“There is something about a closet that makes a skeleton terribly restless.” – Wilson Mizner
So, the question is, when is it safe or sane to let your skeleton out for a while, or forever?
The skeleton doesn’t have to be brought out as a rotting carcass either. It can be dressed up or even disguised, it doesn’t really matter. All it wants is to get a little fresh air.
Perhaps you can bring it out in the form of a poem, or a painting. Perhaps a short story. Perhaps a script or a memoir or a cartoon.
Why not just bring the skeleton out in all its grotesqueness? It is good to bring it out just as it is sometimes. But there are other times when that same skeleton resides in two or three closets and for you to bring it out of yours will force it out of theirs too. Could end up a good thing, but it could be terribly disrespectful and hurtful as well. It isn’t all about you, it is about others as well.
Take a look in your closet, be creative and respectful about how to bring your skeleton out. The more creative you are about it, the more positive the experience will be.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.” – Wilson Mizner
If you don’t doubt you have no reason to explore for answers. If you don’t explore what’s the chance of you getting educated about something?
The other side to it, the more joyful side, is curiosity. Curiosity is not associated negatively with anything, it is just a state of mind that says you are interested in the world and finding out more about it. Of course those who aren’t curious usually think they have everything already figured out, which is often how people of faith can behave as well.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism. If you steal from two, it’s research.” – Wilson Mizner
I sometimes feel like I am guilty of the big P because I use so many quotes from all of history. I have never been good about writing down who said what, especially on the napkin itself. But now that I have made a book of some of them I definitely had to go look up all the quote and figure all that stuff out!
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“A mob never rushes to do a needed kindness.” – Anonymous
I think this is a great quote since it really makes you think about the nature of a specific event/idea and snaps it into focus for you. A mob (as opposed to just a large gathering) is a scary thing and they can’t be trusted to be rational or
purposeful or ethical while in the mob mentality.
That is why talk radio can be so cancerous. It sometimes can be a dispersed mob led by a ranting ego. And while it is unlikely that dispersed mob will burn stores and maim people physically, all the sacrifice of care and compassion and ‘needed kindnesses’ are still going to be missing from their heart as they go about their business.
What do you think?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
