by Marty Coleman | Jul 31, 2010 | Leo Tolstoy |
A vintage napkin (from somewhere between 1998-2000 most likely) that I put in my daughters’ lunches before school.
Ever seen an ugly hero/heroine (besides Shrek) or a good looking villian? Why is that? Why do we think beauty equals goodness?
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily.
Quote by Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1920, Russian Writer. Check out the movie ‘The Last Station’ for an enlightening and entertaining view of the last years of his life.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 30, 2010 | Penn Jillette, The Internet - 2010 |
>
I now have a Slide Show page. This month’s drawings can be seen all at one time here:
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
Day #5 of Internet Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Perhaps your first thought after reading this is imagining a sexual creep. And no doubt, there are plenty of those. But what I think about more are the ones that are the most perverse, the creepiest, the ones that put a shiver down my spine. they aren’t the sexual ones, they are the violent ones.
The ones who promote violence against women, children, immigrants, african-americans, government representatives, corporate officers, police, spiritual systems not their own and more. There might be a sexual sadism to some of these creeps, but in it’s essence the perversity is about violence.
They have rage that is disconnected from reality, reason, civility, morality. They aren’t interested in understanding anything. They just want to attack, and attack they do. I have come across pages where the level of vehemence is so high I can only imagine the toxic ‘smell’ in the place those words are being typed.
There is only one simple antidote to this, and it is your own goodness. Fighting against violence is good and important, but not all of us can do that first hand. What we can do is make sure we never contribute to it with time, money, encouragement or tacit agreement. Don’t let that happen.
……………………………………………………………….
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Penn Jillette, 1955- not dead yet, American entertainer
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 29, 2010 | Esther Dyson, The Internet - 2010 |
Day #4 of Internet Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I hadn’t thought about it before but this quote is so frickin’ accurate it’s scary.
- The mean-spirited get drunk in their maliciousness.
- The loner becomes the lurker.
- The sarcastic become world famous snarkers.
- The sweet hearted become boundary breaking encouragers and supporters.
- The pretentious intellectual becomes a know-it-all bore.
- The funny thinker becomes the life of the chat room party.
The distance from consequences of a real relationship and the safety from physical violence are the main chemicals that replace the alcohol molecule but the effect is the same. You say and do things that would usually remain in check, would remain more subtle.
Sometimes these things are good. Just as sometimes a person comes out of their shell a bit if they have a drink or two, so it is on the internet. But it’s also filled with weboholics, those who go too far, talking and acting in ways they never would in real life or if they were sober.
Who are you on the internet?
…………………………………………………………………………………
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Esther Dyson, 1951-not dead yet, Swiss born journalist, venture capitalist and commentator on digital technology. Read up on her at her website or in a bio on the Huffington Post. She sounds like an amazing person!
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 28, 2010 | The Internet - 2010, Tim May |
>
Day #3 of Internet Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
When I first went online, about 1993, I talked to people in the USA, that’s it. When I started using AOL and Compuserve in the mid 90s I would occasionally meet people from other English speaking countries. When I started posting photos and drawings on Flickr around 2005 I made friends with Icelanders, Swedes, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilians, French, Spaniards, Mexicans, Brits and more.
I had blog visitors from 34 countries last month. That includes a visitor from Windhoek, in Namibia, Africa. Have you ever seen a the google map locating Windhoek in Namibia? It’s an isolated city.
Some stats:
- 847 miles – distance to Johannesburg, South Africa, the closest large city
- 8,376 miles – from Oklahoma, US. (my home)
- 7,167 miles – distance over the waters of the north and south Atlantic.
- $3,223.00 – cost to travel there (cheapest flight, about 200 connections it seems)
- 37 hours – Time to get there (if lucky)
View Larger Map
This month someone in Windhoek looked at my blog. They spent 11 minutes reading it. If they wanted to talk to me they could email, chat, skype, blog, FB or tweet with me. They could video conference with me and show me live feeds of themselves, home, dogs, shoes, lunch, car, office, husband or wife, storms, or garden or a million other things.
What a great world we live in. I am grateful for these things and I thank those who invented, produced, financed, sold, implemented and distributed these things so I can have them in my life.
Where are you in the world? Tell me about it in the comments, ok? I love geography and finding out about where people live, whether near or far.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Tim May, Software Engineer
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 27, 2010 | The Internet - 2010 |
>
Day #2 of Internet Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Much of my life is on the internet. I blog, I chat, I email, I store, I sell, I buy, I befriend, I advise, I listen, I enjoy.
But I also tend to disappear into it. I forget I need to go out to brick and mortar stores to try to drum up business. I need to meet people. I need to actually go out and fish.
It has it’s place, and it’s a good place overall. But it isn’t the only place, nor is it the most important place.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by anonymous. If you happen to know whose quote this is, contact me. Thanks.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 26, 2010 | The Internet - 2010 |
Day #1 of Internet Week at The Napkin Dad Daily. Unless I can’t find anything else on the internet, then it will be day #1 of Peeing Week I guess.
I help run the Tulsa Digital Photography Group. We had a photo shoot last year with models dressed up very nice, as if they were going out for a night on the town. We photographed them in a urban atmosphere, metal walls, rusted backgrounds, brick, graffiti, etc. The resulting photos were really quite cool.
I had one that showed a women kneeling down and another bending over holding her skirt. I titled it ‘Drunk Girls Looking For It’ since they both looked drunk, reaching for something off camera. I thought of it as a funny title. I wrote below it that it was actually two models from a fashion shoot. The photo was in a set that showed it wasn’t really a photo of drunk girls.
I posted it on my flickr site along with all the other photos from that shoot and lo and behold, almost a year later it is my most popular photo. Why? Because the title. People search all the time for ‘drunk girls’ apparently. The photo isn’t bad or show them in compromising positions. I kept the title the way it was.
But if you see the other photos of drunk girls that come up in that search, it will definitely give you warning to not let yourself get in that situation for sure. Some are just funny, but some are downright mean, with the girls (and plenty of guys if you search for them) drawn on or put in very embarrassing situations. That is malicious and hurtful, not just silly.
You can’t control everything on the internet or in real life. But you can be smart about what you let out into the world.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by anonymous. If you know of the quote author, please let me know.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 25, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour, Sunday |
Sketchbook History Tour – 1973.
I have sketchbooks dating back to 1971. Each Sunday I will post a drawing, going through the years.
 |
| Sunbather at a Country Club, 1973 |
During the summer after I graduated from High School I got blown up in a boat explosion. My recuperation took place at my parent’s home in Virginia. I got a job life guarding at a local pool inside a country club. I used my off time to continue drawing. A frequent visitor to the pool allowed me to draw her sunbathing. Sunbathers are great models for artists of course since they sit still for long periods of time. She was no exception.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 24, 2010 | Johann Goethe |
>
A vintage napkin from 2002. I drew two versions of this and put them in my daughters’ lunches to take to High School.
If you have a lover or friend that tries to dominate and calls it love, don’t believe them. They are confusing control for love and it’s dangerous.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832, German writer
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 23, 2010 | American Proverbs |
They also will not write proposals, get trademarks and copyrights, find vendors, get publicity, draw up a business plan, advertise, sell products, build relationships, or do windows.
There is a passage in the Christian New Testament, in the Book of James, where he writes ‘Faith without works is dead’. Truer religious words have never been spoken. But replace the word ‘faith’ with the word ‘wishes’ and see if it isn’t the exact same truth. Replace it with the word ‘dreams’. Replace it with the word ‘hope’. Replace it with the word ‘want’. What do you find? Basically James was saying either put up or shut up. If you are going to say you have faith, then prove it. The same is true in the world of wishes and dreams.
You want to fulfill your wishes and dreams? Then make this your pact with yourself:
- Ever time you SAY a wish or dream you will have ALREADY taken one step towards it.
Not the whole journey, not a huge, gigantic leap. Just one step. It doesn’t mean every wish or dream is going to come to pass, but it does mean you will be basing your life’s wishes and dreams in a more inspirational world. Because a truly inspirational world is one where you see things happen, you see YOURSELF make them happen. THAT is inspiration made real, that is a wish that has done dishes.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is an American Proverb. Thanks to Ella Sempreviva, @infinitealoe of twitter for tweeting it.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 22, 2010 | Encyclopedia of Characters |
>
Wormy Worm goes WAY back. When I first moved to Tulsa in 1994 I joined a company making educational software for kids. We had to come up with games and projects as part of the overall design of the CDs. One of the games included a worm character and thus was born Wormy Worm.
Wormy Worm is a great observer of the world around him. He witnesses the foibles and eccentricities of people and animals and has wise things to say about what they mean. I think Wormy Worm is one of the wisest characters in The Napkin World.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 21, 2010 | Encyclopedia of Characters, Heat |
>
It’s summer and it’s hot so it’s time for Sunny Sun to enter the Pantheon of Characters in the Napkin Dad’s Encyclopedia.
Sunny Sun is positive and happy, a natural life giver. She can get angry though, and sometimes burns people who don’t pay attention to her.
She shows up in the napkins frequently, often representing the idea of persistence. Keep on keepin’ on and Sunny Sun will show up again eventually, no matter how she tries to hide behind her friend, the sweet Puffy Cloud or his scarier cousins T. Hunder and Tory Nado.
Sometimes S. Sun can be seen multiple times in the same sky. That is a mystery how that happens.
You can’t go wrong following Sunny, she will never let you down.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 20, 2010 | Heat, William Penn |
>
Day #2 of Heat Week at The Napkin Dad Daily. It’s 97ºƒ (108º heat index) / 37ºc (42.2º) Here in Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA) again today.
“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”
Have you ever heard that line spoken to you? I have. They didn’t like my way of talking and that kept them from being able to hear what I was saying. In most cases it was my fault. I was saying things in a way that obscured rather than clarified. It’s like a graphic design advertisement that is so wild and over the top that you can’t read any of the words on it. That isn’t a good strategy if you are trying to communicate.
The same goes for arguments regarding ‘truth’. The overheated blowhards who rant and rave against whatever their flavor of the week is aren’t doing their cause any favors. The hot air they put out is entertainment for their minions but it doesn’t build a foundation of intelligent and thoughtful argument. It’s simply the scorching wind of heat without light.
The antidote is to be cool and thoughtful in your response. It may not seem to be the most entertaining and often doesn’t have that satisfying adrenalin rush that an angry rant has, but in the long run it is the most effective way to put your argument forward.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by William Penn, 1644-1718, founder of the state of Pennsylvania
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 19, 2010 | Caroline Schroeder, Heat |
>
Someone told me I should do a series on heat since it has been so hot this summer around the entire North American continent (and parts of Europe I hear). So, it’s Heat Week at The Napkin Dad Daily!
One of the easiest things to do is change your mind due to being intellectually enlightened. But changing behavior from your heart, your core, that is very hard to do by cool intellectual thought. Of course eventually if you change your mind about something you might find yourself changing your attitudes or behaviors down the road, incrementally. And it’s likely they will be long lasting as a result. But a sudden transformation? Not as likely.
Heat on the other hand will cause changes faster than you can say ‘fire truck’. That is why AA and other addiction programs talk about a person having to hit rock bottom before they will change. They have to feel the heat of their life falling down all around them. Maybe they lose everything, are at the end of their rope. That sort of heat leads to change. You see it often in religious conversions as well as behavior changes.
The problem with heat related changes is they can often be short-lived. The emotion, the danger, the fear all lead to a promise to change, and will to change, but once the heat has passed, it takes a cool light to continue to lead the way, to make a change permanent. That is why threats of hell or damnation or some other fear based idea aren’t good. They make people feel heat, but they don’t help them see the light.
So, whether with yourself, family, friends or your children always be ready to supply the light when the heat has died down, which it eventually will.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Caroline Schoeder, no information available. If you find any, forward it to me please, thank you.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 18, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
Remember last week I mentioned I had counted up my sketchbooks and I found I had 29 of them? I decided to to through them and pick out one per year to post on Sundays for a while. This is from the first sketchbook (1971-1973). I was 17 when I painted this, my junior year of high school.
This portrait is of a family friend, Bruce Hall. We moved to Darien, CT because of his mother, Helene. My mother met her in a grocery store in Maryland in the 50s. Over 15 years later, when we were going to move to the east coast from the west, we focused our home search in the same town where Helene lived.
I don’t remember any of the specifics of why I was doing this portrait of Bruce, but I suspect Helene was encouraging me to do it. She was a great artist, working in painting and sculpture. She was the second major influence on me as an artist, after my grandfather, who had passed away by this time. She encouraged me and pushed me to understand what being an artist was really all about.
Helene was a brassy, ballsy broad in the classic definition (think Rosalind Russell in Mame). She took no prisoners when she saw pretention or hypocrisy. She was funny as hell. All obvious reasons why my mother and she became friends from a simple grocery store encounter. How I would have liked to have been in that aisle when they met, I can just imagine how funny they were and how they caught each other’s attention as a result.
She once challenged me to try to create something as good as a Picasso sculpture I saw at the Museum of Modern Art on a visit there with her. I said the typical ‘Anyone could do that’ and she stopped me in my tracks and said, then do it. I actually did attempt to create a wire sculpture (this was when I was about 13) and failed miserably. The lesson was learned. It wasn’t a question of IF you could do it. It was a question of DO YOU DO IT. When it gets to that question the bigger question arises. WHY are you doing it. And that changes you from being a critic to being an artist.
Helene is now 91 or so. She is taken care of by Bruce and his son, Evan. Both great guys!
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 17, 2010 | Augustine |
>
A vintage napkin from 2004. I put this in my daughter’s lunch.
I am not sure I agree with this, do you? I like pride, I just think you have take it for what it is. It’s a type of compliment, either to yourself or to another. If you think it, acknowledge it then there isn’t much more to do with it. Pride doesn’t achieve anything, it just sits there. If you understand that is its place then I don’t think it is destructive.
What do you think?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Saint Augustine, 454 AD – 430 AD, Bishop of Hippo
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 16, 2010 | Betty Rollins, Having Sex - 2010 |
Day #5 of Having Sex Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Wait a second, isn’t this a sexist comment? Maybe, if you think being a ‘sex object’ is wrong under any circumstances. I define ‘sex object’ as being the object of sexual desire.
It is true in the great myth of Venus. She is stripped of a well rounded set of human traits, reduced to represent one thing, sex. The most famous of her images, the sculpture ‘Venus de Milo’ is without arms, unable to do anything but stand there, frozen as an object. Of course, that isn’t how the sculpture was created, but it’s current state makes it a great example of what I am talking about.
In the media, that idea of sex object is stripped down to its most basic elements. There is an objectification on top of objectification until you get to where there is nothing but an unknown object and a single minded desire for that object. That type of ‘sex object’ is pretty empty and eventually unfulfilling for both the object and the objectifier.
But in the complete human experience, a real life lived by a real human (male or female), being the object of sexual desire isn’t off the table. It is available to the well rounded person who wants that. The problem comes when that becomes the primary means of feeling value or getting attention and affection.
So, by all means, be a sex object if you want. It can be fun and playful. But watch out for that taking over and being ALL you are focused on being.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Betty Rollins, 1936-not dead yet, American author and reporter.
……………………………………………………………………..
Don’t forget – Cards of all sorts; birthday, condolences, bon voyage and more, are available at my site on Zazzle.com Coffee cups too!
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 15, 2010 | Having Sex - 2010, Mae West |
Napkin Dad cards available at Zazzle. Birthday, condolence, going away and more.
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Day #4 of Having Sex Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Here is the issue about emotion in sex and love. Men often have too little of it (emotion that is) and women often have too much of it.
For you women, actually it isn’t just that men have less of it than you do. It’s also that they don’t know they have it in the first place. They feel just a hint of something, but they don’t investigate it. It is left unformed and uninvestigated. Men are often not even aware it WAS a feeling they had, and if they did realize it, they aren’t sure what that feeling represented. They don’t name it and categorize it.
For you men, actually it isn’t that women just have more of it than you do. It’s also that they investigate deeper into the emotions they do have. To them they are a mobius strip of never ending investigations. And not just their emotions, but yours as well. They figure you are exploring yours as deeply as they are their own and so they want to know what it is you are feeling. They are working at defining what it is they felt and where it sits in relation to her other emotions and yours. When you aren’t able to say what it is your feel, it’s easy for them to think you either are hiding something or don’t feel anything.
That is why sex is often such a emotionally bonding experience for both men and women. It isn’t primarily about words. It’s about motion and sensory experience and the emotions are created through those things. Sex is good that way.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Mae West, 1893-1980, American playwright and actress. Read her bio, she was an amazing woman well ahead of her time. Incredibly creative and ambitious. I didn’t realize she wrote many of the plays and movies she starred in.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 14, 2010 | Having Sex - 2010, Mignon McLaughlin |
Day #3 of Having Sex Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I don’t actually think this is true, but it brings up a good point, namely that we often teach our sons and daughters differently about sex. Even if we are ‘liberated’ in talking about it we still unconsciously address the two sexes differently.
For example, talking to a teenage boy going out to a party you might tell him ‘make sure you keep it zipped, don’t do something stupid, don’t be so horny that you can’t control yourself’. Talking to a teenage girl you might say ‘watch out tonight, don’t leave your drink out of your site, don’t let the guy be with you alone, don’t drive off in the middle of nowhere with him.’
The assumption underlying those warnings is that the man will be the horny one wanting the sex and the girl will be the one deciding to give it or not, like a clerk at a store, disengaged. But the truth is you have to talk to your daughter with the understanding that she is a sexual creature as well. She could be the aggressor, she could be the one ‘wanting it’ and forcing the issue with the guy.
I agree it’s not quite as likely, but that doesn’t mean you don’t recognize that, no matter what her libido level, she still needs to know that she will feel things too. It isn’t just about her responding to a guy, it’s about her figuring out her own feelings and desires as well. It does no good service to a daughter or son to assume they fit into a cookie cutter sexual mold. Explain to them the range of feelings they may come across, not just some pandering platitude that isn’t based in their reality.
If you want to be effective in helping your son or daughter understand what is happening to them in the sexual world, you have to address them as real people, not cliches of sexuality.
………………………………………………………………
Don’t forget, we now have Napkin Dad birthday cards, cups and t-shirts available, check it out!
………………………………………………………………
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Mignon McLaughlin, 1913-1983, American journalist and author. Writer and editor for various magazines including Vogue, Redbook, Cosmopolitan and Glamour.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 13, 2010 | Having Sex - 2010, Mary McCarthy |
Day #2 of Having Sex Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
People will often state there is a difference between sex and love. But they don’t often recognize when they ask one be the other. When you are ‘in love’ it’s easy to have the sex so intertwined with the love that you don’t know the difference. But when the ‘in love’ phase settles down and you have to decide to love someone on a daily basis it might be tempting to use the easiest thing available, sex, to be the ‘proof’ of love. You basically ask sex to be love and expect your partner to accept it as such.
But the truth is sex can’t be love. It can, at best, be an expression of love the same way clothing can be an expression of you, but it can’t be you. This is important to help your children understand if you are a parent. It is so easy for teenagers to think the expression of something is the same as the real thing. That is why you hear the cliche line of the teenage boy ‘If you ‘LOVED’ me, you would do this with me.’ They are trying to persuade the girl that they are one and the same.
Sex is a physical act, love is an emotional act. They overlap and they are intertwined, but they are not the same and understanding it ourselves and helping our children understand it helps avoid much heartache.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“You mustn’t force sex to do the work of love or love to do the work of sex.” – Mary McCarthy, 1912-1989, American author. Wrote ‘The Group’ which was on the NYT best seller list for 2 years (1963-65)
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 12, 2010 | Aldous Huxley, Having Sex - 2010 |
It’s the start of Sex Week at The Napkin Dad Daily!
Not equally interesting but actually more interesting, now that is a dedicated intellectual!
Sex always intrigues me because people are so driven by it, and have some variation of it on their mind so often yet are usually reluctant to discuss it openly.
That is especially a problem when dealing with teenage sons and daughters. Not talking about sex is really not a very good option. I always feel parents are abrogating their duty if they do that. But talking about sex intelligently and appropriately isn’t all that easy.
The best advice I can give in that circumstance (and many others) is to make sure you are on their side. Don’t be their enemy. To do that you have to talk about what is in their best interest. Not your interest, not your knowledge, not your reputation, not your circumstances. But what is in their best interest. To do that you need to ask questions, you need to walk through ideas with them about the issue.
You can’t do that if they think you will be judging them or lecturing them or against them and their ideas. They have to know you will stay calm and be willing to listen to what they are really thinking and feeling. THEN you move into offering your reflections on what they said, your ideas of where it might lead, and your cautions on things to think about they may not have considered.
More tomorrow!
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“An intellectual is a person who’s found one thing more interesting than sex.” – Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963, English writer. Author of ‘Brave New World’.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 11, 2010 | I Draw in Church |
I finished my sketchbook recently. It took 2 years, 3 months and 25 days to draw in 117 pages. I received the sketchbook as a gift from my nephews at Christmas, 2004. But I had a backlog of sketchbooks and didn’t start it until March, 2nd, 2008. It’s done now and this is the final drawing in it, June 27th, 2010.
I love filling up one of them, counting the pages until the end, wondering what my final drawing will be. I have about 29 completed sketchbooks on my shelves, dating back to 1972, when I was in high school. I have some that are about 2 inches by 3 inches, filled with little color drawings. I have others that are in ornate leather bound covers. One yet to be used sketchbook was hand made by my daughter and is covered in fabric and resides inside a fabric bag. I have some filled with adolescent crazed meanderings, some have poems. Some have sincere notes about God or no God. Others have naked people.
I have some that include sketches for larger art pieces I created, some I never did finish. Some have diagrams of house layouts with notes as to what I am going to do in each room. Some have addresses and phone numbers and emails of people I drew. I would scan the drawing and send it to them. If I ever did a drawing of you and I didn’t send you a copy of it, tell me and I will try to find it.
I might try to post one drawing a week, one from each sketchbook, starting from the beginning. Would you like that?
I am also going to start working on some larger images in the near future, non-photographic. I will keep you informed.
Drawing © Marty Coleman
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 9, 2010 | Self, Travel, Vacation - 2010, William Least Heat Moon |
Day #4 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I took my daughters to Europe in 2003. We traveled through Germany, Italy, France and Spain for 2 weeks. We stayed at youth hostels and Bed & Breakfasts.
When we were in Munich, Germany we had beds for 5 in our room and only 4 of us so a single woman from the US joined us. We knew nothing about her, she knew nothing about us. We went out to dinner with her and got to discover her as she was, right then. She was a blank slate, with no yesterdays for us.
We didn’t know if she suffered from depression, with an Eeyore cloud over her head all the time, or if she had been stabbed in the back by her best friend the week before. All we knew was what she decided to present to us that day.
One of the great things about moving away from an old home town, or traveling to a new spot where you spend some time, is that you get to reinvent yourself. You can practice being who you want to be, not who you are expected to be.
But here is the great secret. Every new encounter you are a blank slate. It doesn’t matter if you are in France or your local dry cleaners. That person does not know you or your history. You want to be different than you are in daily life? Then practice on that new person. Be kinder, be more complimentary, be quieter, be less judgmental, be funnier, be happier. You don’t need to go on vacation to become someone new, you just need to see the opportunities right in front of you.
Before you know it, you will become what you practice, no matter where you are.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“There are no yesterdays on the road.” – William Least Heat Moon, 1939-not dead yet, American writer of native Osage heritage. Writes particularly about travel, including his best seller, Blue Highways, published in 1982, about his journey on the backroads of America.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 8, 2010 | Nikos Kazantsakis, Travel, Vacation - 2010 |
Day #4 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
But isn’t this against the whole idea of traveling? That is that you open your mind and allow whatever is really there to come through, instead of creating a vacation of photo ops and prepackaged tours, right?
Yes, that is true, the traveler does need to be open. But the traveler also needs to understand that what is going on when they travel is in their head. They benefit from being able to provide themselves and others a story of their travels and to do that they must be able to create a narrative. Not just a story of ‘I did this then I did that’, but a story that creates itself as you experience it. The aromas you notice as you walk, the look of the sky as the sun goes down, the feeling of the humidity or dryness in the air. You experience your world with awareness is the idea. You notice and remember.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.” – Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883-1957, Greek writer and philosopher. Author of ‘Zorba the Greek’.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 7, 2010 | Frederick B. Wilcox, Vacation - 2010 |
Day #3 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
It used to make me crazy when my mother, then my first wife would demand that we clean the house before we left on vacation. Nothing seemed more absurd to me than that. Why the heck did we need to clean if we weren’t even going to be there, right? Of course, as most of you reading this know (and I finally comprehended before I remarried) cleaning before you leave means you will return to a clean home and that makes the anticipation of coming home sweet, not sour.
This quote is a variation on that. It’s not just a clean home, but your good home that is nice to return to. Whether it’s the colors, yard, smells, bed, animals – whatever it is, if you design your home to be good and uniquely yours, then what a great feeling to know you will be returning to it at the end of any time away, whether vacation, business trip, family emergency or something else.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“For travel to be delightful, one must have a good place to leave and return to.” – Frederick B. Wilcox, of which I could find nothing.
Like this:
Like Loading...
by Marty Coleman | Jul 6, 2010 | Earl Wilson, Vacation - 2010 |
Vacations are the sort of thing where you have unthought out expectations of what it should consist of. I don’t mean the destination, I mean the intangibles that you don’t think of in advance, but you expect to have happen. Perhaps you expect that a vacation includes sleeping in late at the hotel while your spouse expects a vacation to include getting up early and seeing the sites before the crowd. Perhaps you expect a vacation to be all planned out, no surprises while your traveling partner is thinking a vacation isn’t a vacation unless it’s filled with unexpected moments and events.
With my first wife and I we had to come to terms with money on vacation. I remember her worrying about money and what we were spending and me getting annoyed at that. At one point it came to me, I had an expectation I hadn’t realized. My vacation was in large part a vacation from worrying about money!
When we get right down to it the best, most rejuvenating vacations are a break from worry, right? Might be worrying about money like I was doing back home, or worrying about obligations and judgment and duties. So, when you plan your vacation, think along those lines and plan accordingly. What do you want to not worry about?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
“A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” – Earl Wilson, 1907-1987, American journalist. At least I think it was this Wilson. The other choices are a baseball player and a congressman. I made the most likely choice to have a witty saying.
Like this:
Like Loading...
