Sunday, January 08, 2006

That Expression You Never Wore Again

Jeff and I can sit for hours at a stretch in companionable silence. He’s reading the course requirements for his January goal, and I should be studying for my Level II certification in May, but instead I’m trying to make sense of 2005 and plot my progress in 2006.

Rebekah’s baby shower was 100% fun, even the part that’s still nauseating to recall: Sara nuked several unused disposable diapers in which she had placed a variety of chocolate bars, and we had to guess what kind they were. Kathryn and I were the only ones who seemed to have a problem with it. I’ve never considered myself squeamish, but the more time I spend around hunters and babies, the more I find I have a weak stomach after all.

True to her family’s bookish roots, Bekah requested books for the baby, which was the most sensible thing I had ever heard. Passing around the glossy pastel library that resulted reminded me of the sketchbooks full of characters and storylines stored in flat crates under my bed. I have long toyed with the idea of writing children’s books; I lean towards fantastic characters and happy endings as bookends for pretty morals, and it may be the only way I can pursue my dual talents of art and literature and do something meaningful with both. I’m finally beginning to understand, however- due to sage advice from many sources- that I still have plenty of time. Without the urgency, creating just comes naturally. I guess that goes for babies, too, doesn’t it, Bekah?

I watched what may amount to a combined total of almost 10 hours of Futurama over the weekend, and now I’m having the strangest dreams.

Brock Yates is my hero. I'll bother to qualify that later.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Children's books are something I could see you pulling off quite well.

Your artwork is amazing and it seems you're really getting the hang of the tablet.

Add to that the way you write and I can see kids being mesmerised by your books.

Books are important and I agree with your friend's desire to only have books, although there is much merits in educational toys.

It's funny, yesterday my friend Tish and I were talking about what we would do for our kids if we had any (not OUR kids as she's married to my friend Scott but our kids in our respective families - if any of that makes sense).

Anyway we both said that we wouldn't have our kids being victimised by societal thinking i.e. girls become wives or secretaries, boys become tradesmen etc.

This came about after a comment she made where she said that if she could go back in time to her school days with the knowledge she had now she'd go for more manual/male represented trades such as plumbing etc instead of being an office worker.

I couldn't agree more that females shouldn't be raised on the basis that because they are the fairer and weaker sex they can't become builders or plumbers or race car drivers etc.

I think I've said this to you once before that I feel nothing but absolute respect for girls who go out and work in traditionally male dominated roles because of the fact that girls are the fairer and weaker sex (not neccesarily weaker in terms of physical but emotionally). I have nothing but respect for the parents of these girls who have backed them in whatever career they have decided even if those careers are making them seem butch.

So if you make your books tell them that they can be anything they desire and that society can't control them or stop them from following their dreams. Sure those dreams change as they grow up but the point is that they should not listen to people who tell them they can't be what they want to be.

I had teachers like that who said that I wouldn't really amount to much, now I'm being paid almost as much as them and I have absolutely no qualifications to my name. Sucks to be them. :-)

January 13, 2006 at 7:23 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home