One must end the year on a note that is either upbeat or regretful. A heartfelt, “Meh,” just won’t cut it.
So here are a few particles of wisdom from the dustbowl of Mickey’s imagination.
The world is getting brighter… also hotter. If we continue to chill on the topic of global warming, soon we will be fricasseed.
You should definitely pay attention to your teachers. They are mostly old and cranky and undervalued, and it makes them sad when they realize that no one really listens to them.
I learned this from the poet Dylan Thomas, “Rage! Rage! Against the dying of the light!” He cursed death, and then he promptly went out and drank so much liquor, he died at a very young age. Thank God I have lived to be old.
You are also pretty much stuck with the face that you are born with, so you better get used to it, and it has many varied uses… especially in the comic sense.
And I would also like to re-iterate the wisdom of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery;
It is a bit of a disappointment to an artist to realize that what is essential is actually invisible to the eye… but I know it is true. Truth resides in words.
The only wisdom I truly possess is the knowledge that I am a fool.
Since I was a mere stupid boy, and before I grew up to be a mildly stupid man, I always yearned to have wisdom. And wisdom comes through experience and pain. Now, years later, I realize what true wisdom is… I’d have been better off without all that pain.
People are a lot like rabbits, except that they are not.
They can never eat too many carrots… unless they do. And then their skin can turn orange.
There is no beast as noble as a rabbit… except for practically every other beast.
Turtles are not as noble as rabbits. When you challenge them to a race, they cheat.
People really ought to be naked more. It’s true. If you can strip yourself down to only what is fundamentally nothing but you yourself… you begin to know who you really are. And it is not shame to let other people see. Oh, wait a minute! You thought I was talking about being literally naked? Oh, no! Metaphorically naked only!
One should be so opaque and obtuse that other people can see acutely right through you. It is the only thing that makes nonsense into sense.
And we need to sing and dance a little more than we do. A good song is healthy for the soul, no matter how badly you sing it. And even if you are old and arthritic like me, dancing a good jiggity-jig keeps the bones loose and the heart thumping.
Everyone needs to dance with their children. And talk to them. You can learn more from them than they can from you. They have more recently come here from the hand of God. And they know things that you have forgotten… and will need to remember before you return to Him.
I hope my anti-wisdom has not seriously screwed everybody up.
I have given you a picture Paffooney today of the tapestry created by the town of Rowan, Iowa for its centennial in 2002. I consider Rowan my home town. I was not born there, but it is the scene of most of my childhood. It shaped most of who I am and how I am and what I am. It is the scene of most of my fiction because that’s where the most valuable treasures of Truth are hidden, near the wishing wells of our youth. I keep it on my bedroom wall because, not only do Pooh and Fozzie like it to be there, it is a beautiful thing to look at and reflect upon. It keeps what is most important in my life in focus. I have a lot of physical pain from my six incurable diseases, and pain makes the focus blur at times. But pain is also the source of what wit and wisdom I have to offer. I will continue to contemplate and write and think and create… and draw. I will continue to post at least a portion of the results here. I do desire to make some money with my writing, but that is only a secondary concern. I am not really writing for the people who know me in real life. They already know me and made up their minds about me long ago. They might read this and that and recognize something of themselves, but they are not the ones I am speaking to at this moment. I am talking in prose to those who see my ideas for the very first time with new eyes, no preconceived notions about me. It is for them, the readers I do not personally know, that my magic spells are cast in words.
Catch a Falling Star 