A woman went a building for a job interview. She didn’t know what floor she was supposed to go to so she started at the top.
There she saw a man expose himself so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a woman sleeping so she left and went down a flight. There she saw two people throwing up so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a man eating so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a woman and a man having sex so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a person with a bomb so she left and went down a flight. There she saw one man choking another man so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a person laying on the floor unconscious so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a person shooting another person so she left and went down a flight. There she saw two women arguing so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a man watching TV so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a woman sitting on the floor crying so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a dog barking for food so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a woman dancing at the barre so she left and went down a flight. There she saw a dead person in a pool of blood so she left and went down to the ground floor and left the building.
She called the interviewer outside the building and told them she couldn’t find the office for the interview. The interviewer told her she had indeed found the right office but she had failed the interview and would not be getting the job.
The woman left uncomprehending.
What job was she applying for? Give your reasons. Best answer is correct.
I’ve been reading a selection of the classic novels of western civilization over the past several years. Currently it’s Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Before that it was Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and before that it was Candide by Voltaire. I will put a list of the others at the end.
I am learning a lot about culture, style, manners, and above all, truth and beauty. And what I am learning is that both truth and beauty are transient and fluid ideas. They are not permanent and they are not inviolate. I am learning this by seeing what the authors, and by extension, the readers of those eras felt was beautiful and was true.
Truth was seen in morality, science, and proper behavior. Beauty was seen in correct proportions, elegant design and comely & symmetrical features.
And none of those things are the same now as they were then. What we consider morally good is certain different. If you doubt that then ask yourself if slavery is morally good. It was thought of as such by many if not most people in centuries past.
The science isn’t the same, that is for sure. Do you believe in eugenics or the science of Phrenology? They were both commonly understood to be solid, evidence based science in the past. And of course, what is true and good in behavior is also certainly quite different, especially for those who were in oppressed groups.
And what about beauty? Those ideas change by the month sometimes, much less the decades or centuries. That is why we laugh so heartily at our style and beauty choices from just a few decades ago. “How could I ever have worn that?” or “Why didn’t someone tell me my hair looked so horrible.” are popular refrains when looking at old photos. What is that about but beauty ideals changing. What is true now was not then, what was beautiful then is not now.
And I will end with a beautiful truth: Truth is just as likely to be found in a hair salon as a library and beauty is just as likely to be found in a library as in a hair salon.
List of recently read classics
Moby Dick
Madame Bovary
Candide
Ulysses
The Odyssey
War and Peace
Dracula
Frankenstein
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
100 Years of Solitude
What other books should be on my ‘must read’ list?
What does it really mean to be quiet? Not talking, yes. But it is more than that. It’s being in a quiet space. That might be your head space where you can quiet your thoughts, or it might be the physical space where you aren’t distracted by many voices and sounds.
I ran the Chicago Marathon this week, #14 overall. But it was just my second big city marathon, the first being New York City last November. There were supposedly over a million people lining the streets in both of these races cheering people on. And that makes it LOUD LOUD LOUD! So loud in fact that it is hard to hear yourself think. It’s hard to not be distracted by all the sounds, people and sights, which means you really have to work hard to focus if you want to run a certain pace, take your nutrition at a certain time, etc.
While I was running this recent race my mind responded to this outer noise by creating inner noise. My thoughts were scattered, distracted, repetitive, fragmented and unfortunately, way too negative. I fought it, constantly trying to move from the negative thoughts to positive ones but even when I was able to, the negative ones returned after a short respite.
It isn’t just in a crowd that this can happen. It is possible of course that one can think negative and scattered thoughts even on a desert island. But, at least for me, the more outer noise there is the harder it is to hear anything from my own mind with clarity and focus.
My goal is to learn that no matter where I am, the only thing I have control over is myself and my thoughts. After all, even if I am off running a marathon in the redwoods of California, I still might find there is some crazy bird cawing at me, right? The key is to figure out how to be quiet within, no matter what is happening on the outside.
I don’t know how to do that very well…YET. But I do know, just as running a marathon takes a lot of training, so also does running my mind. To be quiet and listen, both to the outside and to the inside, I have to practice it again and again so it becomes a habit I can unleash when needed.
But being unwilling to learn is. This is the Orange Man’s sin. He thinks he knows better and smarter than everyone. Just yesterday he said he knows more about the environment than most people. And why is that? What study has he done, what investigation has he embarked on, what books has he read and which experts has he consulted on this topic?
This proclamation without substance is bluster. It’s the Orange Man’s way of making something real. You just say it and it is. The side effect of this is mentality is one does not have to learn or study or grow. You just say you know and you know.
This attitude is problematic when an elementary school teacher sees it in a young boy or girl. That teacher will work to show the child that it is good to open minded about ideas and topics, that you have a lot to learn and you won’t learn any of it if you already think you know it all. Many parents have to deal with that same illusion of expertise with the teenagers. Luckily most people grow out of this stage. They are humbled and realize there is a lot of amazing things to learn in this world.
Unfortunately we sometimes have to deal with this egomaniacal personality in an adult. It’s insufferable to have a co-worker have this issue for example. They can make life quite miserable.
But what we should never have to deal with is this sort of immature and dangerous person as the leader of the free world.
I hate it when… I don’t understand how people can… Why don’t they just…
When I am in an annoyed mood I can often catch myself starting thoughts with those words. Or I might say to myself, If only people didn’t have such destructive and dangerous habits. If only they could control themselves. Don’t they know they could have a better life if only they didn’t do that, or did do this?
When do I say these things in my head? When I am most annoyed with myself. I am running late, I forgot to do something at work, I completely forgot an important appointment. And now I am driving through traffic yelling at slow drivers, or I am fuming at someone at my keyboard, wanting to write an email to tell them off because they did this thing they always do that is SO annoying.
But when do I look at myself? All the time actually. I see my ‘flaws’ my bad habits, my shortcomings. And what do I do? Well, sometimes I change them. I’ve had some success, for example I stopped drinking 26 years ago and never looked back. That’s pretty good, right? But for every thing I have addressed there are other things I have not, or if I have, it was only after years and decades of avoiding facing them and even when I did, it was more realization and mild adaption than it was a complete change.
Why don’t I yell and scream at myself? Because I forgive myself. Because I know my motives are good. I know I am trying and that makes me feel ok about it. And when I am at my best I have that attitude towards others as well. They deserve my sympathy and forgiveness, just like I give myself. They deserve to not be judged, but understood.
But when I am not at my best I question their motives. I question their commitment. I question their true desire to change. They are just skating along, not trying, not caring, not worrying. They don’t deserve my sympathy or forgiveness, they deserve my judgment since I understand how pathetic they are being.
And that gets me where exactly? It gives my ego a false boost that doesn’t last. It gives me a self-righteousness that is dangerous and isn’t deserved and it gives me a way to avoid caring about people who need care.
And those things suck, do no one any good, and do not make you feel better about yourself. The more I am able to practice sympathy, understanding, listening, forgiveness, humility, the less I will practice judgment and condemnation.
And this is the truth – we become what we practice.
“Christianity might be a good thing if anyone ever tried it.”
Do you believe this quote? I am not sure if I do or not. Sometimes I look at the church and it’s a dismal failure in every way imaginable. Then I look at that same church and I see action that proves it is living out the creed.
I guess that is the sad reality of Christianity (and most religions if one is honest). We have ideals and we want to live up to them but we like talking about them more than we like taking the action necessary to make them real in our lives.
When you refuse to learn or understand, when you revel in your prejudice, and when you don’t have critical thinking skills to discern the difference between facts and propaganda then you become victim to demagogues who are only interested in their own ego and don’t care about you, America or any ideals America stands for.
Four years ago a Korean woman, Jessica, contacted me and asked if she could use a napkin drawing of mine in a book her team was writing in Korea. I said yes and quickly forgot all about it. I don’t remember now if she paid me or not.
Fast forward 4 years and I get a call from some foreign country on my cell phone. I am not going to answer it, thinking it is likely a scam call. A few weeks later I get an email, that I almost throw away since it too seems to be just another foreign spam email.
Something about it seems legit though so I read it. It’s from Jessica and she says the book is now ready and she wants to send me a copy. She wants me to call her. At this point I figure it’s legit even though I don’t recall it at all. I call her and she reminds me a bit about our interaction and tells me that the book took a lot longer than expected to finish but now it is done and she wants to send me a copy. I was really looking forward to getting it since I had no idea what drawing I had even sent her!
And now, a few week later here is the book! It’s a book about the economies of 7 different countries around the world. It is dense with charts and figures. Every once in a while there is a photo that shows the location or the people in that country. And every once in a while there is a cartoon or drawing that is illustrating some idea they want to get across.
What my drawing is illustrating I would never have had a clue if it weren’t for the letter Jessica included in with the book.
Front CoverMy drawing – illustrating something about the Brazilian economy after it’s collapse earlier this decade.
So now I guess I can tell people I have been published in 3 different countries, right? (I already have napkin drawings in an entire book about napkins published in Norway.)
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, said Freud, or Marx (Groucho that is). If you say this quote you are also saying sometimes it’s not a cigar, it’s a symbol representing a penis. That is what complex looking is all about, seeing what is there and seeing what might be behind what is there; maybe an intent, a joke, or a hidden agenda.
For example, there is a hand gesture that I recently learned has not one, but two meanings. It’s your index finger touching your thumb to make a circle. It means everything is A-OK and until this year that is all I ever knew it to mean. But I’ve been told it also means white supremacy. I am not sure of the history behind it becoming a symbol of that but it is now something that can be interpreted to mean that, especially if it’s displayed upside down.
Sometimes it isn’t visual, it’s verbal. A politician says ‘Nationalism’ and it doesn’t JUST mean having pride in one’s country. It also means they want to preserve the existing power structure that they feel is threatened by outsiders. Which outsiders? Well, according to our current President, those outsiders are not Norwegians. They are Mexicans, South Americans, people from ‘shithole’ countries in Africa and Muslims from countries in the Middle East. They are the outsiders that are threatening our nation, not the good white people of Europe.
It behooves us to always LOOK clearly at what is going on underneath the obvious.
I drew it on the day we had to put one of our pets down. Since then I’ve seen innumerable posts on social media from friends and family who have had to do the same. They are among the saddest but most uplifting stories I read regularly on social media.
There is sometimes a eulogy, but it isn’t ever a recitation of the animals upbringing, education, career, status or volunteer efforts in retirement. Instead it’s about how the animal made the person feel. How much love they felt from the animal, how much sustenance they were given by its mere presence in their lives. In other words it was about their character and their love, not their achievements.
If only we humans could be more animal what a better jungle we would inhabit.
The quote is from a four year old trying to comfort a family after they had to put their pet down.
On the run I don’t think about how long I will live or how running is affecting the length of my life. I think about the incredibly rich challenges and joys of being on the run.
On the run is where I discover the unexpected me. It’s where I unexpectedly rise to a challenge and where I unexpectedly have an epic failure. It’s where the time-worn story of limitations I tell myself again and again on the couch is proven to be a lie.
On the run is where I learn that nature’s elements are not enemies, they argumentative but supportive companions. They don’t argue to keep me from succeeding, they argue to provide the challenges that create the success.
On the run is where I search for who I really want to be and find out who I really am. Sometimes there is a wide crevasse between the two and it is disappointing and deflating. But on the run is also where I have those magical moments where there is no distance between who I want to be and who I am.
On the run I experience all those things; challenges, joys, arguments, the expected and unexpected, the frustrating gaps and the sublime moments.
On the run I add life to my days, not just days to my life.
I Periscoped with a TV Newsperson the other day (see the end of the post for an explanation of Periscope).
She was in a cab after a long day of work and play. Her name is Sara Haines and she is a Lifestyle and Pop News Anchor for Good Morning America on ABC. It’s a good fit for her because she is chirpy, funny and a energized ball of laughs and smiles. She had been Periscoping during commercials and then later at a party. But now she was done for the day and on her way home.
Understanding Kim
I and others were watching her now in a more relaxed, contemplative mood, reflecting on things based on questions we were asking. Someone asked her if she liked the Kardashians. The person asking may have been expecting a typical, ‘I hate them, they are terrible’ type of response, I don’t know. But that is not what they got. Sara said she is intrigued and fascinated by them, especially Kim Kardashian. She said she tries to imagine what she would do if she was raised like her, looked like her, lived her life, had her money. What choices would she make and how different would they be from the choices Kim does makes? In other words, she doesn’t judge or shame Kim, she empathizes with her. And that means she can simply enjoy her for who she is and try to understand her.
Empathy Covers Shame
So far the 21st century is the century of public shaming and judgment. But what Sara shows in her attitude is that happiness and joy comes from empathy and understanding of others, not judgment and shaming. It’s a lesson we all need to learn again and again, that when we are tempted to judge, especially in the public arena when we truly don’t know the person, it’s best to step back and try to empathize, to understand what it is they are feeling and reacting to in life. That is when we will grow and learn.
Hope for Humanity
I like Sara from what I seen of her on TV, but she went to the top of my ‘I have hope for humanity’ list when I was able to hear her talk about her way of seeing the world and the people in it. She’s also now at the top of my ‘What TV person would you most want to have lunch with’ list. I think the conversation would be fantastic.
Spirals have taken over much of my drawing in recent months. Part 1 from a few weeks ago showed the abstract patterns I have created. Now here are the characters and portraits that have come from my spiral infatuation.
This was a quick sketch that didn’t have a defined background. I decided to work in some color well after the drawing was done and while doing so I thought it would be a challenge to see if I could make the clothing translucent. that led me into thinking of who this woman could be, what situation she could be in and I decided to put her in an intimate, personal setting thinking to herself.
‘The Weight’ pen and ink, acrylic paint on paper, 2019
Often times I don’t have the time or the position to draw the whole person. What happens is I see just one element of the person I like, in this case the high bangs, and I just work from there, making up the rest of the person and the scene out of my head.
‘In the Museum’ pen and ink on paper, 2019
When I was in college my first girlfriend had a bridge of her nose that pretty much went straight down from her forehead in a straight line with no dip below the brow. I found it very attractive, Romanesque is how I thought of it. I I can’t say she was my only inspiration but I often find myself drawing a straight line all the way down from hairline to tip of nose when making up a profile face. In this case I even went to opposite direction, making a bump where there is usually a dip.
‘Don’t Cut Me Down’ pen and ink on paper, 2019
I noticed a violin player at church wearing a Renaissance Peasant dress that stood out. I started from there and built the drawing around that image. The idea of the cut down tree has recurred in my drawings here and there over the years. The stump representing both a life cut short and a transformation of something into something else. I think of both when I see someone going through a trauma. It’s a death of sorts but it is also a rebirth into something new and unknown.
‘In The Waiting Room’ pen and ink on paper, 2019
I was waiting for an appointment to have my very sore right Achilles checked out (not the same one I had surgery on in 2016) and saw this women sitting very still opposite me. I wasn’t sure I would have enough time to get the entire scene but it was worth a shot. Turns out it took a while for either of us to be called so I was able to get the drawing done.
‘At the River’ pen and ink on paper, 2019
I was inspired by seeing a woman with hair that curved around her face but other than that this drawing is completely made up. In most of my drawings there is more room at the top and sides for a background but in this case her portrait fills the image so much that I only had a small area above and below. I thought I would try something different and not put in a horizon line and distant background like I usually do but instead draw what would be below her in the distance.
I listened to an audio book recently titled ‘All the Light We Cannot See’. It was a fantastic book about two young people during World War II. I highly recommend it.
In the book there is a good friend of one of the main characters. He is brutally beaten at one point which results in permanent brain damage. This main character visits his friend later and finds that he spends his days sitting and doing nothing but drawing spirals again and again. It was a very sad part of the book.
I thought about this idea of someone being reduced to doing the simplest of drawings and I decided I would do the same. I would start with a simple spiral and see where it led me.
While there are other shapes in some of these drawings I made a decision that spirals would be the main focus in each image or it wouldn’t be included in the series.
Most of these have been done digitally on my iPad mini but some are watercolor or marker on paper.
I play with a broken string. Even if I replace it, I know another one will break soon enough. I have to choose, do I give up and never play again or do I play with the instrument I am given, broken string and all?
My choice is to play. That is what I am asked to do. And in this life that means I need to be open, not to a one time resurrection, but to a daily one.
I drew this and wrote the commentary 7 years ago today. Still true.
Open Air
Why do we think skin equals sin? Why is the exposing of skin seen as dirty? Obviously in breastfeeding a mother shows her breast. If she is in public she might cover her breast with a blanket. But it’s also possible that she might choose not to cover, maybe because the child gets fussy under the blanket, maybe because she likes to watch her child nurse, maybe she likes the feel of the open air. Whatever her reason and whatever her choice there will be someone who feels it’s wrong, dirty or rude for her to nurse in public, no matter what.
It’s Your Fault
This gets to the heart of a persistent idea. It’s the idea that the woman is to blame for the actions of the man. It usually boils down to one thing, she showed too much skin. Whose fault is it if a man reacts rudely, even violently to a woman showing ‘too much skin’? In this persistent idea it is the woman’s fault. Why? Because you can’t expect a man to be able to control himself in the face of that much skin showing.
Self-Control
I, as a man, am offended by this the same way a woman would (and should) be offended by a comment saying a woman can’t control her emotions so she can’t be trusted in important roles in public life. The same is true with the ‘skin’ argument for men. It is not the case that men can’t handle it. It is the case that when men SAY they can’t handle it they are using it as an excuse for their own bad behavior. They are rationalizing their inability to have some self-control by blaming it on others. It’s not the ‘other’ who is to blame. It is the man.
This will sound funny coming from an artist but for a long time I used to think artists who said, “I have to do art to express what I can’t any other way.” were sort of copping out. I didn’t really get it. Then the Orange Man came along. I’ve been drawing the Orange Man for 3 years now and it’s a series I wish I wasn’t compelled to do, but I am. I can’t express my disgust any other way. Words just aren’t enough for me.
I drew this 10 years ago today. Still true. Commentary is new.
One of the most oft repeated public events in our world today is the airing of a person’s ‘sins’ and the response from that exposed ‘sinner’. Yes, I am using the word ‘sinner’ on purpose, because it fits how people look at the infraction. We aren’t seeing it as slight breaking of some rule, like jay walking, we are seeing a perceived moral failure.
You name the person; Trump, Weinstein, Huffman, and more and there is harsh judgment not only for the infraction but for the public apology for the infraction. Why is that?
Because it’s talk vs action. They acted immorally but their immediate response is to talk morally. We inherently don’t like that. That is why we crave punishment. We want the immoral act to be balanced by another act, not by words. Nice words are not enough.
What we want is to see the person who dug the hole with his or her actions to dig out of the hole with actions as well. That is why redemption takes time and why most people who find themselves in a deep hole they created should say whatever mea culpa they need to say, knowing it is insufficient, and then shut up and start acting to get out of the hole.
The action might be incarceration, it might be charity, it might be exile, who knows. None of that matters though if the most critical action, the action that has to be there, isn’t implemented, and that is self-awareness. The sinner has to recognize they have sinned, they have to decide to take action to change their thinking and their behavior and then they have to take that action and never stop.
And what is our obligation in all this? I believe we err when our judgment is so harsh that we don’t allow that they actually may have dug themselves out of the hole with actions, not words, and that they deserve to be given a second (or third or fourth) chance. It doesn’t mean they get to be back in their same position of power over others, it simply means we allow that they have done the work and deserve a chance to do or be something better than they were.
Spiralita was a happy girl, in spite of her questions. As a matter of fact, it was her questions that gave herself that happy identity. She was known throughout the land as the ‘Question Girl’. Some made fun of her because of all the questions she asked and some admired her for always being so curious about the world.
But she paid no attention to those people since she didn’t ask her questions because or for them. She asked them because she wanted to know answers. Not THE answer, just answers. Answers were the answer to everything.
The Answer is the Answer
And because she was always asking questions she was always getting answers. She didn’t always believe the answers because she knew answers could be wrong. But she believed even in getting wrong answers. Wrong answers she understood were the only thing that led to right answers because they were the reason for asking more questions and questions were essential to answers. You can’t have one without the other.
The Hill of Life
What made her happy about all this was she knew that getting answers led to progress up the Hill of Life. Getting up any hill wasn’t easy but getting up the Hill of Life was especially hard because it was very steep and very rocky. It was uneven and sometimes dangerous. It could be beautiful and wonderful but not always. Each sharp, giant boulder and each dark, swampy part was overcome by finding the answer to a question. She knew if she practiced asking questions and finding answers when the path wasn’t too hard she would be better at it when she reached these scary parts.
The Solo Climb
And it worked. She was successful in getting to the top of the Hill of Life and just as importantly, she was happy doing it. She felt bad for some of her friends who stumbled and fell back down the hill along the way, even though she tried to help them. She was happy though for her other friends who also figured out how to get to the top. But she knew, in the end, that each person had to climb the hill by themselves.
I posted this drawing 10 years ago today. Still true. I did the drawing in 2002, and another one just like it, and put them in my daughters’ lunches to bring to school.
I love this quote. It reminds me of a road trip. Destiny is the driver and Fate is the friend in the passenger seat saying ‘turn here, go straight, take the on ramp, take the back road…
‘The woman on the Staten Island Ferry sleeping but aware I am drawing her and hoping she looks pretty.’
I did this drawing in 2003 while on my way to visit a girlfriend’s family on Staten Island, New York City. We were dating in Tulsa at the time and both happened to be in NYC at the same time while visiting our respective families. I hopped the ferry to SI to meet up with her and meet her family for the first time. It as a fun visit and very insightful to see where she was from.
Our relationship didn’t last for too much longer after that for the usual reasons, just basic incompatibility, nothing crazy or major. A few months after this trip I started dating Linda, who would eventually become my wife.
I drew the original drawing in 2003. The next time I rode the ferry was in 2018 to the start of the New York City Marathon. That sparked my memory and a few months later I searched out this and a few other drawings from that trip. In 2019 I added the color to this one.
The Orange Man Sat on his golden throne and thought for a second. Then he went out into the world and said, “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII”. The End
