by Marty Coleman | Dec 10, 2012 | Christmas, Gift Giving Notes - 2012 |
This is my gift to you – a week of notes on Gift Giving. Aren’t you happy?
Trauma Giving
It’s so simple it only needs one sentence. Don’t be a stingy jerk at Christmas or Hannukah. Ok, maybe a few more sentences. That doesn’t mean you give a lot. It means what you give you give willingly, with joy and enthusiasm. If you complain about the cost of something, especially to the person you are giving it to, then DON’T FREAKING BUY IT in the first place! If you complain about how hard it was to find something, how they better enjoy it, how you hope they appreciate all the terrible trauma you went to to get it…then you are ruining the gift giving. Just shut up and give it to them with a smile. You can tell them all about the near death experience of your Christmas shopping in your memoirs or when you are in couples counseling, but don’t do it Christmas morning.
Gracious Giving
The attitude of gracious gift giving is what your loved ones will remember and learn from, not the gift itself (unless you give them an encyclopedia, then they will probably learn from the gift as well). Of course, to get to gracious giving you might want to stay within your means and give gifts you enjoyed getting, finding, making, buying, discovering for that particular person. Just a thought.
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Drawing and quote by Marty Coleman, who never drew a violin before (that he can remember).
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Interesting Gift Giving fact of the day
People with longer last names give more gifts at Christmas
(source: The Goods – the blog of uncommon goods)
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 7, 2012 | Where's The Evidence? - 2012 |
Under the circumstances, you need no proof to know today is day #4 of Evidence Week!
The question is, what does this evidence prove?
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Drawing and question by Marty Coleman, for whom trout is his favorite meal.
Quote by Henry David Thoreau, who knows what this means but is dead.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 6, 2012 | Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts - 2012-2013 |
Chapter 1 – Urgent Care
They had made themselves up for a night on the town but when Margie came down with red dots on her face they got worried. They went to the bar and by the time they finished their first drink Beth and Bonzai also had red dots. They went to Urgent Care and the doctor saw all eight of them. He was nervous because he had never had eight people, much less eight bodyless girl ghosts, in one examination room at the same time. It was crowded and they all had on a lot of perfume. Daphne was a bit drunk and tried to kiss him but smacked the needle dispensing box instead. He diagnosed Ghost Measles and sent them to the pharmacy to get medicine.
Chapter 1 -Phloating at the Pharmacy
Prudence had the biggest balloon (girl ghosts travel by balloon when they are going out in big groups) so they went with her to the pharmacy. It was deserted except for an old guy reading women’s magazines, which they thought was creepy. They had to wait 15 minutes for the medicine so 4 of them floated aimlessly while 4 of them went back to the magazine rack. Being bodyless they have no hands so they just hung around behind the old guy and looked at the French Vogue he was perusing from behind his back. They liked the editorial of the man and woman wearing masks and underwear.
Chapter 1 – Quarantine
The pharmacist told them that ghost measles was reaching epidemic proportions and that they should leave the city if they could to avoid infecting other ghosts. The decided to go to Jordona’s grandgirlghost’s summer home at the lake and wait there. Luckily for them Prudence’s balloon did not pop until they were almost there. This is a drawing of them floating down from the balloon and landing right at the front porch of the house. They stayed there for 8 days and it all went fine except for Penelope’s melt down over running out of mascara.
The End
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Drawing and Short Short Story by Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 5, 2012 | Where's The Evidence? - 2012 |
I am feeling day #3 of Evidence Week bubbling up from the primordial ooze!
Rational/Irrational
My wife, Linda, once told me of a certain fear she had. I tried to explain rationally and logically why she shouldn’t have that fear. She looked at me in exasperation and said, ‘Marty, it’s not a RATIONAL fear, you can’t talk me out of it using rational ideas.’ And I was done. There was only one thing to do and that was to let her know I felt for her in that situation and give her assurance I would help her deal with the fear when I could.
Sailing on the Ship of Illogic
Whether it’s big issues about God & heaven or small issues about fear of bugs, we all have areas where our thinking and the actions that come from those feelings are not rational or logical. They aren’t based on evidence. We all need to be empathetic in understanding how universal it is to behave irrationally.
The Wrong Brag
But knowing that we sometimes aren’t Mr. Spock doesn’t mean we should revel in our irrationality. At least for me, I work hard to minimize that irrationality in my life. I don’t brag about or declare how proud I am of my ignorance of science, mechanics and engineering. I am humbled by it and want to learn more about it. And I make a concerted effort to do so. I make better and wiser choices as a result and I am safer and happier as well.
The List Within
But the main problem with willfully ignoring evidence isn’t that we might not comprehend how electricity works (which I barely understand to this day). It means we are very likely to be held hostage by superstition and fear in many, many areas of our lives. And those can lead to danger and violence, discrimination and bigotry. The list is so long.
Are you afraid of the evidence? Why so?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who is not.
Quote by Sam Harris, who also is not.
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by Marty Coleman | Dec 4, 2012 | Where's The Evidence? - 2012 |
I know it’s extraordinary, but today is only day #2 of Evidence Week!
Three Scandinavian Women
Have you ever proclaimed something has happened for which you have no evidence to back it up? It can be pretty disconcerting since you know it happened you just can’t prove it. I have story from high school about 3 Scandinavian women on a boat in a cove where we were water skiing that is pretty darn extraordinary. But the climax of the story happened with no one else around, no one else to corroborate the events (except the Scandinavian Women and they were long gone the next day). So, I can tell the story and I know it’s true, but listeners have no way of verifying it. There is no evidence.
The Religious Moment
This is especially true of religious moments. Where is the evidence that what it is you have gone through came from God, Satan or some other spirit being or force? How do you prove such a thing? The truth is you can’t prove it. You take it on faith that it came from that source and people choose to believe your story on faith as well. If they don’t believe whatever it is you went through came from God then they are still most likely going to believe that YOU believe it came from God.
The Pudding
There really is only one way to even get close to proving something like that is real. If you say your mind has been illuminated by God and as a result you have a new way of thinking about something, then your behavior is the proof. The key is to realize that SAYING you have made the change is not the proof. All the talk in the world about a conversion to a new way of thinking and understanding is not the conversion. That is just a description of the conversion. The true conversion is in the action. As a matter of fact, the real conversion doesn’t even start until the action starts. True change takes place and becomes permanent when it is practiced. Talking about it isn’t practice. Practice is practice.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who wonders what ever happened to them
Quote by Carl Sagan, who was a billion time smarter than I am.
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