Category Archives: brain

Nov 08 0 comments
beauty, brain, Looks, mind, Yiddish Proverbs

>Many Complain of Their Looks

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Aha Moment News:
Hello everyone!  Just wanted to let you know the results of the Aha Moment project.  I didn’t make it into the top 10 so my ad will not be running in 2011.  Thank you all so much for your support and your votes. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to get The Napkin Dad Story out there. I appreciate you all!
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Imagine your thoughts could be seen. What would they look like in the mirror?  Would they be as pretty or ugly or boring or exciting as you see your physical self?  Would your thoughts be ‘presentable’ to others?  Do you have to put a lot of ‘makeup’ on your thoughts before you go out of the house?


It’s so much easier to put on the right clothes and other stylings to look better than you would otherwise look.  But our thoughts are really what carry us more than our looks so how do we go about making sure our thoughts are what we want them to be?  It’s no different than with your looks.  You can do one or more of these 3 things.  

  1. You can put on ‘thought makeup’. Present a better version of your thoughts to the public. Nothing wrong with that, it’s what civilization is made of.
  2. You can look at your raw thoughts, just like your raw looks, and find the value and beauty in them instead of seeing the flaws, shortcomings and insufficiencies.
  3. You can train your thoughts, just as you can train your muscles of your body, to be better than they used to be – to be stronger, more resilient, less inclined to be injured or disabled.
It might give a whole new meaning to the idea of a ‘make over’!
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote is a Yiddish proverb

Dec 21 0 comments
brain, change, mind, self, self-discipline, thinking, Thomas a Kempis, thought

>Be Not Angry That You Cannot

>As Professor Higgins says in ‘My Fair Lady, ‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ That is a sexist version of what so many wish, that the people they deal with would be different than they are; less annoying, less hard to understand, less odd in the way they do things.

How often is that our first reaction because it is so much easier to desire that than to actually figure out, and implement, how we can change instead.

Not just because we have areas we would like to change, but also so we have a better reaction to those around us. So everyone else isn’t an annoyance, but is just another person to try to understand, like we hope they would try to understand us.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Thomas A’Kempis, 1380-1471, German Priest and Theologian


Jun 02 0 comments
brain, mind, Oliver Wendell Holmes

>A Man's Mind, Stretched

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Sometimes my drawings are just weird.

Here is my process of creating the napkins. Each morning I start with
a quote. I think about the day before or that morning and see if there
is a particular idea that comes to mind. Then I go looking for some
good quotes about that idea, either in the many quote books I have
or online. Sometimes I make the quote up, but not too often.

After I write the quote on the napkin, then I think about what the drawing
might be. I don’t take a long time with that decision, since I originally was
drawing these while I was making lunches for my daughters and had to work
fast.

I usually trust that I will come up with something interesting and just go for it.
But trusting your mind, your eye, your choices, also means you are sort of
walking a high wire. You have committed to do this thing and even if half way
across a big wind blows, you still need to finish. Sometimes my ‘big wind’ is a
odd color choice, or a pretty bizarre creature or person I have drawn into the napkin.

I like the challenge of figuring out how to make something work within the
limits of that odd thing I have in the drawing already. In this case the idea
of having a mind stretched was obviously the starting point. But I didn’t
want a bald person so I chose to have the hair stretched out to signify the
mind being stretched. B the funny hand/bird lips/sucking stretching things
on either side were a bit of a mess. Then I added the volcanoes, which I
always like as signifyers of something momentous and powerful. But the lava
turned out to be sort of confusing and dark, obscuring the volcanoes a bit
more than I wanted it to. I just kept going until I felt it looked interesting
and stimulating to the eye.

Sometimes this process can lead to beautiful images, and sometimes to
very strange images and sometimes to failed but interesting images. I am
not sure if this one is in the 2nd or 3rd category, but it doesn’t seem to
belong in the 1st, as best I can tell.

What do you think?

quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. – USA, Supreme Court Justice, 1841-1935


May 05 0 comments
Art, brain, mind, Rabindranath Tagore

>A Mind All Logic

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I know this one is a bit creepy but the quote had knives and blood in it, what was I
going to do? But there is a truth here. The truth is that logic is a step-by-step
process of thinking through a problem, not a way of life or the exclusive method for
interpersonal relationships.

You ever come across that person who gets irate if you don’t comprehend
and go along with his or her logic? I used to be that person. I am still that person
some times. I thought I was right. I had my reasons. They were good reasons.
My arguments made sense. But the other person didn’t agree, didn’t see, didn’t
understand, or plain didn’t care. grrrrr.

It wasn’t until I went through marital counseling with my now unwife that I realized
the difference between trying to win an argument and trying to win someone over.
I had always just been thinking the logic of the argument was enough. After
the counseling I realized that the argument wasn’t what was important, my wife
was who was important.

Just as a side note, it was ironic that the best, most real communication we had
as a couple was in the final year of our marriage. It didn’t save our marriage
but it did teach us both great lessons on how to communicate and care for the
feelings and thoughts of another person. I am better for it and am grateful I went
through it, even though the cost was high.

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Don’t forget, my Napkin Drawing exhibition is up from now until June 6th.

Come to the opening reception on May 14th, 6-8p

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Apr 01 0 comments
brain, Marty Bucella, mind

>When It Comes To Staying Young

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When It Comes To Staying Young

Changing the outside because you don’t like the way it looks isn’t a bad thing, but
disatisfaction like that is more than likely seeded in your mind, not your face.

Renewing your mind is a LOT harder than work on the outside, but it is a lot more
fulfilling and long-lasting.


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