For September 11th...

2001

2002

I am a comic-a-holic.

As well as reading copious pages of comic strips in as many daily newspapers as I can get my hands on, I also have several custom-designed pages of comics emailed to me every morning.

I keep elaborate scrapbooks of snipped-out comic strips the way some people chronicle their children's developmental milestones.

People, let me tell you something that I have learned about life. Sometimes, it's the funny people who offer up truth more accurately than the serious ones. I don't know exactly what it is... Perhaps people who laugh often, and who know how to make other people laugh, are somehow more in tune with what is important... what is real.

Over the years, I have found some favourite funnies. Funnies that make me think; make me marvel at their ability to perfectly capture a feeling or a situation. And these are two examples of that. They have a special place in my collection.

They are "Non Sequitur" and "Heart of the City", and they were clipped, almost exactly one year apart, from the comics page of The Toronto Star newspaper.

It's September 11th once again, everybody.

We have all learned a great deal about ourselves, about life, and about the world since then.

But, my greatest hope; something I pray for every day, is that we can all learn this:

"To laugh often and love much;

to win the respect of intelligent persons

and the affection of children;

to earn the approbation of honest citizens

and endure the betrayal of false friends;

to appreciate beauty;

to find the best in others; to give of one's self;

to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,

a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

to have played and laughed with enthusiasm

and sung with exultation;

to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived

- this is to have succeeded."

-- Although this work is often attributed to Emerson, the actual author is debated... This is one of many variations of a poem called "Success", and the one I like the best.