From the valley of deconstruction ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
| Hi John! I'm excited for you to read this letter. I'm proud of it. Or, at least, I'm proud of myself for learning the lesson I've shared today. It's about explaining yourself (spoiler: you don't have to!) Cartoon: Hangin' out 🏳️🌈
Dad Joke: WRONG ❌
Post: Wicked 🧙♀️
Quote: From Coates ✍️
Reminder: 3 for 2 Print Sale Ends Tonight 🚨
Original: From the valley of deconstruction ⛓️ |
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There's a lot going on. The world is a scary place and some of us are just hanging in there. I love that these sheep are smiling at each other and making light of the challenges life throws.
When we're together, there will always be something to smile about!
This cartoon isn't on my website yet. If you'd like me to add it, let me know and I'll make it happen for you!
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| What word in the English language is always spelled wrong? Wrong. |
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I made a joke about Wicked. I think its funny. Do you?
See it here. |
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| This cartoon (and many others) is available as a Holiday Greeting Card. I've put them into sets that are funny, or serious, or LGBTQ-affirming. Go have a look and pick your favorite! Each pack contains five greeting cards. |
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| I just finished Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, The Message. Have you ever read a book that, while you’re reading it, you suddenly become aware that you are reading a well written book. The beauty and honesty of this book is astounding, and I highly recommend it. Here’s just one quote that I strongly identified with: He talks about his books and compares them to his children… that he treats them like they are his kids. “I’ve learned it’s best to, as much as possible, stay out of the way and let them live their own lives. “My loyalty to that lesson is dispositional— I am often struck by secondhand embarrassment watching writers defend themselves against every bad review. But it’s also strategic: My work is to set the table, craft the argument, render the world as I imagine it, and then go. The late Jamal Kashoggi was fond of the Arabic proverb, ’Say your word, then leave’. Ii try to live by that, because I am at my worst out there defending my children, and at my best making more of them.” |
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| Deconstruction & the Need to Explain Yourself |
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| I’m the same as Coates. I don’t like defending or explaining my work. I too am better making more cartoons, art, and writing than I am constantly explaining them. But there’s another deeper reason I don’t like explaining my work, and it has to do with the importance of deconstruction. For me, the ultimate and primary goal of deconstruction is to realize and achieve our own spiritual independence. That means becoming spiritually autonomous and self-determining. In the religious culture I grew up in, we were always told what to believe. Everything was spoofed to us, and we would never dare branch out on our own to explore and discover our own thoughts about things. We would have been told how to interpret this or that cartoon, rather than trusting our own interpretation of it. Rather than experience a piece of art or writing or whatever at our own gut level, we bypass our own gut and entrust the interpretation to an authority which we obediently accept. Do you see what I mean? I want people to feel empowered to decide what they think for themselves, rather than being instructed. This is why I called myself the “NakedPastor”. It was because I wasn’t going to be a typical pastor who preaches at you what you should think, say, and do. Rather, I was going to be someone who is completely open, honest, real, transparent and vulnerable about my own life. And you can take it from there. Be empowered! You get to decide how to be spiritual, and at an even more fundamental level, you get to decide how to be you. Without explanation. |
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| Last Few Hours of the Sale |
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| Use the code BF3FOR2 to get 3 for 2 on all of my prints until midnight 🧡 |
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| Original: This Valley Ain't So Bad |
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Deconstructing your beliefs can be traumatic. At first. Then, when you finally come to a place of acceptance, you begin to appreciate the mystery, the unknowing, and even the dark valleys of solitude, alone with your thoughts.
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| Thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for another week with this uplifting community. If you take anything away from this letter, I hope it's that you don't have to explain yourself. You're welcome here as you are! Much love my friend, David |
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NakedPastor Gondola Point Road Quispamsis, NB E2E 1H6 |
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