by Marty Coleman | Mar 5, 2010 | Series |
Hello everyone,
Here is your chance to be the first ‘guest blogger’ on the The Napkin Dad!
Here is the idea, come up with a good quote for this drawing, either your own, or someone else’s and write a short commentary (2-3 paragraphs) about the quote.
Post the quote and commentary below or send both to me (napkindad@martycoleman.com) and I will chose from among the best. I will then write the quote in the thought bubble and repost it with the commentary within the week. You will get credit of course, with a link to your blog or whatever you have online. I will add in a short bio about you if you supply it.
Sound like fun? Well, what are you waiting for?
I got the idea from watching a video yesterday about an advertising guy who grew tired of his great ideas being shot down by committee. He decided to do something on his own, with his own money, just for fun and to be creative. Check out Mindful Mimi’s video of the story of what he did. It was an obvious ‘aha’ moment for me, the possibility for my napkins being immediate.
The other connection is my love of the cartoon caption page of The New Yorker. They publish a cartoon with no caption and ask the readers to submit their caption ideas. Then they publish their top three. It’s always fun to think up ideas and to see what others come up with.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Mar 1, 2010 | Christianity - 2011-2013, Thornton Wilder |
Here is a little story about eavesdropping and the consequences it engendered.
My daughter loves to evaluate events she has been in, for example a choir show or cheerleading competition in high school. Afterwards we would sit around, maybe at a restaurant, and go over each and every routine we saw, telling her what we thought of them, good and bad. It’s a way for her to figure out her place in the world, to be reassured that she, and the group, did ok, maybe even great. She likes evaluating and critiquing, it helps her make sense of what she went through.
We were doing just that this past weekend after her performance in her College’s annual big singing and dancing extravaganza. Eighteen groups performed over 4 hours. Eight of them were to be chosen to move on and perform next fall at another big event. It is a very intense competition.
We were at Denny’s around midnight going over each group’s performance, giving our opinions of everything from the sets to the dancing, music choices, solo performers, etc. We were laughing about some of them, saying how impressed we were with others. Some were good, some great, some terrible, and we were saying so. We all had different opinions. I liked some that the others thought were terrible. It was interesting comparing notes.
While we were in the middle of this discussion a woman from the table next to us got up and came over to us. She looked angry and said in a pretty huffy manner, ‘Could you please stop talking about these performances. I have friends in that show and you are personally attacking them. I am very offended and I would like you to stop.’ She then went back to her table and sat down. She stared at us. I was facing her and stared back. She had a friend facing away from us who never talked or showed her face.
My ire was up a bit and I responded by saying ‘We will say whatever we want, wherever we want’. She responded ‘You are offensive to me, what you said was a personal attack on a friend of mine.’ Our daughter’s friend had her head on the table by then, our daughter was looking uncomfortable and my wife I knew was wondering where I was headed. I told the woman, ‘what we were doing was not a personal attack, but an honest critique of a performance, our comments were restricted to how they did on stage and we said nothing about them personally.’
She then said ‘You know, we are Christian in this place and you shouldn’t talk like that. You should just say ‘I liked this, I didn’t like that’ and move on.’ Anyone who knows me knows that if someone plays the ‘Christian’ card without knowing what they are talking about (in my opinion obviously) is going to get a response from me. I said ‘Being Christian does not mean you are not allowed to critique and evaluate performances’. It went on for a few more minutes and then we let it go. We continued our critique, albeit in lower voices.
The rest of the evening was taken up with discussing this woman’s comments, her intrusion into our conversation, her eavesdropping in the first place. We were in turn defensive, offended, understanding, compassionate, angry, self-righteous and in hysterics over it.
After we got home, my wife and I discussed our feelings about it. While she was proud of my measured response we also both felt that we perhaps could have said things differently to the woman. Her belligerence at the beginning led the way to my response but we wondered if I couldn’t have gone in a different direction with it.
We could have been more sympathetic to the possibility that the other woman in the booth had been in the show and was really hurt by our comments. We could have been less confrontational back to the woman. In the end I don’t feel bad about my response but I do want to always be able to evaluate honestly who I am and what I do, for my sake, for the sake of the people I interact with and for the sake of my daughters and the example I set for them.
What ideas do you have for how I could have responded, or how you would have?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
“There’s nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.” – Thornton Wilder, 1897-1975, American playwright
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 22, 2010 | Series |
The results are IN! The Oklahoma Blog Awards have been announced.
The winner in my category, Most Inspirational Blog, went to ‘Life is Real‘ by Jim Chastain. He documented his battle with cancer until it finally took him in December of 2009. I am honored to be the runner-up to his inspirational effort.
Someone I met for the first time this year, Natasha Ball, won best Tulsa blog and Best Culture blog for her ‘Tasha Does Tulsa’ blog. Congrats to her, she keeps Tulsa in the forefront and I always go to her blog to find out what is going on!
Check out the rest of the winners. A lot of great writers and blogs among them.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 21, 2010 | Courage - 2010, Mary Anne Radmacher |
I wonder what a lion actually feels after having failed to capture his or her prey. I wonder if there is regret, or anger, or embarrassment. It’s hard to imagine they have feelings organized intellectually like we do, being able to categorize them. But I don’t doubt they have the feeling we need to have that night or the next morning. They know they need to get up and try again.
A confessional and cautionary tale is needed here. Before I was the Napkin Dad, before I lived in Oklahoma and went into interactive and internet development and design, I was a teacher. I taught drawing, art appreciation, figure drawing, art and design at the community college level at 3 different institutions in Northern California. I was part-time for 9 years. I tried for 8 of those years to land a full-time position. I applied to hundreds of jobs all around the country.
The job with the least amount of applications over that time was in a west Texas town that had a prison as it’s main employer. They had over 100 applications. The job with the most applications was the University of Virginia, which had over 600 applications for the particular job I applied for. I was a finalist many a time, but never landed the full-time gig.
It took just as much courage for me to decide to give up on that dream and find myself another as it did for me to get up every morning for those 8 years and decide to try again. During the 9th year, instead of applying for teaching positions, I spent the time retraining myself as a commercial artist using computer software. I started applying for educational software design jobs and landed one in 1994. My family and I moved, sight unseen, to Tulsa and I began a new career as an entry-level employee at age 39.
Persistence is important, I believe in it. But wisdom is important too. Wisdom to know when to change direction, when to ask for directions, when to test the wind, test the waters, test yourself. Be wise and persistent.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’ – Mary Anne Radmacher, American author
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 19, 2010 | Luck, Mary Chapin-Carpenter |
As luck would have it, one of my favorite songs is about luck!
It’s also about the ebb and flow of life, of fortune. You aren’t always on top, you aren’t always at the bottom. Knowing how to live within that ebb and flow, when to row, when to sail, when to seek harbor, when to ask for help, when to see others need help, all those are just as much a part of being successful in life as is money or other, more obvious things.
Check out the lyrics to the song ‘The Bug’ by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Listen to a piece and then download the song from iTunes. It’s on her ‘Come On, Come On’ album, 1992. It’s a great song to run to, by the way.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 18, 2010 | Herbert Zbigniew, Luck, Paul Valery |
Aren’t you lucky! It’s a ‘two-quotes-for-the-price-of-one’ luck napkin.
I put these two together on the same napkin because they are the carnal and intellectual sides of the same coin.
I like being older. I like having more wisdom than I used to. I like to think that I am a better person than I used to be. But I also know that that ‘wisdom’ is, in many cases, the stacking up of suitcases full of experiences. They are stacked in such a way that my ‘wisdom’ seems to have come from some far off place, but the reason I can see things as I do is because I have this great view from atop the suitcases.
I also know that that great view can make me think more of myself than I should. I can start to preen and strut that I have such a great view, that I have had such good luck. I start to think I made it all happen. That is the exact thought, if personified, would put the rocks in my path to make me trip.
Once again, humility is key in understanding luck and and living with good fortune.
Quotes by:
“Wisdom adjusts itself to luck” – (top) Herbert Zbigniew, 1924-1998, Polish poet
“Man preens himself on his strokes of luck.” – (bottom) Paul Valery, 1871-1945, French poet
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 17, 2010 | Lew Wallace, Luck |
Lucky you, day 2 in my Luck series!
You know why sports heroes always sound so humble when they win the big game? Because they are well-mannered, that’s why. They know how they have felt in the past when they have lost and the winners have rubbed it in their faces. They know what a lack of character it shows. I know it might seem like such a cliche, but the truth is most sports figures know how lucky they are to be where they are. To win the big game they know that no matter how great one throw or one defensive move was, it wasn’t JUST that moment that really won the game.
What luck have you had in life? Have you been grateful, understanding the plethora of people who made it happen beyond your own control, or are you filled with your own self importance, the self-made man or woman who did it on their own! I don’t mean to diss the self-made person, but understanding how good fortune really works should always leave a person with some humility.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“One is never more on trial than in the moment of excessive good fortune.” – Quote by Lew Wallace, 1827-1905, Union General, American Civil War and Author of ‘Ben Hur’
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 16, 2010 | Luck, Ovid |
Thanks to Donna G. and Jacqueline U. for suggesting ‘Luck’ as a new topic. Not sure how much of a series it will be, but it’s a series of one at least.
It’s pretty simple really, if you want to be lucky in life, put yourself out there to be lucky. With the lottery yes, you can just buy the ticket and go home. If you are the lucky one, even if you are ensconced in your solitary world, it will happen. But in most other ‘luck’ phenomenon you have to be out and engaged with the world for that luck to find you.
So, whether you are searching for a metaphorical fish or a real one , you won’t have the ‘luck’ you want unless you are out there casting your line.
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
“Luck affects everything: let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” – Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), 43 BCE – 19 BCE, Roman poet
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 14, 2010 | Heart - 2010, Valentine's Day |
Every day these napkins are my valentine to you who read, learn, enjoy and share them with the world
Thank you,
The Napkin Dad
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 13, 2010 | Heart - 2010, Robert Heinlein, Valentine's Day |
Yes, this is a blatantly Valentine’s Day napkin.
Compatibility matters. Mutual interests matter. Attraction matters.
But nothing matters like working for your partner’s happiness. Nothing brings
about joy like realizing that what brings your partner happiness is something
within your grasp to give.
That’s a blissful moment of love.
Drawing and commentary © 2019 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to our own.” – Robert Heinlein, 1907-1988, American author
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