by Marty Coleman | Aug 31, 2010 | Lord Halifax, Road Trip |
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NEWS!
Next week I will be on a road trip from Tulsa, OK to Seattle, WA then flying to San Diego, Ca. I will be doing commissioned photographic portraits (and drawing napkins) all along the way. If you are on the path, in either of those city areas, or know someone who is then drop me a note. I would love to take your photo! You can check out my work here to see what it is like and if you would be interested in hiring me.
Once in the Seattle or San Diego area I am open to giving a public presentation about the napkins, life lessons and the Napkin Dad story (with pictures of course). If you think you might have an audience, let me know!
In spite of appearances I am not very good at promoting myself. Fear of failure and rejection and all that rubbish, you know. So, I am going out on a limb and trying to make something happen on this road trip. Wish me luck and better yet, help me make something happen!
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Lord Halifax
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 30, 2010 | Euripides |
The key thing to understand about misfortune is that once you recognize it, it becomes useless. What I mean is you can’t move forward contemplating the misfortune. You can recognize it, know that it has happened, but to actually take action you must focus elsewhere. Focusing on the actual misfortune is focusing on history.
That doesn’t mean you don’t work to comprehend the ‘why’ behind the misfortune. That is an evaluation to help your future. You realize your misfortune stems from not having a compass in the woods for example, and thus you are lost. If you are interested in getting out of the woods you must not think of the fact you don’t have a compass but maybe how you can make a new compass, or read the sun trail across the sky, or watch the shadows.
You must move forward.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Euripides, 480 BCE – 406 BCE, Greek playwright
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 29, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
In 1981 I was still in graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. I was contemplating doing a multi-colored woodcut dealing with the idea of distraction. For me, a young male at the time, an obvious example of distraction was a man paying attention to a woman when he should be paying attention to something else. I did a series of sketches on this idea.
Drawing © 2016 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 28, 2010 | Theodore Roosevelt |
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A vintage napkin from 2004. I put this in the lunch of my daughter in her last year of High School.
Of course, what morals is the question. Morality to me is about doing those things that help you and/or others to remove unnecessary pain and suffering on one hand, and to build up love, sustenance and care on the other. If you teach how to do those two things to people, you will have taught the basics of morality, no matter what your religion or creed is.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, 26th President of the United States
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 27, 2010 | Anonymous, Lying About The Truth - 2013 |
There is only one way to know if you are being told lies. You MUST be a self-educator.
Where might you be told lies? We can start with religion, culture, science, nationality, race, education, government, nutrition, fitness, illness, sexuality or history. The list goes on and on.
In those situations (and many more) how do you know if you are being told lies or not? Maybe you aren’t, maybe you are. But how do you know? You know if you seek answers from multiple sources. If you are in a ghetto then you aren’t likely to get those multiple sources. (I don’t use the word ghetto in a derogatory fashion. It’s original meaning was a place isolated from it’s surrounding area for one reason or another. I am using simply as a description of isolation.)
I don’t mean a physical ghetto. I mean an intellectual ghetto, a mental awareness walled off from the wider world. If you only listen to people and ideas that come from within that intellectual ghetto, then there is a good chance you will have a distorted view. At the least you will have a view by default. It won’t be one you came to be exploration, it will be one you came to by taking the path of least resistance and not taking responsibility for your own thorough education.
I have known a number of people, for example, within the Christian community who think they have thought through an issue. But in truth they have simply mulled over a pre-determined, pre-packaged ‘thoughts ready to think’ supplied by those in charge of their ghetto. They haven’t read or listened to ideas outside that ghetto. This is true in both liberal and conservative congregations I have been a part of. So, while they believe they have come to their own conclusions, their lack of objective exploration outside the ghetto belies that assumption.
To be fair, I do know many, including the Pastors of the two churches I attend regularly (one liberal, one conservative), who are constantly exploring outside the confines of their own congregation’s leanings and heritage.
I appreciate and applaud the people who do this. They are the ones I trust to be truly searching for truth.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Anonymous
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 26, 2010 | Lying About The Truth - 2013 |
Smiles don’t equal honesty. Beauty does not equal honesty. Handsomeness, charm, sincere listening, thoughtful words…none of those things equal honesty. Honesty is not in a face, not in eyes, not in a voice. Honesty is only in one place, and that is action. That action might be true words spoken, yes. But honesty is most likely to be seen in what a person does, not what they say. And especially not what they look like.
Those who say ‘he has an honest face’ are fooling themselves. Faces aren’t honest, people are.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by ….. Willow from the TV Series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 25, 2010 | Jewish Proverbs, Lying About The Truth - 2013 |
I think this is a great quote. What it says to me is that telling the truth is an art. It is within the realm of truth that you are allowed the greatest leeway. You can craft that truth in such a way that it is kinder or meaner, transparent or opaque, light-hearted or deadly serious.
Manipulating the truth is not the same as crafting the truth. Crafting it means you use your wisdom and knowledge to say something the best way you can. Manipulating the truth means you use your knowledge to make that truth sound like it is a different truth, a truth you want your rabid followers to hear for example, or that you tell to get money or attention. Those manipulated truths are half-truths, they are mutated truths. And those are lies.
You can see it in politicians but even more so you can see it in the mean-spirited demagogues who rule the airwaves. They aren’t interested in the truth, they are interested in manipulating people to do what they want. And what they want is to have adulation, power, prestige and money. It’s the most depressing thing I know about modern society at this time. It is an embarrassment and they should be ashamed. But they aren’t.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is a Jewish proverb
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 24, 2010 | Anonymous, Lying About The Truth - 2013 |
The Half-Truth is an animal whose mother was a purebred Truth and whose father was a purebred Lie. They fooled around and next thing you know this creature was born. A Half-Truth can only breed with a Lie. It can’t breed with a purebred Truth. Each successive generation will be more and more like a purebred Lie.
It is a very sneaky creature. It lives among Truths by disguising itself to look like one. It usually gets away with this for a while but it always gives itself away by being angrier and more secretive than a Truth. The other Truths always can sniff out the Half-Truth after a while and usually kick it out of the clan. It will go off looking for another tribe of Truths but almost never can sneak in, since the original Truths have warned all the other tribes of his coming.
Catching a Half-Truth is very hard. It will bite you if you try to catch it from the front so it’s best to try to catch it’s tail. Of course if you catch it by the tail it will always quickly jerk around and bite you. It is not an easy task. The best advice is if you come across a Half-Truth it’s best to walk way out of its way. Don’t try to make friends with it, it will bite you. Don’t try to feed it, it will just get stronger and more ferocious. Don’t try to cage it unless you are very sure the cage is escape proof. Do remember, the Half-Truth is very slippery and can get out of even the smallest of openings.
The best thing to do is to keep the Truths and the Lies completely separate so no Half-Truths are born in the first place. Stay near the Truths’ den and don’t let any Lies come close. They will try to charm you and get you to let them go in, but if you allow it, they will try to take advantage of the Truth and breed with it.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Anonymous
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 23, 2010 | Lying About The Truth - 2013, Malcolm Muggeridge |
I said this post may be about truth. But I lied. It’s about lying.
What brain mechanism activates to allow us to believe something we actually know to be a lie? Whether it’s about ourselves, our parents and family history, about our nation or maybe about science and the social world, we don’t have to go very far to see us believing something we know to be false.
The next question is harder. What do we get out of doing that? Is it like a movie set? We know it to be just a facade with nothing but empty space behind it, but the facade is SO convincing, so alluring, we just fall into believing it’s got a whole building behind it.
I had a friend long ago, at least 20 years, who told me she was estranged from her father, hadn’t talked to him in many years. When she was asked about her family she told people that her father was dead. It saved her from having to explain why they were estranged. She told me that she never, ever mentioned her father in the present tense, even when talking to herself or her spouse, who was one of the few who knew the truth that her father was still alive and actually lived in the same city. Luckily it was a very big city so they didn’t cross paths.
She was so consistent about her verbalization of him in the past tense that she really, truly forgot at times that he was alive. It convinced her of the lie.
Why do we do that and what do we get out of it?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Malcolm Muggeridge, 1903-1990, English writer
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 22, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
Today we travel to 1980
In 1980 we move to Bloomfield Hills, Michigan so I could attend graduate school at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. I started thinking about narrative ideas and images for our initial assignment in the printmaking department. We had to do a suite of 10 prints in an edition of 10. We had to use all four printmaking processes (intaglio, lithography, serigraph, and woodcut). We also had to create a collophon title page using a typesetting press and a portfolio for the prints to be kept in. We had 2 weeks to complete the assignment.
This was in my sketchbook as one possible direction to go. I eventually chose to do a series of images surrounding my having been burned over 70% of my body 7 years earlier instead.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 21, 2010 | Sigmund Freud |
Vintage Saturday – A napkin from 2001 that I drew for my daughters and put in their school lunches. No, they were not little kids, they were in high school and yes I did make their lunches for them.
Explain this to me. I often look back on the quotes I choose 8-9 years ago and it’s hard to remember why I chose them. If there had been a conversation about gender or race or looks perhaps. Or maybe it was something I have forgotten completely. Considering the quote is by Sigmund Freud I am sure there is a lot to get out of it.
What does this mean to you?
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939, Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis as a therapeutic method of psychiatry.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 20, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, H. Jackson Brown, Jr., James Charlton |
Day #5 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I love doing home improvement project, but one of the down sides of doing them is that I am an amateur. I don’t have 20 years experience building fences or putting up guttering or cleaning carburators on lawn mowers (all things I have done this summer). I am learning as I go. I try to follow directions. but I can’t know all what I need to know to make the job absolutely perfect because I don’t have the education of the trade. I might know some secrets a guy a Lowe’s tells me, but they hardly ever are where I have my problems. I have my problems in the average details of doing the work.
The same is true in non-manual labor fields. Whether you are studying Neuroscience and have to write five papers or studying Apparel Design and have to make five garments, the knowledge of the trade comes from the doing everyday.
There is a well known quote, I think by the artist Phillip Pearlstein, that says ‘if you want to be an artist, first find a studio and paint 10 hours a day every day for 7 years, then decide if that is what you want to do.’ Exaggerated as that is, it has a kernal of truth to it. The knowing is in the doing.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote attributed to both James Charlton and H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 19, 2010 | Albert Einstein, Back to School - 2010 |
Day #4 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
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| Can you find the ‘mistake’ that made this drawing come to fruition? What do you think it is? |
Teachers, do you say no a lot? Parents, do you? Double check when and why you say it just to make sure you aren’t doing it simply to make your life easier instead of making your child safer.
The ‘no’ that is quick, that is angry, that is frustrated, that is fearful…that is the ‘no’ that stomps on creativity and curiosity.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/Swiss Physicist.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 18, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, Walker Percy |
Day #3 of ‘Back to School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I saw a story in the news yesterday about a single father of two young girls who was being tried on bank robbery charges. He now is serving a life sentence. His reason for robbing banks? To ‘feed’ his daughters. By ‘feed’ he meant keep them in the lifestyle to which they had grown accustom. An upper middle class lifestyle. He was a stock day trader and he made a lot of money. When the stock market and economy tanked he lost it all. He started robbing banks and did so for a year before getting caught.
When the daughters were interviewed after his arrest they called him a Robin Hood. Now, years later, after the sentencing, they were being interviewed again. The interviewer asked if they had a different take on it now that they were older. One of the daughters said yes, but added this: ‘But really, what did you expect him to do, take his upper middle class family to a homeless shelter?’.
My answer is YES, that is EXACTLY what he was suppose to do. That or move in with a brother or cousin or parent or live in a truck. He was not suppose to rob banks. He failed in the one thing he was there to do, and that wasn’t to give his daughters an upper middle class life. It was to teach his daughters how to be good and honorable humans in the world. How to pass life, not flunk it.
So, not only did he fail his own life but now he gets to watch his daughters saying to the world that he was right to rob banks so they wouldn’t have to go without stone washed jeans and a private school.
Of course they rationalize this attitude by saying it is their father really caring about them and being completely dedicated to them. But it’s not. It’s their father being a selfish, scared and shallow jerk with no moral compass.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Walker Percy, 1916-1990, American author.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 17, 2010 | Abraham Lincoln, Back to School - 2010 |
Day #2 of ‘Back To School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I think this is a very insightful opinion. What was your generation taught and how did that come into our lives years later via government philosophies and programs. What is the predominant philosophy in the schoolroom now and what will that make the government look like in 20-30 years?
Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865, 16th US President
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 16, 2010 | Back to School - 2010, Henry Ford |
In honor of all the kids going back to school this month it’s ‘Back To School’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Then again, where can you learn that? Nowhere. But what you can teach in school and home is how to deal with the fact that life is unpredictable. Teaching young people how to adapt, think critically, and to expect and be aware of changes is a great gift you can give them.
Without that training kids become adults who will either avoid the reality of the unexpected life or freak out when they come across it. Either way it does them no favors to not train them in reality.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Henry Ford, 1863-1947, founder of Ford Motor Company.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 15, 2010 | Art |
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If you are saying to yourself this doesn’t look like a drawing by Marty, you are right. Here is the story of how it got in my sketchbook.
A question for my female readers. What would you do if the man you started dating told you one day he was going to go to a local art center to do some some figure drawing. To draw a naked person. Well, if you are like most people who were not raised or exposed to art or art education in your past you might be pretty wary. What is going to go on there? What sort of porno stripper girls would pose for this sort of thing, anyway? Why is he going to do this, it’s not really for ‘art’ I bet.
That was the situation a woman I was dating in San Francisco in 1979 found herself in. Her response was to ask to come along. She was curious and wanted to see what it was all about. Maybe she also thought if she was there I would ‘behave’ or something, who knows. I thought it would be a fun date and said sure, come along.
Off we went to the Art Center. I let her borrow my sketchbook, pencils, erasers, charcoal, etc. We got set up in the studio with about 20 other people and waited for the model to come out. Out came the model, the MALE model, dropping his cover and taking his first pose.
My date did NOT expect this. She was very fair skinned and it’s fair to say she blushed about 5 shades of red when the model had his great reveal. She wasn’t an artist, had never done any drawing, and was now sitting in front of a naked guy attempting to both stare at him, not stare at him, and draw him with some level of accuracy. Or maybe just keep drawing until the session was over so she could breathe again. But to her credit, she did what we were all there to do and that was to draw. The drawing above is one from that session.
I have to admit I got a great kick out of the turn of events. It really couldn’t have been any better. She saw what figure drawing is really all about, she experienced how hard it really is, and she got to look at a pretty fit and trim naked guy for a couple hours. What did I get out of it? She became my wife. We are no longer married but the story is still a great one.
Drawing by Kathy Coleman
Story by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 13, 2010 | Death - 2001-2011, G. K. Chesterton |
Day #5 of Religion Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Here are three questions:
- Throughout history up until the present day, why do so many people talk, argue, hate and kill over theology, doctrine, creed, denominations, interpretations, canons, divinity, hagiography, dogma, faith, communion, baptism, history, piety, revelation, orthodoxy, sacraments, sacredness, ritual, liturgy, relics, veneration, saints, martyrdom, and history?
- Why is the world obsessed with the most shallow of pursuits as seen in popular culture?
- Is there any real difference between the first two questions?
I have the same answer to both the first and second questions.
- Because it’s easier than loving your neighbor.
That answer gives me the answer to my third question.
What are your answers and why?
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
Drawing and questions by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English Writer
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 12, 2010 | Carlton Pearson, Christianity - 2011-2013, Comtess Diane |
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Day #4 of Religion Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I have always been very intrigued by the Christian martyrs of the ancient and medieval era. What they went through for their change of beliefs was horrific. Not just at the hands of the Romans, but at the hands of other Christians who happened to be in power.
A recent day example is the case of Carlton Pearson. He was a leader of a huge evangelical, pentecostal church here in Tulsa. He was the darling of that part of American Christianity with a high profile in the public eye, accolades, fame and attention.
But his religious journey led him to change his mind about something. Something fundamentally at odds with fundamentalism.
Whereas his branch of Christianity had always stated that only those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, out loud and in their heads, are saved, he came to believe otherwise. He came to believe that everyone on planet earth, no matter what, was saved. Plenty of people argue about this and I am not here to do that. I am just saying Carlton Pearson had to be very religious to change his religion.
Within weeks of him publicly stating this he was anathema to those who formally embraced him. He eventually lost his congregation, his building, his friends, his money. He had a small remnant of people from his church who stayed with him, meeting at another church that lent them their activity hall and sanctuary on Sunday afternoons.
He eventually found a group of religious people in Tulsa who embraced him and his congregation. They said you can come here and worship. They said we have all sorts of people with all sorts of beliefs and they are all loved and accepted. They said if you change your mind again, we will still accept you, still love you. They said if you cease to believe at all, we will still accept you, still love you.
That church is All Souls Unitarian Church and I am proud to be a member.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Marie-Josephine de Suin de Beausacq, 1829-1899, French aphorist. She wrote 2 books of aphorisms under the pseudonym Comtess Diane.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 11, 2010 | Art, William Ralph Inge |
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Day #3 of Religion Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
You might ask, what does this quote have to do with religion. My answer is because it’s mine.
When it’s all said and done this is my true religion. To create beauty and seek truth. Not just beauty in art, but in relationships and love. Not just truth in outward reality but inner honesty as well.
There you have it.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Willian Ralph Inge, 1860-1954, Dean, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 10, 2010 | Anonymous, Christianity - 2011-2013 |
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Day #2 of ‘Religion Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily
Well, there is Darwin Day, but besides that Atheism just can’t compete with other belief systems. Celebrating an idea without an event attached to it is not as easy as one might think. You can’t really put the Big Bang on a calendar so that one is a bit tricky to nail down.
One of the things I love best about religious holidays is that while there is usually a historical event being celebrated, there is also an idea that is being celebrated as well. You can celebrate both or one or the other.
My favorite holiday within my tradition is Christmas.
What is yours?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote origination is unknown.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 9, 2010 | Christianity - 2011-2013, G. K. Chesterton |
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Day #1 of Religion Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
When you get right down to it, it’s about security. A person or an institution, when they are secure and at peace about who they are, can be made fun of, and can make fun of themselves.
When one is insecure and feel that their beliefs aren’t ‘water proof’ then they tend to get defensive and very serious, without a lot of tolerance for even mild ribbing (or questioning).
When much is invested in a complex belief system, and the consequences of that system being weakened threaten you and your position in the world, it is hard to allow it to be made fun of.
What that tells me is that the belief system is more important to you than the actual belief. That is not a good religious faith if you ask me.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 8, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
The Bomber Jacket
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| Skeets Coleman (2nd from right), 1942 – Goleta, Calif. |
When I was negative 13 years old (1942) my father became a US Marine. He was assigned to a fighter/bomber squadron training in Goleta, California. Later it would be the home of University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his bomber jacket at that time. Here is a photo of him in Goleta with his jacket on, and with some really tall guys. I found this online at his squadron’s website.
When I was growing up I would wear it for fun around the house. A guy’s version of playing ‘dress up’. I wore it quite a bit in high school and when I left for college I took it with me, with his blessing. In 1977, when I was a positive 22 years old, 35 years after his training at Goleta, I ended up in the same location with the same jacket. I was an art student at UC Santa Barbara. Here is a drawing I did of that same jacket in 1977, hanging outside my closet in my apartment.
I was drawing it because I had gotten it refurbished (if that is the right term for a jacket). I found a leather restorer (oh yea, that’s the term) and had him put in new lining to match the old, new elastic trim at the bottom, resew and restore the leather as best he could. I was very proud of it and thought looked great. I wore it for many, many years after that. Eventually I got too round and the jacket got too worn and I put it away.
After it was retired I bought and wore many bomber style leather jackets. It wasn’t the same but I always bought those because I liked the connection to the original.
I still have the jacket of course and to bring this sketchbook history tour full circle, I thought I would take a photo of myself in it. I am the same age now as he was when he gave it to me so many years ago.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 7, 2010 | John F. Kennedy |
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A vintage napkin drawn between 1998 & 2000 and put in my daughters’ lunches to bring to school.
Really, don’t.
Instead, embrace them both.
We live in a brutal world. It does not need any help from us to be brutal. But it does need our help, at least the human world does, to be beautiful.
Do your best.
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by Marty Coleman | Aug 6, 2010 | Death - 2001-2011, Gerard Way |
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Day #5 of Death Week at The Napkin Dad Daily
I lived in San Jose, California for many years, 1981-1994. I remember somewhere in that time two ‘death’ events happening that made me stop and think about how it can come at any time, doing any thing. One just truly never knows.
The first event was a report in the local paper, The San Jose Mercury News. It told the story of an auto accident. The car, a convertible with the top down, was stopped in the outside lane of a two-lane wide left turn lane. The inside turn lane was a free and large vegetable truck carrying a load of tomatoes came up in that lane as the light turned green. It did not have to slow down for the red light. It was somewhat flimsy looking, with simple high walls of the truck made out of plywood. The truck was going too fast for the turn and as a result the tomatoes shifted in the back of the truck causing the entire truck to tip over and all the tomatoes to spill out. The tomatoes, plywood, crates and everything else made a direct hit on the convertible, killing the passenger. She was just going along with her life, driving who knows where and the next thing she knows she is suffocating under a load of tomatoes.
The second ‘death’ event I remember was the famous Air Florida flight 90 crash into the Potomac River in Washington, D. C. on January 13th, 1982. Reagan was President and he brought one of the heroes of the freezing river rescue to his State of the Union address that year. What hit me about the crash though was that the plane hit one of the bridges over the river, crushing numerous vehicles and killing four drivers and passengers in those cars. They weren’t speeding, they weren’t drunk, they weren’t taking the risk of flying. They were driving home from work. They look up and there is a gazillion ton airplane about to crush them.
It’s a horrible thing to think about. I hate the randomness of those stories. Luckily most of us actually do not die in that sort of freak accident. But all of us do die. And none of us know when we will die. All we can do in the light of that fact is live our life understanding it. That doesn’t mean you have to hug every person you know every day just in case it’s your, or their, last day. What it does mean is you will be happier with your life, long or short, if you live it with love and live it deliberately communicating that love, in word, image and deed. That is all there is to it.
Quote has been attributed to Gerard Way, 1977-not dead yet, American singer and comic book writer. Lead vocalist of the band ‘My Chemical Romance’. I was not able to verify he is the author.
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