For Gary Larson, it was more than just a Cow.

“This was more than just a cow - this was an entire career I was looking at.” ~Gary Larson

Gary Larson may be one of my favorite cartoonists. I think I see all my farm animals in his comics. I was a child who not only talked to animals, but had a heightened sense of them also communicating with me. (ok, I was completely delusional so I just gave them voices telling me what I wanted to hear, there I said it) ;)

Gary’s comics are not only brilliant but they remind me to be me. Reading them, I am reminded of so many childhood moments. If you have fed chickens on a daily basis, you’ll know they are creatures of habit. Mine for instance, would hear me call chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick-ennnnnnnnnns from the house and even though they were always fed at the same spot at the barn, they’d run up to the house and follow me down. It was the same every single solitary day! So, what many of us twisted people do is watch their personalities, give them voices and eventually full-drama scenarios. You see, chickens make you insane. It’s just how it is.

I really don’t know much about Gary or the background for the quote, but what I sense is that he absolutely loved what he did enough to do it for a living. Now, whether or not people just responded to his work or he catered to them, I don’t really know. I suspect he never catered to them because the kind of humor he throws out there can’t possibly come from someone wanting something specific from him. It comes from something more real, perhaps even diabolical! lol

Now, I don’t necessarily believe that everyone’s passion can sell millions of comic-strips, obviously hard work and talent has to fall in there, but Gary’s success is inspiring because he’s made a career from his twisted sense of humor. How cool is that? How could you not just enjoy every single stroke of the pen?

I believe each of us has our own ‘cow’ if you will follow me down the path to this funny farm for a bit. ;) Each of us can look at our life and remember a happy time, a hysterical time, a dark time, a twisted time, a loving time, a sad time, a cool memory, a bad memory. We each have moments where we feel the most connected to our inner child, the crazy one, the funny one, the creative one, the super silly one…and yet we remember still, but saturate ourselves in something else, something more time-consuming, perhaps it’s self-pity, perhaps it’s too much of the news on TV, perhaps gossip, perhaps hate. Why do we do this? Are we masochistically drowning out the hurt? Or are we afraid of embracing who we truly are because it won’t sell, because we will be made fun of or maybe it’s just as simple as we are too tired?

If we are genuinely too sad, too tired or too lazy to immerse ourselves in the things we love to do, where do we find the emotion, energy and time to fill our days with extensive grief and negativity?

Contrary to what you have experienced, or what the TV, radio and internet feeds you, the world is beautiful and perfect, humans, maybe not…but aside from the world, there is you. YOU get to be you today. YOU get to break down a 24 hour cycle hour and spend it how you want. YOU can choose to watch a gossipy news channel or go for a hike. YOU can put the radio on or crank the music you love. YOU can surf for more news on headlines that depress you or you can search out websites of inspiration. YOU can give love to a child, a pet or a spouse instead of abusing them. This gift of choice is the most beautiful part of our life!

Gary chose to draw cows and chickens. What could have seemed like a small insignificant part of his life has bled into millions of people’s homes and caused laughter world-wide.

What part of YOUR world can you embrace with all your heart and share with the intent of inspiring others, not just making money? I highly doubt Gary ever did what he did with the thought of making millions from it. But people appreciate the honest place it came from and had he ever done it for the masses in the first place, it may not have been as funny or true. :)

Enjoy YOUR day!

Karen :)

“On Career Day in high school, you don't walk around looking for the cartoon guy.” ~Gary Larson