Priorities....

Sometimes it takes dramatic events to help you gain a better perspective.  Recently a friend of a friend passed away, at much too young of an age.  Our conversation drifted over to, of all things, never knowing when your time is going to come.  My thoughts went to something that's always been on my mind... that I have so many things that I still want to do.  My friends response was brilliant:  then you set priorities.

I remember being a tender young age of 19, and like most young adults, I wanted the world.  My mother was recently single, I was getting closer to finishing my degree in Computer Science.  I was in the middle of a college co-op, when I got the idea that I wanted to do a summer abroad.  I really felt like this was the one time in my life that I would have the chance to do something as crazy as going to Europe for a summer.  Meanwhile, I was commuting to school with an old beat-up 1976 Buick Skylark, and it was really on it's last leg.  So my mother says to me, as most good mothers would, as I'm blabbing about wanting to go to Europe, "You need that car to get to school and work.  Set your priorities."  So what did I do?  I made BOTH the new car, and the trip abroad, a priority.  I used my full-time co-op pay to qualify for a new car loan, and I continued working after the co-op term was done, and banked as much cash as I could.  I ended up with a new car, a two month stay in Munich, and enough credits from the summer to put me within grasp of a double major in both German and Computer Science. 

But... priorities.  I guess I am no stranger to filling my plate, reorganizing, and then filling it up again.  It's not always a winning strategy.  Case and point, Spookybear of 2013, the Heroes & Villains party.  I very much wanted to remain in retirement from my volunteer life while I sorted out what I wanted to do and when.  Of course, I wasn't going to say no when asked for help.  I basically art-directed the whole thing, which ended up with a larger than-life comic book on the walls of the night club, custom animations, a well-photographed ad campaign, and more.  But in the end, I broke under the strain of the work.  Even now, the recovery of my ongoing neck and shoulder issues continues at a slow pace.  I'm getting there, but not as quickly as I'd like.  So unfortunately, my time at the drawing board has been minimized.

Priorities. 

I started this blog as a way to express a lot about who I am as a creative person, but of course, I am so much more than just a creative person.  I try to make some tie-in's as I write and as I share.  But I suppose a year off from the drawing table meant I also ended up taking a year off from this blog.

So what's really important to me?  The art?  Volunteering?  Building things out of plastic bricks?  Throwing charitable bar parties?  Teaching people tracking and how to tie knots?  Making music??

Well, you know.... all of it is important to me.  Maybe the key word for 2015 will be one that I became more aware of in 2014 thanks to a new job:  BALANCE. 

Below is a cartoon I made of our current Mr. Connecticut Bear, which was raffled off at our Lumberjock party at the beginning of the month.  It's also my first real finished piece of work in many months.  Hopefully it will be one of many more to come in the next year.