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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Inventing yourself

imageThat’s from a commencement speech given by Bill Waterson; cartoonist Gavin Aung Than has made a cartoon poster of key points from this speech, drawn in the style of Calvin and Hobbes. 

It’s well worth reading, and can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/bill-watterson-advice-to-college-grads-illustrated-like-calvin-and-hobbes_n_3837271.html 

It would make a great poster, but as Tang explains:

since Watterson famously refuses to license his work, preferring to let his art speak for itself, selling this "would be against the whole spirit of Calvin and Hobbes." However, you can (and should) click over to his site and browse his other, non-Watterson related artwork.

A balancing act

Life is a balancing act.  You have to earn a living, and you have to live up to your responsibilities (most notably as a parent). Watterson’s advice could easily be misunderstood as maximizing your own happiness, but clearly that’s not what he’s talking about here. It’s talking about meeting those responsibilities on your own terms as much as you can, not on the terms of others.

This, of course, is a middle class and above luxury – not quite available to those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.  But for those of us who are able to choose, we should choose wisely.

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