Lunacy

I have been reading a lot of G.K. Chesterton lately, and it is very thought provoking. Though the concept of modern homeschooling didn’t become popular until the 1980’s, Chesterton seems to champion it in his essay, “The Thing.” It made me think so much, that I made a little illustration for one specific paragraph of that essay. I usually think better in pictures than in words.  Without further ado, here are Chesterton’s own words, and a photo to go along with it”

“Some social reformers try to evade this difficulty, I know,
by some vague notions about the State or an abstraction called
Education eliminating the parental function. But this,
like many notions of solid scientific persons, is a wild illusion
of the nature of mere moonshine. It is based on that strange
new superstition, the idea of infinite resources of organisation.
It is as if officials grew like grass or bred like rabbits.
There is supposed to be an endless supply of salaried persons,
and of salaries for them; and they are to undertake all that human
beings naturally do for themselves; including the care of children.
But men cannot live by taking in each other’s baby-linen. They cannot
provide a tutor for each citizen; who is to tutor the tutors?
Men cannot be educated by machinery; and though there might be
a Robot bricklayer or scavenger, there will never be a Robot
schoolmaster or governess. The actual effect of this theory
is that one harassed person has to look after a hundred children,
instead of one normal person looking after a normal number of them.
Normally that normal person is urged by a natural force, which costs
nothing and does not require a salary; the force of natural
affection for his young, which exists even among the animals.
If you cut off that natural force, and substitute a paid bureaucracy,
you are like a fool who should pay men to turn the wheel of his mill,
because he refused to use wind or water which he could get for nothing.
You are like a lunatic who should carefully water his garden with
a watering-can, while holding up an umbrella to keep off the rain.”

G.K. Chesterson

Resisting Goals

I’m an artist, at least, that is the vocation of my spirit, but I have not been doing much to improve my skill lately. I have been sitting around and waiting for my fairy god mother to show up and make me famous, talented, and saintly. But, those attributes usually are not the sort of things that just happen to a person. People who lay around in lethargy seldom gain any high qualities.

---

The big news these days is that the Chicago Cubs are playing in the World Series. They have not played in the World Series since 1945 when they lost to the Detroit Tigers.

The Chicago Cubs have been cursed because the last time they won a World Series was 1908. But now, in 2016, they are going to the World Series again. They have a chance to redeem themselves. It has been said, in baseball tradition, that the ivy on Wrigley Field’s walls is poisonous. That is the reason they have had such poor luck these past few years.

I made this piece in 2015. It depicts a cub fighting the poison ivy. He is facing the curse and fighting it. The Cubs are not lethargic. They did not give up when all the odds seemed to go against them. Even if they are the underdog, and even if they seemingly are cursed by both poison ivy and a goat, they fight back and come out on top.

---

I decided that I am going to fight a little myself. Last month, I was very excited to enter a local art contest. I worked hard to finish an oil painting that I had been working on for a year. I even made a frame for it using cool power tools and saws. I sent in my application for the art contest and waited excitedly for a month to hear back from them. I got the email a few days ago and I was rejected!!!!!

I was feeling down for a day or so. I slept in and told myself there was no reason to get up and out of bed because I could never make it as an artist or anything thing else. But there was an air of excitement stirring while I was moping. The Cubs were winning.  I can take a page out of their book and beat the odds. I started a site on RedBubble selling products with some of the images I created.  I’m promoting myself and putting myself out there. Instead fighting against curses and poison ivy, I’m fighting against laziness and self-deprecation.

Here is the link to my site if you want to see any of the products featuring my brave little cub.

.