by Marty Coleman | Oct 4, 2010 | Fame, Socrates |
Let’s have a ‘Fame Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily, shall we? I want to go through history and see how the perception has changed. First up, Socrates.
Not much has changed since Socrates lent this quote to history. Back in the day, the mythic stories were all about the Greek military heroes. Epic battles for the love of a woman, the pleasure of the Gods and the admiration of the people combined with the need for land, food, slaves, power, and glory to make for military sagas on land and sea, with the resulting fame for the men who prevailed, or in some cases died valiantly in the pursuit.
But the truth is no different than it is today. Military fame is founded on ‘heroic’ deeds, but war is a terrible and wasteful way to find glory. Any man or woman in combat will come back and tell you, it is anything but glory they are going through. But nonetheless, heroic deeds that sometimes demand their life are found throughout military history, on good and bad sides of the battle.
Let’s see through the week how the perception of fame over the centuries has been amended and expanded.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Socrates, 469-399 BCE, Greek Athenian Philosopher
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 2, 2010 | aha moment, Marty Coleman |
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Saturday Vintage – A napkin from around 1998 that I put in my daughters’ lunches to take to school. I didn’t start dating the napkins until 2000, and even then only did it sporadically.
In honor of Autumn’s arrival and the resulting leaves falling from the sky I thought I would give you ‘Nose Leaf Man’. I hope you are enjoying a beautiful fall wherever you are!
Don’t forget to vote for The Napkin Dad in his bid to be an ‘aha moment’ finalist! If you tried yesterday the response was too much for their servers and they crashed. They are up and running again now and voting should be a cinch! You can vote once per computer.
Thanks,
Marty
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 1, 2010 | Anonymous |
Feed the belly of the beast or save it all, live on or off the grid, sacrifice it all or spend your time gathering only for yourself. Whatever you do, if you are alive, you have hope. It might be hard, and even worse, it might be too easy, but life is what you have now. Later maybe not, but now yes. Make of it what you can.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 30, 2010 | aha moment, James Russell Lowell, Tulsa |
When I was in Jr. High I had this fantasy. I was in a school bus and we had a wreck. The prettiest girl in school was hurt and I was the one who helped her. I can remember to this day the exact location of the accident and the little slope she was laying on as I bandaged her and stayed with her until the ambulance came. I was a hero in my fantasy.
In reality I never was a hero to that girl. We did eventually become friends and she wrote something nice in my yearbook. But I wasn’t a hero. It was just a sentiment and a desire to be a good person that stayed in my head.
But it illustrates this quote perfectly for me. A hero is someone who takes action for the benefit of others. It can be heroic, it can be small and easily overlooked. But the action is what is lovely, not the sentimental idea. Without the action, it’s just a dream, like my dreams of adolescent heroism.
Here are a few of my friends, fellow Tulsans, who have taken action in their lives. They are heroes. Check out their stories along with others.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by James Russell Lowell, 1819-1891, American poet, writer, diplomat
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 29, 2010 | Art, Elbert Hubbard |
When I was teaching drawing back in California in the 80s and 90s, I would often take my students on a field trip to San Francisco to see the museums there.
Without exception I always had one statement spoken by a student or two during these trips. Often it would be while looking at an abstract painting, or an art piece that wasn’t ‘pretty’.
The statement was this: “I wouldn’t put that in my house.”
It didn’t take long for me to come up with the perfect response. It was this: “That painting is worth $750,000.00. It won’t EVER be in your house.” I would continue, “You wouldn’t go to a ballet and make that statement about a ballerina. You wouldn’t because you know that the ballerina is to be admired in that moment of dance you are witnessing, not to be taken home forever. The same is true of art you see out in the world. It is for you to admire and explore now, in this moment. It isn’t for you to take home and have over your sofa. Judging it by whether you want it in your home or not is distracting you from enjoying it in the moment.” *
I feel the same way about many things others are quick to judge as if they are permanently attached to them and have to be declared unfit to be so, for whatever reason.
For example, I like people who walk by me with too much perfume on. I am not taking them home and living with their perfume. They are passing by and that fragrance will be gone momentarily.
I like people with:
too much makeup,
clothes too loud,
skin too tan,
and tattoos too ornate.
They are living art, music, dance, sculpture and multimedia extravaganzas in my world even if they don’t know it. I am not taking them home. I am just admiring the passing parade.
* Now, of course I do know there is art for purchase and it is to take home and in that case it’s right and proper to judge whether you can live with it or not.
Drawing, photos (except ‘tan’) and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American artist and writer. Proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement.
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 28, 2010 | Aesop, Diego Velasquez |
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We judge ourselves by our motivations, and usually we aren’t actually intending to injure someone. You hear that defense in courtroom dramas all the time. I just brought the gun to the bedroom while she was sleeping with her lover to scare her…yada yada yada. No intent is the excuse.
But to fully balance out injuries done to you and those you inflict you can’t just look at intent alone. You have to look at effect. What was the effect of your actions on the other person? Even if you did not intend harm, if harm was done you are still culpable, if for no other reason than you didn’t know that person very well.
For example, with my family members I know some can take a verbal barb in good humor and I know others can’t. I don’t throw barbs at the ones who can’t take it because I know, even though I wouldn’t be intending to hurt the person, the affect would be that they end up being hurt.
That is one of the most important reasons to really pay attention to a person you care about. Not just what they say, but how they react with their body language and further interactions. You are trying to learn not just who they are, but how they react to you. You are trying to avoid hurting them and you can’t do that consistently if you don’t know them well.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Aesop, 620-564 BCE, Greek fable writer. Almost all biographical information on Aesop is mythical with many different locations and stories associated with him.
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| Aesop by Diego Velasquez, 1639 |
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 27, 2010 | Jessamyn West |
I love irony. It’s kept me from being completely depressed and morose about what life has dealt more times than I can count. I don’t know if it came from my parents or somewhere else, but I have always sort of chuckled, shaking my head at the irony of a situation. It’s not that I don’t feel the pain, but I also see the absurd joke that has been played on me and can laugh at it.
A few examples from my life:
- Encouraging my first wife to explore and find herself, only to find she decided she wanted to do it without me.
- Having to leave my first college because it went bankrupt, moving on to a prestigious, well funded college that had no chance of going under, only to find my family had gone broke and couldn’t afford it.
- Moving up in my first job in Tulsa from entry level to Producer and Art Director within 1 1/2 years, only to see the company go bankrupt.
- Seeing the fastest, least sophisticated art I ever did become the most famous and well recognized work of my life (yes, I am talking about the napkins).
For me, one of the keys to enjoying my life, no matter what, is to be able to look back and enjoy the irony and still realize I am ok. The alternative is to be angry or resentful or bitter or depressed. Irony allows me to be outside myself and watch my life almost like a screenplay. I can say ‘wow, that was a funny scene, even if it shows me falling on my face’.
Do you have a sense of irony?
© 2025 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Quote by Mary Jessamyn West, 1902-1984, American writer and Quaker. Author of ‘The Friendly Persuasion. It was made into a movie in 1956 starring Gary Cooper and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. She was a 2nd cousin of President Richard Nixon.
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 25, 2010 | Free Will - 2010, Thomas Fuller |
Day #5 of ‘Free Will’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
We all desire to do great things. But we can all get carried away by the desire and then find we lack the capability or resources to do that which we are so excited about.
When I first moved to Tulsa I worked in a small start up company making educational software (CD-Roms) for children. But to get the job I had to start at the bottom. The very bottom. I scanned hundreds of line drawings for animations. That is all I did. I would clean them up in the computer and off they would go to the animator. I was virtually unskilled labor at that point.
But I also had 20 years experience as an artist, 9 years experience as an art teacher and 14 years experience as a restaurant manager in a high stress, high volume restaurant. I had moved to Tulsa to take this job, taking a pay cut with the hopes that it would lead to a great opportunity in this new field.
I also had no fear. So, when the question was asked at a staff meeting who might like to learn the animation software (Macromedia Director) to help out I wanted to jump up and say ME! But the lead illustrator, senior to me by a long shot, had the first pick to do it. But he was used to drawing by hand and just wanted to keep doing that and working a bit in Photoshop. He said it would be a hassle to learn.
When he said no, I said yes.
Within a year and a half the animator, the art director, and the producer all either left the company or were let go. Guess who moved up into each of those positions? I did. And, more importantly, I succeeded in those positions. And it all started with me saying yes.
The lead illustrator, a negative bully, quit and went back to home construction, blaming our management for him not being able to go anywhere with his career.
So, my point is that the above quote, while true, is never to be used as an excuse. If you have the desire then of course you need to be honest about your capabilities. But not having full capabilities doesn’t mean you have NO capabilities. Your power is greater than you think and is most likely able to back up your will, if you will let it.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Thomas Fuller, 1608-1661, English churchman, historian and writer
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 23, 2010 | Arthur Schopenhauer, Free Will - 2010, Kim Baker, Thomas Shahan |
Day #4 of ‘Free Will’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Wow, what a dilemma this quote brings up. Does it mean we are not personally responsible since we can’t determine what we ‘will’? Does it mean we are destined by our genes, our DNA and parents, our heritage from centuries and millennia long past? What is in our control if that be the case?
The quote made me think about the photo lecture I was in charge of last night. We had a guest lecturer for our photo group. She is a landscape photographer here in Oklahoma, Kim Baker. What we got out of her lecture was one thing: Passion. She is passionate about the rivers of Oklahoma. She traipses through the most incredibly difficult terrain to camp out the night before, often by herself, so she can get up at 4-5 AM and capture the light, mist, dew, and atmosphere around the river before and as the sun rises. She ‘wills’ to do those things.
Two months before that lecture we had another guest, this one was into macro photography. He was photographing flies, insects and spiders of Oklahoma. Some have never been photographed in detail, ever. He is getting famous for his ability to capture them. To do so he has to do much the same as Kim. He goes out in the middle of nowhere and sits still in the dirt or brush or trees. He waits. Sometimes for hours. He has one successful photo out of perhaps 100 taken usually. He does it because he has one thing: Passion.
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| © 2010 Thomas Shahan |
The will is strong when there is passion behind it. Why we have the will is an interesting question. But it is basically about science or God or whatever else you can intellectually think about. But why we have it is not as important as if we exploit it. Do you ACT on that passion or do you just wish about it?
If you want to contribute to the world, you must ACT on your passion, not just think about it.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860, German philosopher
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by Marty Coleman | Sep 22, 2010 | Free Will - 2010, Jawaharlal Nehru |
Day #3 of ‘Free Will’ week at The Napkin Dad Daily
Here is the interesting part. What about when you KNOW the cards you are being dealt? They are showing face up. Think about your school, spouse, job, house, car, city, clothing, hair style and more. You know and see all those things up front. You pick them with the most information you can have. You pick them of your own free will. And then? And then, you have to pick another card, and get rid of one or two. Then you have to combine them with other players’ cards. Then you have to fold and start over. Then you get a straight flush only to find out you aren’t playing a game where flushes mean anything.
Life is like a game of cards. Multiple games with many different rules. Playing isn’t easy, winning isn’t easy. But not playing, not taking the card, not making a decision is worse than playing and losing.
Play.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Jawaharlal Nehru, 1889-1964, Indian Statesman (Prime Minister 1947-1964)
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| Jawaharlal Nehru in a Nehru jacket |
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