Category Archives: lessons

Dec 05 0 comments
Anonymous, fear, lessons, self-reliance

The Story of Arm and Hand

helping hand

The Story of Arm and Hand

Arm and Hand are at war with each other. Arm is lazy but Hand is not.  But Arm find ways to stop the communication between Hand and her owner, Head.  Head ends up thinking Hand is lazy too but it’s really just Arm’s message getting through, not Hand’s. Head feels like she can’t do anything since she can’t get Hand to do anything.  Head needs help but Hand isn’t helping.

But one day Arm falls asleep and Hand gets a message through to Head saying, “I want to WORK, tell me what to do!”  Head says, “OK! I want you to heal Mr. Sink.” And Hand goes and fixes Mr. Sink.  Head then says, ” I want you to give Foot a massage” and hand does it.

Arm has woken up by this point but it is too late.  Head and Hand have fixed the communications path and Arm must now obey whatever they decide to do.  Arm is not happy about this but there is nothing she can do.

Head becomes very happy because she is able, for the first time, to see life through Hand. She likes the world she sees and lives happily ever after.

The End

Drawing and story by Marty Coleman, Publisher of The Napkin Dad Daily and Owner of MAKE Design and Photography Studio

Quote by Anonymous

Dec 20 1 comments
education, lessons, Marty Coleman, responsibility

The Difference Between Excuses and Reasons

I was going to make this Jesusmas Week but I had a realization while responding to a post by my friend Crystal Andrus about blame and this quote came out of it.

Think about it, what do you learn when you make an excuse?  You learn nothing.  Excuses are way of getting out of trouble, or explaining away deficiencies & failures.  They are ways of avoiding responsibility.  One doesn’t learn anything from those things.

Here are two different explanations of the exact same event.  One is an excuse; My alarm didn’t go off like it should have, that’s why I was late’.  The other is a reason; ‘I didn’t properly set my alarm, that is why I am late’.  One has a lessen attached; double check that you set your alarm properly.  The other has no lesson, it’s said in the hope of not having someone get mad at you.

To learn lessons from life, both think AND verbalize so you are stating a reason, not making an excuse.

More differences:

The old saying is ‘Everything happens for a reason’ not ‘Everything happens for an excuse’.  

You MAKE an excuse, but you HAVE a reason.

Nobody ever says ‘Reasons, reasons’.

When someone sneezes, they don’t say ‘reason me’.

What are some other differences?
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Drawing, commentary and quote by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Apr 29 0 comments
Art, Bulwer-Lytton, culture, lessons, science, value

>Man Must Be Disappointed

>

One of the most important things we can do for our kids is to expose them to the larger world. Whether that is as simple as going to a museum, watching a show on TV about an unfamiliar topic or as complex as a vacation abroad, letting your children see a world beyond their own daily life is essential to helping them make sense of their place in the world.  


The goal isn’t to have them be disappointed with their daily life and the ‘lesser’ things that inhabit it.  The goal is to understand how those lesser things connect to the larger world.  Maybe they will understand how the TV show they watch actually has it’s roots in Shakespeare.  Maybe they will realize the graphic design and photography they love in the windows at the mall had it’s roots in the museums of Europe or the pyramids in Mexico’s Yucatan, who knows.


The point is that no one’s world, no one’s things are truly ‘lesser’ if they know how to connect them to the large forces of culture, art, science and history.


Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily


Quote by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1803-1873, English author.  He wrote the famous line ‘It was a dark and stormy night’.  San Jose State University (one of my Alma Maters) has an annual writing contest to find the worst original opening sentence for a novel. The contest is named after Bulwer-Lytton.


Mar 19 2 comments
accident, Jay Silverheels, lessons, mistakes

>More People Would Learn

>And more people would admit their mistakes if they didn’t get completely trashed and condemned because of them. A good lesson for parents to learn. You want your kids to admit and learn? Then treat their mistakes as just that, mistakes. Teach them how the mistake might have been avoided, but don’t denigrate them as if they meant to do it, or were stupid for doing it. They are kids, remember?

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by Harold J. Smith (Jay Silverheels), 1919-1980, Actor. Played Tonto in The Lone Ranger television show.

May 29 0 comments
Kathryn Murray, lessons, students

>Don't Try To Teach

>I have the comments ability of my blog reactivated now! Next up, how to
get it into the email versions. In the meanwhile if you are getting this via
email and want to comment, go to the actual blog, ok?

Today is ‘Follow my own advice Friday’.

I am bad at this. Not as bad as I used to be, but worse than most I think.

I learned how to deal with this in actual teaching, long ago. I realized
what the student didn’t know, the student didn’t know. They didn’t know
what I couldn’t get in the presentation, they didn’t know how much I
still needed to learn about the lessons further down the road, or even
the lesson I was teaching that day. I realized I only needed to prepare
for that day, and prepare enough to give them the best information I
could in that time. And it worked. I always had enough to give, even if
I didn’t have the entire topic figured out. Less is more is the motto.

But when it comes to the relational and conversational arena, there I still
struggle. Once again, I have made progress, but still have an inclination
to try to cover every angle, every argument, every idea, all at once.

I think of myself like a very curious and energetic dog. Yes, you can teach him
or her to heel and stay and sit and come, but underneath all that learned behavior
is still a dog that wants to run and roll and bark and jump and splash and lick.
I am that dog when it comes to talking about something. My wives and kids have
been my main trainers and they have had some success, but they know they are
dealing with a certain type of dog, so most of the time they are understanding.

quote by Kathryn Murray

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Don’t forget
My napkin drawing show, ‘Absorbent Ideas’, is up at DoubleShot coffee
in Tulsa until June 6th.

I still have 17 of the 25 pieces available for purchase. You can buy them
online via PayPal or email me which one you want and send a check.
They would look good in a kitchen, after all they are napkins!


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