ever go away.
Sound depressing? No, it isn’t. Here’s why. Because now you know what has to change. It isn’t the activity. It’s you. But if I am the activity you say, if that is what I am doing, then aren’t they the same? Yes, they are! That is the point. The activity doesn’t exist without you. So, you either have to change an attitude towards the activity or you have to find something in it that you didn’t know was possible.
Here is one little secret I sometime use to help turn activity into achievement. Love. What I mean is this: Go to Best Buy in a rush before a workout you are suppose to get to. Wait for the tech guy to reformat something. Notice the clerk with the giant pumpkin tattooed on her arm. Go to her and love her. Tell her how interesting the pumpkin is. Ask her if it’s there because she loves halloween. Ask her if she kept room for Christmas tattoos elsewhere. Make her smile. Thank her for making your day. Go to your workout. Activity and achievement. You loved someone. You let them know they were of interest and value. What greater achievement is there?
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| Brittany, The Girl with the Pumpkin Tattoo |
That is my favorite way to turn my activity into achievement.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Never mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden, 1910-2010, Basketball and life coach extraordinaire
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 15, 2010 | Jules Renard |
I hadn’t thought of it like that before but I like this definition. If I am tired then it isn’t laziness! woo hoo!
Seriously though, being tired has room for WIDE interpretation so don’t go taking advantage of that. Keep working until you are legitimately tired, take a break and get back to it. The break might be 15 minutes, maybe 15 days. But whatever length it is, get back to it.
All this however is dependent on you wanting to accomplish something, feeling fulfilled and satisfied in the doing. If you don’t care about that, then don’t worry. Just quit whenever you want and don’t hassle with getting back to it. But don’t be surprised if you end up being seen as not much help to anyone.
Also, don’t be surprised if at the end of your life you feel like you wasted it.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.” – Jules Renard, 1864-1910, French writer
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 14, 2010 | Anatole France, Travel |
Summer is wandering time and I have been surrounded by stories of it this week. I am getting antsy for a road trip of some type!
- My traveling daughter, who has traipsed across the west for the last 4 months, came back in town this week and told of some of her adventures off the beaten path.
- A good blogging buddy of mine is on her bazillionth trip to Pakistan and is great at posting photos and telling of the feel of the place.
- A running buddy just returned from an anniversary trip to Paris and posted photos.
- Another daughter went off to the beach in California.
- Another running buddy went off to Canada with his wife (and happened upon an annual nude bike ride! That cracked them up, big time)
We are not sure what our summer adventure will be yet, but I will let you know!
What adventures are you hoping to experience?
Drawing and wanderlust © Marty Coleman
“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” – Anatole France, 1844-1924, French writer
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 13, 2010 | I Draw in Church, Sketchbook History Tour |
I love seeing people all in a row with strikingly different hair, skin, fabric and style. Church is perfect for that sort of people watching.
Drawing © Marty Coleman
Drawn 7/12/09, All Souls Unitarian Church, Tulsa, OK
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 12, 2010 | Art, Pablo Picasso |
Vintage napkin from 2002. Drawn for my daughters and put in their lunches before they went off to school.
By flying. By flying above the creative stop signs. By fighting with all your might anyone who says to you as you grow ‘but what will they think?’ By wearing a top hat if you want, or a gypsy scarf around your head with big red earrings. By buying that interesting spice you found in that obscure little store, and actually using it in something you cook. By not being afraid to ask that interesting person if you can take their photo. By buying REAL art for your home, not crap from a hobby store that just fills space.
By fighting for your love of art and not letting anyone rip it away from you, for any reason.
Drawing and passion © Marty Coleman
“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once you grow up.” – Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973, Spanish artist. Did you know his full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Crispiniano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso?
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 11, 2010 | Brooke Astor |
It’s pretty clear, we all have power. And we all have the sovereign right to use it as we wish.
Some will use it to manipulate and coerce. They might rationalize that into something akin to ‘help’ for others, but it is not.
Some will use it to destroy. They might rationalize that into something akin to ‘ridding the world of bad things’, but it is not.
Some will use it to dominate. They might rationalize that into something akin to ‘I only control things for good’ but it is not.
No matter how much power you have, the most fulfilling and ethically sustainable use of it is still the same. Do good for others. If that is your definition you will always be powerful.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Power is the ability to do good things for others.” – Brooke Astor, 1902-2007, American philanthropist. Astor lived to the age of 105, She was married 3 times, her last being to Vincent Astor, the son of the doomed Titanic passenger, John Jacob Astor IV. Her life’s motto was “Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around.”
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 10, 2010 | Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach, Stupidity - 2001-2011 |
So, for all my intelligent female friends, relatives and readers, please do your best to avoid those stupid men, ok?
And to all the stupid men. I really, really loathe you and wish you would just grow up or ship off to a dumb men island where you can’t hurt anyone.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“An intelligent woman has millions of born enemies…all the stupid men.” – Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach, 1830-1916, Austrian author
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 9, 2010 | Anonymous, Self |
This is why self-pity has a timer on it. You are allowed just so much time for it, then the alarm goes off and you need to move on.
One thing I was only so-so successful at as a parent of daughters was teaching them certain things they would need to know as they became adults. Things I probably would have been more forceful in making sure a son knew. Things like changing tires, doing home improvement projects, working with power or manual tools. I tried, and I am sure they learned something, but I didn’t do it as much as I think I should have. Maybe they think I did ok in that department, but I know I could have done more.
Not knowing how to do something can lead to a feeling of incompetence and helplessness and not just about the immediate problem. It can infect much more of one’s life. When you don’t know even how to start solving a problem it is easy to devolve into giving up. Giving up is usually infected with paralysis, self-pity and unfairness.
- Why is this happening to me?
- So and so has more money
- So and so doesn’t have to deal with my issues
- I am disabled
- Nobody is nice to me
- I have no friends
- I don’t get treated fairly
- My work is harder than my friend’s work.
- I don’t get to have fun the way I want
- Woe is me
I say WOA to that, even IF it’s all true. It might give you ammunition in your hate for the unfairness of life, but that is all it will give you. Your satisfaction will be in your complaints. Will that really be satisfying? Won’t it be more satisfying to take action and climb the mountain? It might be squishing that spider, or fixing a leaky faucet, or moving on from a really destructive and crappy relationship. But as long as you are wallowing in self-pity, those accomplishments are not nearly as likely to happen.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“Self-pity makes even the simplest problem almost impossible to solve.” – found via @dtcav on twitter
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 8, 2010 | Horace |
So, you should avoid the mountaintop obviously. Or maybe not. The real mountaintop in a thunderstorm, good idea to avoid. However, the metaphorical mountaintop of life … there you want to be when the lightning strikes. Creative, intellectual, social and entrepreneurial bolts of lightning find you when you have hiked out from your cave, when you are taking risks, climbing, searching, looking, exploring. That sort of lightning doesn’t come easily into a closed home, heart and mind.
If you are afraid of life, of pain, of hurt, of effort, of pushing, of conflict, of friction, then you will avoid all that. And as a result you will also avoid the brilliance of lightning in your life.
Get out of the shell that is your refuge, go get struck by lightning. If nothing else you will have fun in the rain.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“It is the mountaintop that the lightning strikes.” – Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 65BCE – 7BCE, Roman poet
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 7, 2010 | Steve Rivkin |
I was going to do a series on procrastination but…oh nevermind
I tend to think of them as silly, but I know so many people who believe in them that I have been wondering what is the essence of prediction that is important to you? What is it about predictions that people love? What does the horoscope give you? What sort of contentment does it give that makes you come back again and again? What about palm reading or Tarot or ‘word of god’ etc. What is it that helps you and is that help real? Does it work? What happens if and when a prediction doesn’t come true for you? Do you suffer doubt or do you just sluff it off and keep moving on with the hope that predictions are helpful?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“The more unpredictable the world becomes, the more we rely on predictions.” – Steve Rivkin, marketing and communications consultant, author and speaker
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 6, 2010 | I Draw in Church, Sketchbook History Tour |
It’s ‘I draw in church’ Sunday. Sometimes I am not drawing a scene or person in church, but an idea that germinated from the sermon. This one had something to do with prayer, but I don’t remember the specifics (it was 19 years ago, give me a break).
Drawn 3/10/91 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, San Jose, California. We went to ‘WesPres’ for almost a decade before we moved to Tulsa in 1994. It had the usual amount of drama, Pastors coming and going, etc. but more importantly it had a fantastic group of friends who supported us and our children and allowed us to support them as well. I look back on those days fondly.
Drawing © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Jun 5, 2010 | Christopher Morley |
A vintage napkin drawn for my daughters in 2000.
The second half of the quote is ‘because it demands so much attention’. Want to be less lonely? Go do something that REALLY requires your attention, your FULL attention and effort. Throw in other people for good measure.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“No person is lonely while eating spaghetti.” – Christopher Morley, 1890-1957, American author. This quote is sometimes misattributed to Robert Morley the actor.
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Today is geography Saturday! People from the following cities visited The Napkin Dad Daily in the last 30 days.
Match the city with the country. Not for me, not for a prize. Just for fun and knowledge.
Cities
Kozhikode
Nanaimo
Watervliet
Jyvaskyla
Nancy
Bandung
Brescia
Debrecen
Countries
India
Finland
Hungary
Indonesia
Italy
France
Canada
United States
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