Please, NO political comments (positive or negative) in the comments section. They will be deleted.
I approve of discourse, and I know I touch on politics in this strip, but this is a strip about my life, and I’m just saying how it is for ME. If you feel differently (or even the same) than me, I ask you to find a different venue/platform.
BIRDS. Yay! Witnessing the end of the American democratic experiment: Boo. Trying very hard not to dwell on it, but it’s difficult. I hope after we destroy ourselves the birds are all still here doing their thing and being awesome.
On the bright side, I had that “oops, went through the vein” thing happen when I donated blood once, and I kind of enjoyed the resulting enormous bruise, since it looked horrible but didn’t hurt. I got to say “hey look, I *GAVE BLOOD*” and “you shoulda seen the other guy” and “oh, that’s where there was a gap in my armor” and “boy, never go to a cheap tattoo artist” and so on for days.
Christopher, I know that my living in Canada puts a bit of a distance on the same news stories, but in addition to a sense of alarm at the same things you have pointed out I have some more personal news that has set me back. I came upon this in my reading this morning – of all things and of all times – and it has helped. Somewhat.
Hope
by Vaclav Havel
Hope is a state of mind, not a state of the world
Either we have hope within us or we don’t.
Hope is not a prognostication—it’s an orientation of the spirit.
You can’t delegate that to anyone else.
Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy
when things are going well,
or the willingness to invest in enterprises
that are obviously headed for early success,
but rather an ability to work for something to succeed.
Hope is definitely NOT the same as optimism.
It’s not the conviction that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out.
It is hope, above all, that gives us strength to live
and to continually try new things,
even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now.
In the face of this absurdity, life is too precious a thing
to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily,
without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope.
Birds, yes! Birdbrains … are part of the democratic experience. especially when people are being distracted from their own needs by duckspeakers pushing Fear.
Art is important. You are important! Your work highlights the stupidity of uninformed violence — and as Kris Kristofferson said, don’t believe that no one wants to know.
You all are being super nice and supportive. And trying to quietly skirt the issue. I appreciate both. Thank you.
I will just say the the quote from Donna Gephart is an appropriate one to remember in these days. We can all be brave and honest together, making it easier for each other.
Yes tiptoe through the mine field.
But your autobiography is a brightness I savor.
Hope is empty without a plan. So plan well and plan deep.
Live the best you can is something we can all do.
We can do more together than separately.
Amen
“Nude birds” is a curious description. Great work as always.
Cute name for the drawing class, and worth attending, I’m sure.
When I get depressed by sheer insanity of some of the things in the news media, I try to think back to the long struggles for equal rights for minorities, not just in the USA, but around the world. And that ages-long struggle for equal rights for the majority: women. Which is still going on, but while there have been steps backwards, there still have been tremendous steps forwards.
“I have a dream…”