Chronicles in Ordinary Time

One of my first heroes, George Reeves. I don’t know that he ever understood his contribution to society.

I can’t think about what happened ten years ago yesterday, without thinking about the thousands of innocent people throughout the world, throughout history, whose lives have been sacrificed upon the altar of revenge. I am a pacifist who believes that violence is inevitable, for we are a broken people, prone to place the suffering of others below our own suffering. It is all tragedy.

I watch lots of movies;  I love watching stories being told. Some have suggested that I spend too much time watching stories and not living one. I’m working on that.
This afternoon I watched “Mongol,” a Russian/Chinese film about the rise of Genghis Khan.  The Mongolian clans based their lives on revenge–he stole my horses, I’ll steal his wife. Temudjin [to later become Genghis Khan] decided that Mongols needed laws:
“Mongols need laws. I will make them obey…even if I have to kill half of them.
Our laws will be simple. Don’t kill women or children. Don’t forget your debts.
Fight enemies to the end. And never betray your khan. ”
For all of our supposed progress, I’m not sure that we have gotten beyond those laws. The prohibition against the killing of women and children seems to have been forgotten.

I also watched “Prince Caspian.” C.S. Lewis is another one of my heroes. Watching “Mongol” and watching “Prince Caspian” were very similar experiences; a quantitative difference in red paint. I’m not sure that’s what Mr. Lewis intended.

I grew up believing in heroes. Those willing to sacrifice their live in order to save another. That’s one good thing that came from the tragedy of 9/11– the honoring of the heroes who ran into the burning buildings. I once worked with one of those sorts of people. He ran into a burning building to rescue a trapped woman. And got chewed out later by a senior officer, for not putting on his protective gear before entering the building… He served a different Master.

I met the greatest of my heroes when I was in my twenties. An encounter that changed my life forever. He sacrificed his life so that we all could live. Unfortunately, His story has gotten so messed up over the centuries that it means very little to very many. His story isn’t an action tale. It’s the story of reaching out to people where they are and accepting them. It’s a story of compassion and forgiveness. And a story of bravery that does not rely weapons. Perhaps the greatest bravery of all.

I grew up with the illustrations of Howard Pyle, NC Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, Hal Foster and lesser lights. Tales of adventure where good won out over evil… fairy tales, I suppose; in these times.

I dreamed, I still  dream of following in their footsteps.

forward to:
www.mjarts.com

“…and the monstrous creatures of whales”

          I recently went through a period of weeks where I thought I had a fatal illness. As far as the doctors have been able to determine, my sensory neuropathy isn’t going to be fatal; but it might be even more uncomfortable than it has been.   This isn’t necessarily great news; I’ve been dealing with chronic pain for about 30 years, and that the thought of things getting worse isn’t particularly exciting. So I now go through my days with little feeling in my hands [and everywhere else]; a diminished ability to look closely at my work [my eyes don’t converge properly], and a diminished sense of balance.

When I was dealing with my questions of death, I realized that I wasn’t concerned about Eternity–I took care of that in 1973, when I gave my life back to my Creator. I was concerned about things undone. I have a granddaughter living states away that I barely know. I have illustration projects I haven’t completed.  And I don’t feel that I have done much about influencing the world in a positive manner.

So I have returned to the concept of blogging. Do I want the world to know the struggles I go through to create illustrations? Not really. I am generally a very private person. I write with ease; I’ve been writing technical opinions for nearly thirty years. I have lots of opinions; but I find that most people are concerned about their own opinions, rather than being open to new ones.

A couple of years ago I helped chaperone a ‘high-school lock-in’. During a card game/ice-breaker, we were asked, “what would your dream job be?” I fortunately did not have to answer that I already have my ‘dream job’— it just isn’t quite what I imagined it would be. For the last 11 years I’ve earned a living as a Building Code Consultant/ Illustrator; in reality, I use every Building Code project as an opportunity to work as an illustrator. To a degree, I ‘collaborate’ with myself– doing research and technical writing as a “Consultant”, and then handing the project over to my in-house “Illustrator” to help the final product easier to understand through the use of images.

Twenty years ago, when I decided it was time to start pursuing a career as a children’s book illustrator, I started collecting images of work that I wanted to emulate. I recently received a Canadian image-promotion magazine, and discovered that most of the photographers had Photoshopped their images to make them look more like drawings/ paintings; and the illustrators’ work tended to look like cartoons. I’ve caught up with the images I wanted to make 20 years ago; but the parade of taste has changed course.

          Still, I persist. Each and every day I am sustained by the Love, Mercy and Grace of my Creator…