December 14th

It's Advent III already. (The one with the pink candle)

How did the time fly by so fast?

It's creativity week starting today. (relaxed schedule, large blocks of time... 

time for cartoonz and art)

I'm the birthday girl today.

(Chinese take-out for supper... and wine!)

I think today must be a good day to be alive...

toot toot

It's been so long since my last cartoon post (way back in January I think) so I feel the need to let those readers who used to visit that site, know that the boys are back.

If you liked the first two series, you might like the third. (Nothing like tooting my own horn.)

Not-the-brightest-crayon-in-the-box

Okay, so today I finally read the fine print in the club rules and regulations for Blog 365. Whew. A reprieve. As long as I post to any one of my three blogs, it counts. Yes, I actually have three: this one for writing, Convicted for serious artwork, and If God Has a Funnybone for my cartoons.

I was beginning to worry about those cartoons anyway. I hadn't drawn a single one since before Christmas. Not that I don't have lots of ideas... ideas are not the problem. I have a little notebook with thoughts and snippets of conversation jotted down... somewhere. But cartooning, in and of itself, doesn't come natural to me. I can't just draw what I see in my head. I have to google lots of pictures of little kids doing various activities, and then trace the body shapes. I have a standard "look" for the face that I sort of made up, but that's the only thing I seem to be able to sketch by hand. In fact, it sometimes works backwards: I find an image I'd like to trace, and then I decide what the dialog will be.

Establishing the theme is key. Sometimes I get going on what I think the theme will be, and the cartoons grab me and march off in a totally new direction. That's exciting, but it may mean I've traced a whole lot of shapes for nothing. My first series: In the Beginning went off in a direction I never expected: it (sort of) started with the big bang. I was going to draw a whole lot of stuff relating to particle physics and the early formation of elements... right, that's real amusing. Instead, the Trinity emerged as three little boys and they took me on an extraordinary ride.

Their presence continued in the second series Creation which turned out not to be about creation at all... more about three little siblings establishing their own pecking order in the family dynamics. How would I know about sibling dynamics? I was an only child. Still, the little boys (one who insists on emphasizing a feminine aspect) helped me get their point across. What's next? I wonder. I have only one new theme in mind: an opening story about God and Lucifer. If that doesn't get me into hot water, nothing will.

Sometimes I draw nuns. I draw myself a lot, because I have a hard time with a lot of the Psalms we recite. (And we do recite them all... even the ugly ones... specifically the one about the joy of dashing babies' heads against rocks disgusts me, but I digress. ) Here's a sample:

Stage 5: Acceptance

Acceptance begins with little realizations and gains entry into the psyche from there. Not everyone gets struck with a lightning bolt on their own path to Damascus. (Most of us just get an unexpected stone in our sandal and stop to remove it.) Hmmm... now that's an interesting stone. Where did that come from? Beware the Holy Spirit.

Stage 4: Depression

Depression can be as mild as losing interest... or as serious as not being able to get up in the morning.

Stage 3: Bargaining

On the heels of denial and anger comes (for me) the most useless and yet funniest of the stages: Bargaining. Just look it up in scripture... not many ever got away with bargaining with God, not even Jesus. Of course He wasn't exactly bargaining in the garden of Gethsemane... but read between the lines, you can almost hear it in his voice.

Huh?

Anyone who's ever experienced the "five stages" knows that, yes... while there are five, and yes... they do somewhat follow each other in progression, there's no guarantee that once you've passed into anger you don't jump back into denial... or fast forward to acceptance. Life is not a neat and tidy process.

I remember an old Peter, Paul and Mary song, "Best of Friends": Two steps backward and three along... It's like that. But you knew that.

Anger... continued

After a while, you seem to be angry about everything, anything...

Stage 2: Anger

The second stage in the famous "Five Stages of Death" is Anger. As with denial, anger can exhibit its presence in a variety of ways...

Queen of Denial... still

Ah... denial, would stinkweed by any other name not smell?
As discernment progresses, so do the manifestations of this insidious stage:

Queen of Denial

Denial is a wonderful state of mind... it acts as a transitional buffer from one understanding of reality to the next. Of course it's not meant to be permanent, but I've been known to carry it to it's umpteenth extreme. The funniest thing about denial is that everyone else recognizes the symptoms before you do...

Fish or cut bait...

So... it's time.

I've known it was coming, I've looked forward to it, dreaded it, pretended it could be avoided... but here we are. Today was my evaluation/formal request/lets talk it over meeting with the community council. All that remains is I write the letter. (Yes, that would mean put it in writing that I really do want to be a nun when I grow up.

My friend, the deacon had a suggestion yesterday. He said I should just draw a cartoon. Well, of course. (Not!!) But the more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. I've been drawing cartoons about God lately, but why not draw cartoons about myself? They'd probably be less inflammatory, anyway. I've begun with the Kubler Ross Five Stages of Death... nice touch, don'tcha think? The first stage is DENIAL. And here's the first cartoon: