Quote of the day:
"The trouble with super heroes is what to do between phone booths."
--Ken Kesey
Have you been reading “Funky Winkerbean”? If you have, you probably know why I ask that question.
Funky’s wife Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. Now she is in the final stage. Hospice is visiting, and her bed is in their first-floor living room.
So many, many people have said to me that they go to the movies/watch TV/read the funnies to be entertained, not to be challenged or depressed. Often the reason given is something along the lines of “I work hard, and when I go to the movies/watch TV/read the funnies about the last thing I want is to see a downer. I don’t even want to think.”
I’m all for rest and recreation. We really don’t get enough of it. With traffic, work and family worries, becoming one with entertainment inertia can be wildly appealing.
But don’t we rob ourselves of a bit of life when we insist on not thinking or feeling when we encounter movies/TV shows/funnies? We might miss some good stuff.
And Funky Winkerbean is good stuff. The writer, Tom Batiuk, is not trying to be morbid or depressing or funny especially. He is simply trying to depict real, human characters. And the people he brings us are funny, sad, nostalgic and inspiring.
Seeing this strip is a good moment in my day.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Funky Winkerbean
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Yes, I have been reading this comic for years and it is one of the first ones go to. I have enjoyed this spunky character and her sense of humor and was hoping she'd yet survive. But that's life. I sat and watched my best friend smoke a cigarette 3 days before she died of lung cancer, June 1, 2005. Because of her demanding job we rarely got to see each other. It is ironic that the first real rest she'd had in years and the best visits we had had in a long time were after she bacame a patient at San Diego Hospice.
So sorry to hear about your best friend. That's tough. It sounds like you meant a lot to each other.
This is often the way things go. People are too busy and preoccupied to see family or friends--but then, illness forces them to slow down and the blessing of deepened relationships comes to them.
One of the closest times I've had with my family was when we were gathered around my mother's bed in her final days. We pulled out lots of old photos and had a blast going through them.
Thanks for sharing this, Lynda.
Post a Comment