Last we left the bodyless girl ghosts they were on their way to go skiing, which they do not do very well because they have no feet. But they had fun anyway, floating down the mountain again and again, pulling pranks on skiers, making them fall, blowing them over and generally confusing them. Two of the girl ghosts ran into trees head on (that’s all they have is heads so of course it was head on) and had to retire to the chalet. Ethel saw two big butted men and decided to cause some mayhem. She bumped one in his big butt which cause him to bump into the other big butted man. They both had cafeteria trays full of goulash that spilled all over the big busted women who were with them. It was funny to watch though they felt sorry for the women because they remembered back to when they had bodies and goulash was sometimes spilled down their blouses. It was not a fun feeling.
The two big butted men were very angry with each other as a result of this goulash mishap. Ethel, the fastest of the bodyless girl ghosts, flew up the mountain to find her friends and tell them to come watch the big fight in the chalet that she had caused. She found eight of them (5 others having gotten lost and consequently were currently floating over a dairy farm watching cows moo about 10 miles away). When they all got back to the chalet Sharita, the clumsy ghost who first hit a tree and stayed behind in the chalet because she had a headache, the only type of ache a bodyless ghost can have by the way, caught them up on what had happened.
The Food Fight
Sharita was just telling them how the one big busted lady had screamed and stripped of her top because the goulash was burning her when they heard a really loud clatter. The all pushed forward to watch as one of the big butted men slammed down his tray and punched the other big butted man in the jaw. They started to fight with a lot of punches thrown with the sound of the crunching of noses and teeth. The girl ghosts, along with all the other people in the chalet, were enjoying the fight when suddenly they saw one of the big busted women throw a whole bowl of goulash at the other big busted woman, who got it straight in the face. She responded by picking up a bowl of fruit loops that a little kid was eating and threw it back. All the fruit loops stuck to the other women’s face and looked very funny.
Pretty soon the girl ghosts were witnessing a full on food fight with flying spaghetti, many pieces of toast, at least 4 plates of chicken strips and french fries and more than a few bowls of cottage cheese, which was really gross to watch hit people.
The Aftermath
After the food fight was over the big busted woman with no shirt on and fruit loops all over her face started crying. The big butted man who was with her told her to shut up and help him to the infirmary since he probably broke his jaw. She slapped him, said ‘Fuck you’ and stormed out of the cafeteria. The girl ghosts thought she had to be the most tragic and ridiculous person they had ever seen, walking away as she was, covered in goulash and fruit loops and clad in only what had been a pretty sexy Victoria Secret bra and bright orange ski pants. Ethel felt a bit bad about starting it all but decided it was worth it because she had never seen so much flying food at one time before.
The girl ghosts all decided they had had enough fun for one day and went off to find their friends. When they found them they were learning how to milk cows from a farmer and his daughter.
The End
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Drawing and short short story by Marty Coleman, who ran into more than a few trees while skiing as a young lad.
I watched a TV segment about Edward Albee recently. He is the Pulitzer Prize winning playright whose most famous work is ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’. The interviewer was asking him if he considered that the subject matter would be offensive to some. His response was, yes he knew it might be but that the play was telling him what needed to be in it, not people who may or may not be offended by it.
Art Creating Itself
That is how it is with me as well. My imagination starts somewhere and then once I put pen to paper the images tells me where to go and what to do. It tells me what it wants to be. The more I listen to that the better the work. The more I listen to a possible future offended person the more I will create something self-censored, something that looks like someone else’s work, not my own.
That is why I often draw nudes. The content and message in the depiction of a nude says something I want to say. Clothing the person would take that element of the idea away and if I bow to that pressure I am diminishing my power as an artist to create something expressive and valuable. If someone is offended or interprets the work in ways I don’t anticipate that is ok, I even like hearing about that and learning from it. But I can’t try to extrapolate what that might be in advance just to save someone somewhere a possible hard thought or offensive reaction.
You Creating Yourself
So it is with creating your whole self as well as a work of art. Chisel and hammer out who you want to be, not who you would be if you offended no one. Because if you turn yourself into who someone else wants you to be, you become hard to know, admire and love. The world ends up seeing a watered down you, diluted with someone else’s ideas of who you should be instead of the full flavored you. And you’ll end up offending someone anyway.
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Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman, who is who he is.
I had a conversation yesterday with a beautiful and fit woman. The topic? How she gets judged and made fun of for being ‘perfect’. I have had this conversation before with other women as well. It’s almost easier to make fun of that ‘perfect’ person, isn’t it? None of the guilt or shame you feel when laughing at a person who looks funny or talks funny. That would be mean, cruel, hateful, immature, ignorant, and judgmental and we wouldn’t do that, would we?
Better Than
So what is it when the object of your derision or judgment is ‘better’ than you, not worse? What name do you give to your response when the person you are making fun of or cutting down somehow appears to be nicer, smarter, more fit, more thoughtful, more giving, more balanced, more conscientious, more diligent, more loving, more sensitive, wealthier, prettier, sexier, happier?
I have a few words we could use. How about mean, cruel, hateful, immature, ignorant, and judgmental? Perhaps we could add in jealousy and envy for good measure?
All That is Hidden
Let’s just focus on the word ignorant. We will focus on it because it applies to what you know. And guess what, unless you’ve taken the time to care, YOU KNOW NOTHING about any person’s insides. You don’t know the struggle she’s had to get up at 5am most mornings to exercise before the kids are awake. You don’t know about her garish stretchmarks. You don’t know the abuse she had at the hands of her mother. You don’t know the dyslexia she had to overcome in school. You don’t know the prejudice she felt being so tall and skinny and flat chested in 9th grade. You don’t know about the skin condition she has on her back that makes her itch like crazy. You don’t know about how hard she works to stay connected to her husband who is busy all the time. You don’t know about her debilitating fear of flying. In other words, YOU KNOW NOTHING about her interior and very little about her exterior.
Your Quiver
You see the facade and you make fun because she is an easy target. And she is an easy target. But if you can target her for derision, you also have the power to target her for love, compassion, mercy, patience, kindness, gentleness and more. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter who the target is, it matters what the weapon is. Are you aiming to be derisive, judgmental person? Use the arrow of hate. Are you aiming to be a loving and compassionate one? Use the arrow of love. You have both in your quiver, just bring out the right one and shoot. The more you reach for the right arrow, the more that arrow will end up in your hand without you even knowing it.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who has a lot of scars.
You Don’t Say – a poster by The Napkin Dad at Zazzle. You can make other products with this image as well.
The Truth Sayer
Are you a sayer? Are you one that can often be heard saying, ‘Well, at least you know where I stand because I always say what I think.’ It always sounds so good. You are just being truthful after all, and telling the truth is important, right?
The Hate Sayer
But what if you don’t know if it’s true or not? What if what you are really doing is spouting hateful condemnation, judgment, self-righteousness and faux moral superiority about someone you don’t even know? Do you not do that? That is good. But think twice. What about the Miss Universe who stumbles over her words? What about the male bodybuilder who has muscles on muscles on muscles? What about the guy wearing a turban in Wal-Mart? What about the girl whose shorts are just a little too short and whose tattoos are just a little to garish? What about the short round kid and the skinny tall kid? What about that older actress dating that younger man?
The World Changer
Do you really, truly want to change the world? One way is to be quiet and not speak when you are about to make a judgment. If it is not about truth but instead is about you using words to step on someone’s back to lift yourself up then be quiet instead.
The Love Maker
I suspect you will find that the world didn’t go in the crapper because you didn’t say those hurtful words. You might find that your friends still like you in spite of you not having made the biting remark about the waitress with the bright blue eyeshadow. You might find that nothing changed at all except your attitude. Maybe you will find more love seeping into your heart, who knows.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who loves all the people mentioned above. Especially the waitress with the bright blue eyeshadow.
Mythology Trivia Question from yesterday answered:
Question: Who is the Queen of the Underworld in Greek Mythology?
Answer: Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and the Goddess of the Harvest, Demeter. She was kidnapped by Hades, King of the Underworld and became his wife. Her mother Demeter found out that Zeus had conspired with Hades in the abduction. As a result Demeter refused to allow any growth on the earth until Persephone was allowed to return to her. Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to come back to the surface in the Spring. But since she had already married Hades and had tasted the fruits of the underworld she was compelled to live in the underworld starting in the Fall. The flowers and vegetation then failed as she disappeared, only to return when she did the following Spring. She became known as the Goddess of Vegetation as well as the Queen of the Underworld.
Persephone – Thomas Hart Benton
Here is a painting of an old farmer peeking at a young nude woman. It might seem a bit creepy but not if you know it’s really about the bittersweet feeling the farmer has at seeing Persephone discard her summer glory and disappear again for another year. He is grateful for the harvest she made possible but is wistful at her departure, just as we often are when we see autumn leaves start to fall.
The Adventures of the Bodyless Girl Ghosts continue…
The Bodyless Girl Ghosts Have Dinner
After they left Ethel and Mabel, they made their way past the billboard advertising the new Wolla Tompo Crematorium and flew into the center of town. Penelope, the Girl Ghost leader, thought they should get something to eat. In truth, bodyless ghosts don’t really eat since they can’t digest anything, not having any bodies, but they like to chew and swallow and they like to smell so they do it anyway.
It was very cold out so when Isabel saw the cute little Italian place with a warm glow through the windows they decided to try it out. They could see a crackling fireplace and candles at the table and knew it would be just perfect. Since they have no bodies they can never get in without someone opening doors for them. You would think they could, being ghosts and all, but they’ve tried and just end up getting frustrated trying to turn knobs with no hands.
They did what they usually do, press up against a window looking sad and cold until someone opens the door and lets them in. In this case it was the hostess, a young girl still in high school named Persephone. Mergatroid, the picky ghost, made fun of her name when she saw it on her name tag. That made Persephone cry which in turn made Tootie, the smallest, most sensitive of the girl ghosts, butt heads with Merg and tell her to shut up.
Tootie floated over to Persephone and told her to ignore Merg, that she was a bitter old ghost who didn’t like anything. Persephone felt better and told her she was just overtired because she had to work everyday in this place until spring, when she could go visit her parents down in the valley. She was stuck in this supposed winter wonderland until then. Persephone dried her eyes, came back and set up a table for them.
The Girl Ghost gang floated at a table and enjoyed big bowls of pasta and plenty of bold red wine. Bodyless ghosts like pasta because they can suck it straight up out of the bowl without worrying about forks and spoons, which they can’t use very well at all. Plus, as they drink, they love to whip the pasta around in their mouths and splatter each other with sauce. It’s there dining entertainment.
Later they said their goodbyes to Persephone, promising to visit her again in the valley come springtime. Tootie got her email address, and though bodyless ghosts aren’t very good at typing, she promised to write her during the cold winter months remaining so she wouldn’t be so lonely. They flew over to the Wolla Tompo Inn and hovered outside, not wanting to go in, being a bit tipsy with pasta sauce all over their faces. Finally the cold got the better of them and they had to go in and check into their room with the 2 double beds (girl ghosts sleep at least 5 to a bed since they don’t have to worry about being kicked).
They slept well and woke up excited to try skiing later that day, even if they were hungover.
The End
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Drawing and story by Marty Coleman, who made it all up.
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Mythology trivia question of the day:
Who is the Queen of the Underworld in Greek Mythology?
I first came across Robert Irwin while I was visiting Minneapolis for an art conference when I was in my 20s. I took some time off and went to the Walker Art Center, one of the best museums in North America that I had heard about for many years. This is what I saw.
Robert Irwin – Untitled – 1968-69
If it’s hard for you to figure out what it is you are looking at, it’s on purpose. It was slightly less hard in person and that is what made it so profound for me. I had come across that incredible creative moment when something skews your understanding of space, of what is real, of what it is you are actually seeing.
What you are looking at is a convex plexiglass disk that is out from the wall. It is painted and lit so that it looks as if it is hovering in space. Then it disappears and is flat tones on a wall. The it comes back and is pushing out towards you with power. It was amazing to just stand there and get lost in it’s visual everythingness.
Shortly thereafter I learned of a biography written about Irwin and found it.
The book told the story of his creative art journey from the disk you see above through his work as a master within the ‘Light and Space’ movement in art. The work in the book was incredible and I was hooked. The book is now one of my treasured possessions because it contains the autographs of both the author and Mr. Irwin. I will return to the story of the book after showing you some of his work.
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Robert Irwin – Untitled – 1968
Robert Irwin – Untitled – Installation view
Here’s another example of that same mysterious, disorienting visual balancing act Irwin does between dimension and flatness, solidity and ethereality.
Robert Irwin – Old Post Office, Washington D.C.
Irwin started to move out from the gallery and put work in larger, less traditional art spaces. These panels hang in the middle of the atrium and both stand out and disappear depending on your location and the light at the time.
Robert Irwin – Violet Running Form
This is a very playful piece. It’s in a beautiful stand of Eucalyptus trees on the UC San Diego campus. It is a blue chain link fence that starts at a height twice as high as the normal person. Obviously it plays off the idea of utility but it also plays with the light that come into the grove and one’s perception of the color that is normally there in the trees, leaves and air.
I had the pleasure of coming across this art piece unaware when I took Caitlin to visit UCSD as a possible college location. I had seen the photos of it many years before in the book but completely forgot that it was on campus. We just happened to walk through the Eucalyptus grove and there it was. It really did change the beauty of the space in wonderful ways.
Robert Irwin – 1°2°3°4° – 1997
Robert Irwin – 1°2°3°4° – 1997
Irwin loves to isolate and divide while keeping something unified. It’s his way of saying look at all of this and look at just this at the same time. I love that about his work.
Robert Irwin – Who’s Afraid of Red Yellow Blue – 2006
Later in his career he moved into using other elements to define space and light. Here he is using solid panels that appear light and heavy at the same time. The top ones levitate but also are dangerous in their percieved weight. Where do you stand, what do you think about walking in and around the space? The answers say more about you than the art.
Robert Irwin – Getty Gardens
Robert Irwin – Getty Gardens
Irwin took on a huge commission when he agreed to design the gardens surrounding the new Getty Museum in the Santa Monica Hills overlooking Los Angeles. As you can see, he was able to use completely non-art world material and create an amazing visual space that still insists on confronting your understanding of space and light in a way that both illuminates and enriches.
In the end, for all the intellectual and art-bound theories and philosophies I might find in Irwin’s work, in the end I am left with a true and unadulterated joy in the sensations of the world around us. Irwin is able to present us with a visual world that makes us think and makes us smile. How cool is that? I can think of no greater art achievement one can really hope to make.
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The Story of the Book
Ok, back to the book. In 1976 I continued my education at University of California, Santa Barbara. While I was there I had a girlfriend for a while. Here is a picture of her a few years later visiting my then wife and me in San Jose.
While Toni was visiting was us I showed her the book about Robert Irwin. She laughed and looked at us funny and said, “You know that Lawrence, the author, is my brother, right?” No, I did not know that. Yes, I knew her last name and yes I saw his last name on the cover, I just never made the connection. So, I sent the book back with her to LA where she lived so she could hunt down her brother and get him to autograph it for me. She sent it back to me a few months later with inscription you see below.
You may have noticed that Robert Irwin also signed it. Here’s how that came down. I had attended San Jose State University as a graduate student pursuing my MFA. A year after I graduated I heard he was coming to school to give a guest lecture. I was pretty psyched, and if possible, meet him and have him sign my book. When the day finally arrived I had a dilemma. I was not able to go due to my work schedule at the restaurant where I worked. But, I could go to the very beginning of the lecture and perhaps meet him beforehand if I timed it right.
I was on the second story of the student union building standing looking over the edge into the large central atrium area, waiting for him to arrive for the lecture from the Art Department. When he came in he was surrounded by at least a dozen or more people, including the chairman of the department and many professors, including a number who had been my advisors. I was bummed about the crowd, figuring I would not get a chance right them to meet him. I saw them disappear under the walkway I was on to come up the stairs.
Robert Irwin
When they arrived at the top of the stairs they were all there except Mr. Irwin. I immediately asked the Chairman where he was and he said he had stayed downstairs to find a bathroom. That was all I needed to hear. I rushed down the stairs and found him walking down a hallway, indeed looking for a bathroom. I introduced myself, directed him to the bathroom and went in with him. We stood at side by side urinals taking a leak and talking. Luckily for me we both had to go really bad so it lasted a long time. I was able to to tell him of my admiration for his work, and the book, explaining about knowing Lawrence’s sister. I told him my status as a recent MFA grad, my working 3 jobs, including 2 part time teaching gigs at community colleges. He was incredibly gracious, especially considering we were peeing together.
Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
When we were done we continued to talk and I asked him if he would autograph the book, which he did. He also gave me encouraging advice about how to deal with the first few years out of graduate school, how to work through hard things and keep creating worthy art at the same time. I then led him back up to the auditorium and to the front of the audience so he could give his lecture. I meanwhile skeedaddled to the restaurant to work my shift. I didn’t hear the lecture but I gained more than I had hoped!
We often think of fools as being simple. But I think people act like fools when the get too complex, not too simple. We overanalyze, hesitate and stall in taking action, second guess ourselves because of all the other choices we could make. We have no effective way of deciding things and thus get lost in the minutia of what ifs. And the result is we miss opportunities, make rash decisions, make stupid mistakes. We tie simplicity in a knot and act like fools amidst the made up complexity.
The Simple Pain
Why is that? What is it that keeps us from being able to see the simple truths, the real choices, the obvious answers? Why do we insist on fooling ourselves for so much of our lives about who we are and what our lives are made of? Maybe it’s because simple equals pain. What I mean is that simple means facing a truth about ourselves. Maybe a moral failing, maybe a hope dashed for the future, maybe a character trait that sabotages us and hurts others. It’s easier to pile on layers of other things, complexities, to hide the simple truth.
The Dark Forest
There is a famous quote that goes something along the lines of ‘If you want to get to the other side of pain, you have to go through it, not around it.’ I know in my own life that when I faced pain directly I moved most assuredly to healing. When I avoided it, avoided truths about myself, I simply delayed the healing. Going through pain is hard, but never getting to the other side of it is even harder.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, whose had his share.
Quote by Pete Seeger, 1919 – not dead yet, American folk singer
Let this be a lesson to you, wait long enough and day 4 of ‘Foolish Things’ week will arrive!
The Right To Think
If you were online at all in the past year you know how intense many debates got about the Presidential election. I know this because I am a liberal in conservative Oklahoma. Say you like Obama and BOOM! let the debates begin! I had many very intelligent discussions with people of all political stripes. I also had completely frustrating discussions with complete fools who wouldn’t know a cogent thought if it schmacked them in the kisser. Those blithering idiots were irate, simplistic, irrational, unthinking, hateful, dumb, embarrassing and reactionary in their thoughts and words. And those were just the Democrats I agreed with! Those I disagreed with (mostly far right Republicans) who were also in the fool category were all those things and wrong at the same time.
The Right Fool
But guess what? Even among the fools I heard and read some truths. In among the paranoid conspiracies of Obama being a Muslim communist marriage hater were some bits and pieces of thoughtful ideas. Amidst the irrational hatred for Rep. Pelosi, Sen. Reid and all the other wannabe Marxist dictators were some nuggets of sensible thoughts. In between the anti-scientific, empty headed, religious zealotry were some wise insights. Of course it’s much easier to mine these brief moments of clarity out of people when they are rational, but even among the lunatic fringe the moments are there. Sometimes the fringe is right.
How To Know
How do we find what is right in amongst the toxic landfill of bad ideas poorly presented? It takes two things. One, a diminishing of your own foolishness. You must be willing to see how you might be playing the fool and retreat from it. Two, you must listen to or read entire sentences and paragraphs and pages of junk to get to it, not dissimilar to digging a mine through ton after ton of dirt and rock to find gold.
The Foolish Friend
Now, that isn’t all that necessary in a lot of cases because it is just some random knucklehead off in internetland saying whatever and really, who cares, right? But what if the fool is also my friend? What if I care about this fool? What if I am trying to find some common ground so I can sustain and nurture a friendship, or a working relationship. Then doing that digging is probably worth it. It’s how I find the part of them that is not the fool. The part that is right. And I can hope my friend is digging to find what is right in me as well. After all, isn’t that what it really takes to get along?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who started drawing on napkins 15 years ago.
Quote by Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955
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Trivia question from yesterday:
What is the name of the literary competition (now in its 31st year) that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels?
Answer: The Bulwer-Litton Fiction Contest. Named after the author of yesterday’s quote, it is a “whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.” It originated at San Jose State University in 1983 while I was going to graduate school there. Go check it out and enter if you dare!
I am flattered you came back for day 2 of ‘Foolish Things’ week!
The Ego Whisperer
Beware the person whispering sweet nothings in your ear that happen to coincide with your ego’s weakness.
Overconfidence
I am reading a book right now called ‘The Social Animal – A Story of How Success Happens’. In it the author explains how much of what goes into our success or failures in life are from the unconscious realm, not the conscious. He spends a lot of time quoting and extrapolating from various academic research studies regarding people’s thinking and behavior. There is one area of the book in particular that is germaine to this quote and that is overconfidence.
Here are a few of the statistics the author, David Brooks, quotes:
90% of drivers believe they are above average drivers.
94% of college professors believe they are above average teachers.
Golf pros believe they sink 70% of their 6 foot putts. They actually make only 54%.
50% of Penn State students said they would object if they heard a sexist comment in their presence. When it happened, only 16% actually objected.
Those who scored in the bottom quartile on logic and grammar tests were the most likely to overestimate their abilities.
When given questionnaires about their industry (to test competence), Advertising professionals thought 90% of their answers were correct. Actually, they were wrong 61% of the time. Meanwhile the computer professionals thought they got 95% correct on the questionnaire. They were wrong 80% of the time.
99% of all those tested (in the questionnaire mention immediately above) overestimated their success.
Inocculation
The point of these statistics is to show that we are all going to overestimate how smart and competent we are. We can all be fools about ourselves, in other words. The more self-aware we can become about where we truly are in the scheme of things the better protection we have against those who would try to manipulate us and our easily fooled egos.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who is 90% correct 50% of the time when 35% of the people aren’t among the 99% and 20% are among the 47%.
What is the name of the literary competition (now in its 31 year) that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels?
It’s a joy to present this foolish drawing for day one of ‘What a Fool’ week!
Who is a Fool?
How do you know when someone is a fool and when they are not? Obviously not all big busted women and body building men are fools so why did I choose to show them together? Because they were fun to draw, of course. No, seriously, it’s because they are representations of those who are focused and obsessed on one shallow or dangerous thing while ignoring the larger reality they live in. They are oblivious to the high cliff they are standing on. That, to me, is the definition of a fool. And it’s not that a fool goes looking for another fool. They just go looking for someone like them, and that turns out to be another fool.
What a Mirror Doesn’t Show
You might think that me of all people would be the one to say, ‘Don’t worry about what others think of you.’ But the truth is we all have a bit of the fool in us. How self-aware we are of those foolish parts is the key to moderating them so they don’t send us over a cliff of some sort. One of the best ways to be self-aware is to be other-aware. What I mean is we often don’t see ourselves from but one side. In the mirror we see a front view for example, we don’t see our profile. We don’t see our back in the mirror. That is why, if you have a partner, you might ask him or her to see how you look from the back. Is there a tag showing, a stain on your dress, a big patch of cat hair on your bottom? Having someone else see you helps you see yourself better.
Caring What Others Think
The same is true in your behaviors and words, not just your knit sweater. To have friends and family who you trust and who trust you to listen is really important. To have good and honest feedback in work and play is critical to growth. You hear how others see you and you can make a choice about whether what they said is important or not, whether it’s actually a fair criticism or not. And if that is the case, then what you heard from another person then becomes something you believe as well and can decide to work on from the inside. It’s part of how you see yourself now. And that means you are more self-aware than you were before. That is a good thing.
Overdose of Other
Of course, a big problem in many societies is that there is too much attention paid to what others think. Your life becomes all about satisfying the expectations of others. You must be this way, you must believe this, you must respond like this, you must wear this, and for God’s sake, you must NOT wear that! And if you don’t, you are shunned and bullied and made fun of. And as hard and scary as it is to withstand that and decide for yourself if you do or do not want to do, believe, respond, wear this or that, it is truly the only way to ensure you don’t become that other sort of fool, the fool who is so other-aware that they cease to have a self to be self-aware about.
Taking a Stand
It is much better to take your stand as early as you can, with courage, with grace, with forgiveness for the person coming at you, and most importantly, with humor and a smile. If it’s late in the game, you can still do it. It’s harder, but it’s also more rewarding to finally let the world know, this is me, and this is not. No one is a fool who does that with love in their heart.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who looks just like that guy.
Trivia question from last week: If a Saint is depicted with three balls, who is he?
Answer: You know him really well, It’s SANTA CLAUS!
St. Nicholas gave 3 gold balls (or sacks of gold depending on the story version) to an impoverished father who could not afford the dowry needed to have his 3 daughters get married. Check it and other symbols for St. Nick here.
