Better To Wear Out Your Shoes

Another proverb for you. This one from my vintage napkin collection that I gave to my daughters in their school lunches.

I was going to draw something about exercise today, but I am SO tired, I didn't have the energy.

Seriously though, as the saying goes...
'You can sleep when you are dead'! Get up and move, try something, anything to be active. Not just to stay fit, but to see the world. The world in the field next door, the world at 6am, the world down under. Wherever, whenever. Be curious, be fit, and find friends doing it.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of
The Napkin Dad Daily blog

Quote is a Genoese proverb

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While Grief is Fresh

Just thinking of the Fort Hood shooting yesterday and how horrendous the shock and emotion is for those connected to it, whether right in the middle of the shooting or family and friends.

No matter what the grief, don't try to push people to ignore it, and don't ignore it yourself. You don't have to get rid of it, or hide it. Let it exist. Just sit with them, hold their hand. Grieve with them.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of
The Napkin Dad Daily blog

Quote by Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English author and lexicographer

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To Want To Forget

Proverb day at The Napkin Dad Daily.

I know, sometimes my drawings just make no sense. But I did have a very pointed message in my reasoning for drawing this. I just forget what it was now.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of
The Napkin Dad Daily blog

Quote is a French proverb

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A Failure Is A Man Who Has

This quote jumped out at me today as being the perfect example of 21st century failure, and I mean that in both a good and a bad way.

In the good way, we are taught that we should learn (cash in on) from our mistakes. That is a universal lesson, easy to grasp, hard to implement.

In the bad way we have the obsession with confessional celebrities from Brittney to Lindsay to Paris to Jon to any number of knuckleheaded politicians who figure out a way to cash in on their stupidity or bad judgment. But it isn't just the public figures that get sucked into the 'stumble but make sure you get publicity' mentality. We do it with our own confessions of failures and shortcomings.

Think about this quote. It is meant to be somewhat facetious, a sarcastic slap in the face to the idea of taking credit for something you probably shouldn't be too proud of. I don't mean that we shouldn't extol the virtue of those who have overcome adversity, but overcoming is defined by the amount of publicity you get, it's defined by the true redemption you exhibit.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog. Pay for a subscription (at the blog) and you will be abundantly famous and rich as a result. Well, ok, you won't be. But you will feel almost as good as if you were!

Quote by Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American Philosopher - interesting notes: He died on the Lusitania cruise ship when it was torpedoed by the Germans during WWI. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, was his nephew.

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He Who Attends

The truth is we are never going to attend to only one or the other. We will always be paying attention to the trite and base things to some degree. To WHAT degree is the question.

Do you spend your entire day thinking of these trivial, maybe mean-spirited things? Do you focus continually on gaining things and status for yourself? Do you worry constantly about how you appear to others? Do you judge others based solely on surface elements?

And the bigger question, do you offset any of those obsessions with deeper thoughts and actions that help you call into question your focus, that help turn you towards higher good for yourself and others.

Maybe it is church that does it, listening to the sermon. Maybe it is walking in nature. Maybe it is reading wisdom from the ages. Maybe it is watching and evaluating the moral tales on TV (yes, there are many good lessons to be learned on TV). Whatever it is, are you paying attention? How are you balancing your life towards the greater things?

It doesn't happen by accident, especially in a capitalist driven world that is geared towards wanting you to be a consumer, to spend money. You have to be deliberate about inventing yourself, about creating the greater self you want to be.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog, which you should subscribe to. It will make your brain bigger and your day better.

Quote by Mencius, 372 – 289 BCE, Chinese philosopher

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