by Marty Coleman | Oct 14, 2010 | Francois de La Rochefoucauld, Memory - 2010 |
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I can’t remember if I told you this, but it’s ‘Memory Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily
I have great stories from my life and I like to tell them. So, as a service to mankind and to help you avoid the problem mentioned in the napkin today, I have this suggestion; if you happen to hear one of my stories twice think of it as seeing a rerun of your favorite TV show during the summer. See, wasn’t that easy?
My father, who is 92, is sharp as a tack mentally. For about 2 minutes. Then he forgets what I have told him and asks again how the family is doing; daughters, wife, etc. I will recount for him what I had just told him and about the 2nd or 3rd time it pretty much sinks in and he is up to date on things, for a while.
We should all have someone like that at our disposal so we can tell our stories as many times as we want and not worry about having told it before!
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Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily (I repeat this line EVERY DAY, have you noticed that?)
Quote by François duc de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680, French writer
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| Snappy Dresser |
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 13, 2010 | Memory - 2010 |
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I have nostalgia for ‘memory week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily and it’s not even over yet!
I am wary of nostalgia. I think about the inclinations so many people have to think back on the ‘good old days’. They have what I think is a glossy hollywood version of the past in their minds.
They may have had a perfect upbringing, but the person who says ‘when I was young….yada yada yada’, who sends out chain email extolling the grand virtues of their self-reliant generation, who recount the idyllic American life they lived is being seduced by nostalgia.
They forget that:
- Their African-American friends, if they had any, couldn’t sit on the bus with them.
- Their mothers didn’t get anywhere near equal pay for equal work.
- Their father was not given any rights when their parents got divorced.
- Their brother was shipped off to Vietnam.
- Their sister overdosed on drugs.
- The Jewish kid down the street was called a Jesus killer.
- The Mexican kid at school was called a wetback.
- Their effeminate cousin was bullied mercilessly at school and his father disowned him.
- *Some of these things unfortunately still go on, and when they happen today we hopefully recognize it as negative.
Don’t be fooled by looking backwards with rose colored glasses. Each generation has its triumphs and burdens. Each generation has its shame and its glory.
Even the greatest generation had its weaknesses.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by George W. Ball, 1909-1994, American Diplomat
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 12, 2010 | Memory - 2010, Michel de Montaigne |
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Late yesterday I think I remembered that I hadn’t ever done a series on Memory yet.
A statement of logic and heart:
1. Most of the memories I can’t forget are about things I regret.
2. For every regret, there is a lesson learned.
3. I don’t mind remembering a lesson learned.
Thus: I don’t want to forget that which I regret.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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| Quote by Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French Essayist and statesman |
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 11, 2010 | Memory - 2010, Persia, Persian Proverbs |
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I am trying to remember if I have done a series on memory yet.
I have had some relationships over my life with people who have had long memories for slights and injuries. I know this because as I got to know them I found out all the places we couldn’t go and things we couldn’t do. We couldn’t go to this restaurant because a former boyfriend and she had gotten in a fight there. We couldn’t watch this old movie because it reminded her of a really bad experience she had as a child. I wasn’t suppose to call her by a certain pet name because her mean older brother had called her that. I couldn’t cook with this vegetable because she was forced to eat it as a child and now despised it. Something I said 15 years prior got brought up in an argument.
It can be endearing in a cute way, a little quirky element in the relationship. But it also can lead to having nothing but those negative attachments. If you want to be free to experience the positive, you can’t have your memory bank filled up with only negatives.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote is a Persian proverb
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| Persian empire around 500 BCE under the reign of King Darius |
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 10, 2010 | Sketchbook History Tour |
Look what I found! The first example of my amazing aptitude for drawing on napkins, haha.
In 1985 I was working as a waiter/manager at Eulipia Restaurant in San Jose, California. I had just graduated from San Jose State University with my M.F.A. and was in my first year of teaching part-time at the college level.
I don’t know who the top two people are, probably a depressed patron and a waitress. The bottom image is of Angelique. I spelled her name ‘Angeleak’ because I had recently completed a large charcoal drawing of her in which I included a visual pun on her name ‘angel + leak’.
Here is that drawing.
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| Woman with a Dream of her Mother, 1985 |
Here is a close up of the pun.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 8, 2010 | Fame, James Howell |
Day #5 of ‘Fame Week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily
What are you famous for? Fame at the average person’s level is fame among family, friends, co-workers. If those who know you were asked ‘what is ‘your name here’ famous for?’ What do you think they would say? At work, are you famous for your patience? Are you well-known for your sales ability? Is your reputation all about you being able to get things done fast?
What you are known for is your fame.
Another way of looking at this is ‘what is your brand?’ Your personal brand identity is really nothing more than your reputation. The key of course is that once you have built your identity and have a reputation for something, to not lose it. You see it all the time in businesses and personal lives. People say they are intellectual because they read deep books in college, but that was 25 years ago and they haven’t explored things intellectually since. The restaurant that has the great reputation, but now is mediocre and uncaring about the product.
Make sure you are being who you said you were years ago. Make sure you maintain your brand, your identity, otherwise it will catch up to you while you are sleeping.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by James Howell, 1594-1666, British historian and writer
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 7, 2010 | Fame, John Keats |
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Day #4 of ‘Fame Week’ at the Napkin Dad Daily
Have you ever witnessed (or maybe have been in the midst of it yourself) someone who is so desperate for something you just know it is going to slip between their fingers. It might be a relationship, a job, money, or fame. But whatever it is, you almost get the feeling there is a cruel joke being played. The person who wants it the most is not going to get it.
I watched an episode of the TV show Survivor last night. And in the episode there was one man who was seeking to be made the leader. He kept asking for a chance to be leader. He begged to be made leader. And the more he begged, the more people saw him as being too desperate and not likely to be a good leader. The very act of communicating his desire so fervently was the deciding factor in the other people not wanting to help fulfill that desire. He was not made leader. He was voted off the island instead.
Whether you become famous or not, in the end you will still be living with yourself day to day, every day. If you aren’t happy with that person, then being known world-wide is not going to help you. Being confident inside yourself of your own worth and ability is the most secure way to deal with whatever happens, fame or obscurity.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by John Keats, 1795-1821, English Romantic poet
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Oh, and don’t forget to vote for The Napkin Dad at the aha moment campaign. It will make me famous, I am sure.
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 6, 2010 | Cato the Elder, Death - 2001-2011, Fame |
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Day #3 of ‘Fame Week’ on The Napkin Dad Daily
We have time travelled backward from yesterday, this quote is by Cato the Elder, who lived right smack dab in between Marcus Aurelius and Socrates.
Cato was a bit of an over achiever. He was a diplomat, politician, historian and a farmer. He had seen many a monument to people whom he, no doubt, felt were unworthy of the honor but for their station and influence in life.
His point is simple. Better to let people say you should be more famous than to say you are not worthy of the fame you have.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Cato the Elder, Roman Renaissance man (before the Renaissance), 234 BCE – 149 BCE
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by Marty Coleman | Oct 5, 2010 | Fame, Marcus Aurelius |
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Day #2 of ‘Fame Week” at The Napkin Dad Daily. Today we move into the Roman Empire with a quote by my favorite Emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
So, we started with Socrates talking about the perfume of heroic deeds being what fame is made of. Now, 500-600 years later we read the Emperor Aurelius saying it will all fade away, fame and the famous. What happened to make that transformation?
Well, most likely it was Marcus Aurelius’ own observations of the history of his time. The golden age of Greece was ancient history to him by then, they were unearthing old remnants of that era and reconstructing some element of it but overall they saw it as long gone. Even the rich and famous and powerful of his day were supplanted and forgotten. The death of Caesar was already almost 200 years in the past. That is roughly akin in our era to remembering back to the death of George Washington in 1799.
Yes, George is still famous. Yes, Caesar is still famous. But the Emperor is not really talking about those exceptions to the rule. He is talking about the hundreds and thousands and millions of others who thought themselves so important, so indispensable who are now forgotten by all.
It’s a sad thought in some ways, but it is a good thought in many more ways. It keeps us focused on the reality of now. We may be remembered for a while, maybe hundreds or even thousands of years in some cases. but it’s not likely and it’s not something to depend on.
What we can depend on is now. You are here now. What deed can you do now? What obscure and unseen gesture can you do now to help a friend, encourage a co-worker? Will it lead to fame? Not likely. But will it lead to love and kindness growing? Yes, it will. And that is worth more than all the fame you could ever gather for yourself.
Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by Marcus Aurelius, 121-180 CE, Stoic philosopher, Emperor of the Roman Empire
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Don’t forget to VOTE in the ‘aha moment’ campaign! Once per computer unti
l Oct. 15th, then, if I reach the finals, the voting starts again.
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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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