This drawing is available, original or print. Email me at marty@napkindad.com to inquire.
Money or Sex
Is this about money or is it about sex? When I was drawing it live on Periscope the #napkinkin talked a lot more about what it says about sex than what it says about money. Maybe they just aren’t that different?
Hola travelers! The Napkin Dad is on the road in Waco, Texas taking care of my daughter after her back went out. I thought I would take the opportunity to photograph (with my iPhone) the napkins in the situation I find myself in. This was taken at ‘Common Grounds’ a college coffee house near the Baylor University campus.
One of the things people forget is that treating other people well while treating your children badly is not very effective. They can’t just watch you as a witness, they need to see, feel and hear your direct care and love for them. Of course they do if you are a good parent, but even good parents have to make choices in response to childrens’ behavior and attitudes.
Are you the adult? Then prove to them you are one by responding as you would like them to respond to their children when it is their turn. There is no better and more effective way of paying it forward to the world than that.
Of course, the secret they can’t possibly know until they have a child of their own is that what they see as your ‘sacrifice’ or the ‘burden’ they are for you is so trivial compared to the complete and utter privilege it is to be granted the gift of loving someone so completely. They don’t yet know that good parents would rather take care of their children than do anything else in their life. Nothing else has the meaning, the value, the fulfillment of that.
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders. But they have never failed to imitate them.” – James Baldwin
“The most dangerous creation of any society is a man who has nothing to lose.” – James Baldwin
What do you have to lose? Chances are they aren’t that different from most everyone else. Family, love, hope, future, kids, grandkids, pets, happiness, fun, joy, and way down the list, probably some material things as well.
So, how bereft of everything is the person who has nothing to lose? Did they start with nothing? Did they have it taken away? Did they throw it away? Did they have it stolen from them? Did they have it and take it for granted? Did they hate it?
How does a family, neighborhood, community, society or civilization avoid creating this person? How do you, as an individual avoid contributing to creating this person?
