by Marty Coleman | May 21, 2013 | It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013 |
Living with Disaster
Living in Oklahoma we have been prepared over the weekend for a tornado and the tornado aftermath. We have a storm shelter with all the essentials inside it. We have the TV on most of the time during these sorts of weather outbreaks, watching and listening for important news. While yesterday the major storms had lost their tornadic activity by the time they reached the Tulsa area, we were still on the path and were thinking the devastation we were seeing in Moore was something that could realistically happen to us as well. It wasn’t until the storms were within about 30 miles that it became likely they were not going to be damaging. Even then we knew enough to not let our guard down and we didn’t until the threat had completely passed around midnight.
As the sun set last night I went out back, took this sunset picture and uploaded it to Facebook to show my friends around the world that we were safe.
Oklahoma Sunset After the Moore Tornado
Glass Half Full
A running buddy of mine, Jack Nation, commented on the pic saying, ‘A new day brings hope for the future….because I’m a half full kinda guy, I choose to look at this as a sunrise.’
I had been searching for just the right words for my napkin drawing this morning and my response became my napkin the moment I said it, ‘A Sunset in One Place is always Sunrise Somewhere Else.’ It reflects what I know to be true, even as I know it is a terrible sunset for many.
Have you ever experienced a sunset becoming a sunrise in your life?
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Drawing, quote and commentary by Marty Coleman, who has survived a large earthquake.
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by Marty Coleman | May 25, 2011 | Anonymous, It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013 |
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You know the saying, ‘All good things must come to an end’. And it is true. But the napkin quote today is also true, ‘All bad things must come to an end, too.’
We have had a wicked week of weather. The town of Joplin, Missouri is only 125 miles from my town. As most of America knows, it got hit a few days ago by the most damaging tornado ever measured in the last 60 years. There are 123 less people in that town today, all killed by the tornado. Yesterday the weather situation in Oklahoma was terrible as well. 8 people died in the Oklahoma City area, about 100 miles from Tulsa.
That sort of destruction and life loss is a terrible thing, a bad thing, to live through, witness, experience or just watch. But just as good things don’t last forever, these bad things are now passed as well. The damage lingers, but new life and new determination to overcome emerges.
In our case we were very lucky. Storms passed but didn’t have the ability to suck in enough energy to become tornadic. We had our emergency plan, which included bolting across the street to our neighbor’s underground storm shelter if a tornado was coming. Luckily that was not the case, though we did spend about 15 minutes in our bathroom with our pets just to be sure.
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| In the bathroom, riding out the storm. |
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| Emergency supplies! |
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| Our freaked out pets waiting out the storm with us. |
Quote by Anonymous
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 29, 2011 | It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013, Marty Coleman |
In honor of the Royal Wedding of William and Kate, which I stayed up all night to watch (yes I did) I present you with the one hat you should have seen, but didn’t because Posh changed her mind at the last minute, dag nabbit. Another chance of fame and untold wealth down the drain. Oh well.
Drawing, exquisite design and pithy commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Millinery Consortium, LTD.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 28, 2011 | Anonymous, It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013 |
Serenity is Not Freedom From the Storm, But Peace Amid the Storm
I helped raised 4 daughters. There was plenty of drama over the years, but what I loved seeing as they grew is their increased ability to hold on with some degree of peace and serenity when their personal or communal storms were raging all around. They weren’t, and aren’t, always successful, any more than I am, but the maturity to have that peace hold longer and stronger is always growing in them, and I am very proud of that.
The ability to find some peace amid a storm is not just beneficial to you, but to everyone around you.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 27, 2011 | It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013, Rose Kennedy |
GREAT NEWS! As some of you may know, I do artwork outside of the napkins. I have focused on photo-collage work for many years and I found out yesterday that an exhibition proposal I submitted 6 months ago has been accepted. The show will open in Tulsa in January of 2012. I am very excited about it! I will keep you posted about the details as the time approaches. If you want to know what the theme is, read this napkin and commentary, it tells it all.
We look at ancient ruins and we think they have value. Toppled over, chipped, missing big chunks and yet we see their beauty. Oil paintings covered with years of grime and soot, cracked and drying and yet we see them as beautiful. Old furniture on Antique Road Show, better not have refinished it since the original condition, all scratched up and dirty, is much more valuable.
What about what remains of you after a storm? Are you chipped, scarred, damaged, missing pieces? You are MORE valuable and MORE relatable in that condition than in a pristine one. You have become real after that storms.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 26, 2011 | It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013 |
YOUR TORNADOES When I do drawings on natural disasters, like the tsunami/earthquake series of last month, I always think of them as metaphors. In this case the crazy way our thoughts and feelings can twist us all around, even if all looks peaceful and pretty on the outside. It’s hard to overcome habitual tornadoes in our mind, those storms we are so used to in our head that we almost would miss them if they were gone. I think of it often when I see people purposefully create drama in their lives.
It’s true on reality TV shows, where the draw comes from watching people who have interesting tornadoes they are more than happy to share with the world. It’s also true among any who are more interested in feeding the storm than escaping it.
Where are do your tornadoes come from?
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 25, 2011 | It's A Tornado! - 2011, 2013 |
 YOU, IN A TORNADO |
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Every spring in my neck of the woods, Oklahoma, we get hit by some pretty severe weather. This past week we have had high winds that almost blew my small car off the road, hard hail the size of quarters and half dollars that dinged up my car (see the video here), incredible rain that has created an almost swimmable pond in my back yard, and solid black thunderclouds that look like an anvil about to drop on you.
Of course the superstar in this weather cataclysm is the TORNADO. To those outside the midwest of the US, tornadoes seem like the most capricious and dangerous of events, but in truth they are among the most predictable. I don’t mean you can always know when and where they will hit, but you can know the circumstances and environment when they will create themselves. If those circumstances aren’t there, the tornado will not form.
When those circumstances are there, when it’s bearing down right on you, you get in the basement. If you don’t have a basement you get in an interior room, preferably a bathroom and you get in the tub. You then put a mattress on top of you.
I have a friend who is going through a life tornado now. She is hurt by the storm so far, but she is also doing the smart thing by getting as far away from the storm as she can. She is no longer on certain social networks, she is removing herself from a job, and (not because of the tornado) she is moving to a new town. You might think she is giving up but she is not. She is protecting herself from a very mean and vicious tornado as best she can.
Sometimes it’s what you need to do when a life tornado is approaching.
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
One year ago today at the Napkin Dad Daily – I Draw In Church / Door in the sky
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