I apologize. Between being busy and having computer troubles, I’ve been among the missing. Both the busy-ness and the estrangenesss are likely to continue for a week or so, but I’ll try to be better about the blogging.<\/p>\n
In the meantime …<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
The thing I’m most busy with right now is an assignment from Backwoods Home<\/i>. Not writing, but art. I’ve been doing small article illustrations for them for a few months. I knew that someday — probably a few years down the road — they’d ask me to try doing a cover, a much bigger deal.<\/p>\n
Don Childers, who’s been their artist since the ‘zine started in 1989, is still the main guy for covers, so I figured I had lots of time to practice painting meadows and cabins and cows.<\/p>\n
Then they gave me the assignment. Very suddenly. And guess the topic.<\/p>\n
The end of the world.<\/p>\n
Yep. End of the world. And not a cow in sight.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
Still, I’m grateful for the opportunity. And this being the week to stress gratitude, we can all be extremely grateful that we are not this woman<\/a> and have had no dealings with her.<\/p>\n We can be grateful that this woman<\/a> hasn’t been arrested. Yet. (Though we can be sure the local cops are trying to find some crime in her usurpation of their Authoritah.)<\/p>\n We can be grateful that the mainstream media is sometimes as amusing as The Onion<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n But seriously. About gratitude. On the road to personal secession<\/a> and becoming becoming our most interesting selves<\/a>, we witness so much pain and sometimes feel so much hopeless rage that it’s hard to remember that one part of being free is to be damn glad of what we’ve got (even if it’s only clear vision and principles) and of who we’re becoming.<\/p>\n I mean, really, what is the point of our hard-won individual freedom if all we do with it is struggle, fret, and bitch? So PT sends a pair of timely links that make good reading this week: A grateful heart is good for the soul<\/a>, and here’s how to grow a grinch-heart<\/a> to proper size.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Finally, I’ve been saving up these links intending to write a blog on why failure can be a great and welcome thing. But since I’m slow getting around to that, here they are:<\/p>\n J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement address on the fringe benefits of failure<\/a> and the value of imagination. It’s marvelous.<\/p>\n