Sunday is a day of rest. It is a day to forget everything that was work and worry throughout the week and find peace and recovery.
Some find it by sleeping later than usual. Others find it in front of the TV watching a favorite football team play ball. Many find peace by praising God in a local church while others do the same thing from a place in the quiet of their home. While going to church has always been a part of my routine I, for one, will always associate Sunday with better comics to read in the newspaper.
As a child, the Sunday paper would come and after that morning of worship, I would hit the newspapers and dive through it for the section with the funnies. I felt fortunate that I did not grow up in my great-grandfather’s house. My great-grandfather was a minister who didn’t allow any of his family to read anything but the Bible on Sunday. While this is to me the most important book ever written and compiled, the ruling (for my grandfather) to read only the Bible on Sunday seemed harsh. He knew the Bible very well and could quote any passage you asked of him with complete accuracy; and he got very tired of reading the same book every single Sunday of the nineteen years he lived in his father’s house. Wouldn’t you think that would grant him some grace? But no. So at some point, he just decided to go to the neighbor’s house and hang out so he could find peace, because it was not peaceful being told that everything he wanted to do… read other books or the newspaper, or play a game, or work on a favorite hobby… was wrong.
At the neighbor’s house, my granddad (who had a photographic memory) would read the entire newspaper cover to cover. He loved the funnies the best, and I would have to say that I do too.
Comic strips come and go. Prince Valiant: a well-drawn comic with a storyline that gave us a hero… someone to look up to. Brenda Starr: Shoot, I wanted to BE Brenda Starr. I didn’t care about her mystery man and his black orchids so much. He always seemed sort of like an absentee. What I liked was her ability to always get the story for her editor and do it in the best clothes I’d ever seen in my life! Dagwood: The dumbest man on the planet with a wife that my father believed was my mother. Beetle Bailey: Some days it was funny and some days… eh!
As a little boy, my father’s favorite comic strip was Joe Palooka, Prize Fighter. I was always sorry he loved it so much. He gave me a nickname after one of the characters from that one. (And, no! I will not be sharing that nickname now or at any other time in the future!
It is a name that shall die with me.)
In the comics, there is always a kind of wisdom. Calvin speaking to Hobbs: “The world is a complicated place, Hobbs.” Hobbs speaking to Calvin: Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.” Now doesn’t that sound like a great idea? I often wish our congress, even our president, would listen to this sage advice. Perhaps the decisions they make for you and me and everyone would be filled with greater discernment after a nap and dinner. (Cartoonist, Bill Watterson has a wonderful sense of life around him.)
Calvin and Hobbs again: After scaring Hobbs and being beaten to a pulp for his efforts… “I’ve got to start listening to those quiet, nagging doubts.”
Last Calvin and Hobbs:
Calvin to Hobbs: “Why do you suppose we’re here?”
Hobbs to Calvin: “Because we walked here.”
Calvin to Hobbs: “No, no… I mean here on Earth.”
Hobbs to Calvin: “Because Earth can support life.”
Calvin to Hobbs: “No, I mean why are we anywhere? Why do we exist?”
Hobbs to Calvin: “Because we were born.”
Calvin to Hobbs: “Forget it.”
Hobbs to Calvin: “I will, thank you.”
(I want a friend like this!)
I guess we all have our favorite comic that speaks to us when we need a little easy wisdom. We are not being preached at from the pulpit. No one is telling us that we aren’t enough. We’re just breathing and feeling a little bit of life coming our way from these little characters that seem to have all the same problems and questions we do, but are finding a gentle solution. And with that, I believe I will go take a nap and wait for dinner!
May your evening be filled with light humor and easy solutions for the week to come.
Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple