Soulmates
“I am not one soul, but many in one person. That is why I have many soul mates through life, not just one.” – Marty Coleman
You Can Live To Be 100 If You Give Up All The Things That Make You Want To Live To Be 100
“You can live to 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to 100.” – Woody Allen
I really think many people, especially in the USA where I live, are so worried about living a long life that they focus exclusively on how to stay alive instead of WHY to stay alive!
I remember starting to go to the gym in about 2000 or so. I had just got divorced and wanted to get out and do something. I felt fat, paunchy and out of shape.
Going there made me think about what the purpose was behind being fit. What was I being fit for? To live a long life? No. It was, and is, to live a good life. To be good to people, help them, care for them, build them up, teach them, learn from them and give to them. At the root, it was so I could love.
You can’t love if you are dead, you can’t love very well if you are sick or incapacitated. You also can’t love if all you are doing is paying attention to staying alive. So, it is good to stay in shape, but it is more important to know WHY you are staying in shape.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Simplicity is the Final Achievement
“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” – Frederick Chopin
Simplicity isn’t just about the art having simplicity, it is about your mind having simplicity. It means you have a mind dedicated to essence of creating, not the complexity of finding a ‘style’. It means a mind focused, a mind free and a mind pure.
My favorite artist is Henri Matisse. His radical and expressive color work (Le Fauves) is beautiful. His Moroccan period is sensual. but it is his simplest of line drawings, his simplest of paper collages done at the end of his life that excite me the most. Why? Because all the ingredients of 60 years of being an artist had been distilled into an simple, glorious dish. A dish a younger Matisse could not have understood or wanted to pursue. He was like a master chef who learns what doesn’t need to be in the dish.
What doesn’t need to be in your dish?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
What Spirit is So Empty
“What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot grasp the fact that a human foot is more noble than a shoe and a the human skin is more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed.” – Michelangelo
It is human to decorate oneself, but humanity starts without decoration and that is often forgotten. The puritan impulse that still flows through America and elsewhere looks for something wrong with the unadorned and naked. We do it without being conscious of it, like a remnant racist not being aware of their own prejudice.
A huge industry has made many people a lot of money building on this. I am not talking about pornography, which at least has some semblance of honesty about it. At least you know what they are trying to evoke in a person. I am not defending porn, just stating that we know what it is and what it is trying to do.
I am talking about marketing and advertising. That is the industry that plays us like a fiddle. That is the industry that tells you to look for the skin and in the next breath tells you to cover it up.
What Michelangelo knew was that for all the finery Florence and Rome in the Renaissance could display to the world, it could not outshine the beauty he found in the human body. And considering the fact that his nude sculpture, ‘David’ is probably the single most popular object of any sort from that era, his statement has been proven true.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Bowling Day
Bowling Day
Sometimes bowling just takes priority, ya know? I am sure it is only a one day thing,
he’s old and the ball gets too heavy for his wrists. Expect him back tomorrow, unless
he declares it Annual Napkin God Cricket Day, in which case it could be days!
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Creativity is a Learning Process Where the Teacher And Pupil Are Within The Same Individual
“Creativity is a learning process where the teacher and pupil are within the same individual.” – Arthur Koestler
If you aren’t willing to teach yourself then you are at the mercy of what other people
want to teach you, what they think is important. If you teach yourself you are in
charge.
Take charge. Be your own student and your own teacher. That way you will always be
getting a new degree!
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of it.
“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of it.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
The Most Dangerous Creation Of Any Society Is A Man Who Has Nothing To Lose
“The most dangerous creation of any society is a man who has nothing to lose.” – James Baldwin
What do you have to lose? Chances are they aren’t that different from most everyone else.
Family, love, hope, future, kids, grandkids, pets, happiness, fun, joy, and way down the list,
probably some material things as well.
So, how bereft of everything is the person who has nothing to lose? Did they start with nothing?
Did they have it taken away? Did they throw it away? Did they have it stolen from them? Did
they have it and take it for granted? Did they hate it?
How does a family, neighborhood, community, society or civilization avoid creating this person?
How do you, as an individual avoid contributing to creating this person?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Breastfeeding
“There are 3 reasons for breastfeeding: The milk is the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can’t get it.” – Irena Chalmers
I saw a report recently about the actor Salma Hayak breastfeeding a child in Africa to illustrate the problem that arises from the strong pressure to not breastfeed very long in that community. The lack of nutrients, antibiotics and bonding that occur when a baby is taken off breastfeeding prematurely is bad enough in a healthy community, but when the community is in poverty and malnutrition and the lack of safe food & water is strong, then to give up the one thing that can immunize and strengthen your child is much more dire for the future health of the child.
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
Our Opinion of People Depends Less Upon What We See In Them, Than Upon What They Make Us See In Ourselves
“Our opinions of people depends less upon what we see in them, than upon what they make us see in ourselves.” – Sarah Grand
This is a tough one for people to grasp. It means you have to look inward and be honest about what is in YOU instead of what is in the person you are judging.
For example, let’s say you have a low opinion of a person at your work who has noticeable tattoos all over his body. What does seeing all those tattoos bring up in yourself? I don’t mean your surface reasons for not liking them. I mean your interior anxieties that the tattooed presence brings out. What is he making you see in yourself?
Let’s say you have a high opinion of a glamorous, high society client. What does she do for you, for your ego, your dreams, your aspirations, that make you think highly of her? What is she making you see in yourself?
Drawing © 2022 Marty Coleman | napkindad.com
The Napkin Dad