Here is the quote, now you tell me what should be happening in the drawing to illustrate the quote. GO. The best idea (in my opinion) will be the one I draw.
I will give you credit for giving me the idea and I might even draw YOU on a napkin to celebrate your contribution!
_____________________
I hope you enjoy day #1 of Enjoying Life!
And hopefully as you grow, what gives you enjoyment is more and more about giving joy and love to others as well as getting it for yourself, right?
_____________________
Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman. This is the bathing suit version. There is a nude version as well, but it’s not uploaded anywhere as of yet.
Quote by George Santayana, 1863-1952, Spanish philosopher and writer
_____________________
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval
And as I promised, here is the last in the ‘Promises, Promises’ series!
What do many celebrities, whether local fame in a small town or international superstardom, have in common? They burn out and fall from the stars in a flaming display of self-destruction. Why is that? Often times it seems to be promising expectations they can’t live up to. It might be they actually aren’t as talented as everyone thought. It might be they have the talent but don’t put in the work to bring that talent to the level needed. Maybe their talent was only developed in one small area and once used up, there is no where to go.
There are of course stories of wildly successful people who were pushed early on to become something. Think of Serena Williams in tennis, or Tiger Woods in golf. They both had parents who had a huge vision for them, and that vision came true. Both became superstars well beyond the expectations. And they both were touted as examples of how children with talent could be trained and molded successfully so they would be able to sustain themselves and prosper in their field
But no parent is perfect at child rearing. And now child is perfect either. So far it looks like Serena has navigated successfully through her fame and fortune. I hope that continues. But we all know that Tiger, while living up to athletic expectations, fell from orbit and self-destructed. He is to be admired for fighting back and not giving up. He still is golfing, still winning and still a force to be reckoned with. But the illusion of his exalted character and status in the world fell hard and has not recovered.
A big part of the force of the explosion and the media clamor over it was due to the height from which he fell. It wasn’t the height of a parent’s hopes for a young child. It wasn’t the height of a young phenom exploding onto the professional scene. It was the height of someone on the verge of being declared the best golfer in history. That is a long way to fall. It was sad to watch the wreck happen in real time. It was made even worse by knowing he brought it on himself.
Do you know someone, or perhaps even are that someone, who has lived that life? Not just in sports, but in any arena of endeavor. What are the lessons you have learned about this as a result?
____________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Cyril Connelly, English author, 1903-1974
It is not an anomaly that Connelly is the author of this quote. He lived it. Here is a passage from the Wikipedia entry about him.
“Connolly followed this up (his novel ‘The Rock Pool’) with a book of non-fiction, Enemies of Promise (1938), the second half of which is autobiographical. In it he attempted to explain his failure to produce the literary masterpiece that he and others believed he should have been capable of writing.”
I used the title of his book as the title of this post, it was the obvious choice once I read that it was about his own promise issues.
____________________
Those whom the gods would destroy, they first call promising
I promise to deliver #4 in the Promises, Promises series!
Having chosen my quote for the day I visualized two faces, one while making the baby (making love) and another during childbirth. I was thinking that the face of someone having sex would be happy looking and the childbirth face would be intense and full of pain. But when I went to face research (yes, I did research) I came across a site that had portraits of people right at the moment of orgasm. And guess what? They looked almost exactly like the face of someone giving childbirth. Intense, scrunched up, teeth gritted and looking like they were about to explode, which of course, metaphorically at least, they are in both cases.
Pleasure and pain aren’t that far apart. Whether it’s people eating hot chiles that make the roof of their mouth burn off, or people enjoying going into a polar bear plunge in February, people combine the two. It can be combined in sex, eating, vacationing, relationships, drinking, sports, etc. You name it and you will likely find a co-mingling of pain and pleasure.
Promises are the same way. It’s easy to promise something when you are turned on, when you are feeling or pursuing pleasure. That’s why we constantly are telling young women and men to not trust what a person promises when he or she is wanting sex, right? The painful part of a promise is in the delivery, not in the proclamation. If there has been any struggle for myself and most fathers and mothers I know, it’s that. How to deliver on your promise. Your promise to your wife, husband or partner, to your kids, your work, your extended family. As I have gotten older I realize I am much happier and more successful when I simply let my delivery be my promise and forego the grand proclamation, how about you?
________________
Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is Anonymous
Promises are like babies, easy to make, hard to deliver
________________
I promise that this is #3 of my Promises, Promises series.
During my first marriage, I broke promises. Somewhere along the line the combination of me breaking those promises and my wife’s own issues and realizations, led her to file for divorce. She made one statement that has stuck with me all these years. It was the statement that clarified for me how bad she saw her situation. She said, “I feel if I stay, I will die.”
There really wasn’t much arguing to do with a statement like that. She had reached a point, whether I understood it or not, where the promise she made to marry and stay married was going to break her. She needed to save herself and the only way in her mind at that point was to divorce me. I didn’t fight it.
I am not a fan of divorce. But I understand how it can come to pass when what seemed to be just a small ring around your finger becomes a ball and chain around your neck. I wish rational arguments could sometimes win the day, but I know that the human heart and human needs are such that rationality isn’t what drives us into a marriage and it isn’t what causes us to dissolve a marriage.
All this just to suggest we have some mercy and compassion for those who feel the need to divorce, to break the marital vow before it breaks them. Really, truly listening deep to what is going on inside their heart and mind is the best way to assure you understand.
__________________
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Jennifer Donnelly, 1963 – not dead yet, American writer
Jennifer Donnelly
__________________
It’s a bad thing to break a promise, but it’s also bad to let a promise to break you
