Reflections from Bo Obama

You've got to read this piece by Ben Greenman called "The First Hundred (Dog) Days" from today's New York Times. It offers a light-hearted touch to this (very foggy where I am) Friday morning.

Of course there's no mention that any of these White House dogs, past and present, share one of Digory's least appealing traits. Let's just say it's a variation on eating garbage, and leave it at that!

Enjoy! Or perhaps I should say, Wag more, bark less. You could even try rolling over and getting your belly scratched.

Images: two more drawings of Digory poses from August, 2007.

Top: what we call "half-Corgi position" (kind of like a "half-lotus" in yoga). Full Corgi position is more squarely on his belly with both back feet showing.

In case you're wondering what the script says, it's this: "He heard Dave from the study and lifted his head but luckily for me did not shift his hind end."

Bottom: Digory's best belly up pose, suggesting complete and blissful relaxation.

Text: "wish granted," which in this case was actually my wish, not his. On the page before, I had started to draw him when he moved. And I wrote: "How I wish he'd roll back again."

Piles of Money: part two

A few weeks ago I began making piles of money. This may come as a surprise to the people who know me best, since they also know that I do not exactly have a lucrative paying job or a rollicking career in full swing at the moment. After the finding of the wad of money described in "Piles of Money: part one" and after drawing the drawing posted there, I got very fond of that little drawing. One day I decided to see what would happen if I made multiple copies of it in different sizes and even colored them in a little bit. (American money is such an odd hue of green, I had to use three different colored pencils to get close!). And I rather got a kick out of the process and even more of a kick from the fact that I could actually say to myself (and to the air around me), "I'm making piles of money!" and be telling a kind of truth. I made one for myself and one for a friend, so that I was truly making more than one pile.

Now I know that this hand-made money will not buy groceries or pay the mortgage. And yet I have to say that on certain days making another pile of money, or even just looking at the ones I've made, lightens my heart about money, which is quite an accomplishment given the economic news these days. I only make more money (sometimes just a little at a time) when I am reasonably confident that I will enjoy it, rather than feel stupid about it or let it cause me more worry. I even colored in and cut out some new bills the other day when I knew I would be on hold waiting to speak with the financial aid office of my daughter's college. It was a great antidote!

If you'd like your very own pile of money for cultivating financial light-heartedness (or whatever other positive attitude you might choose), let me know. I'm sure we can work something out. I could provide a ready-made pile of money--either in the "traditional" pile form, as pictured, or in the newer "cascading" form of bills strung together with thread to hang where they will move in the air, as if falling from above. I could even set you up with a "make your own piles of money kit" complete with some blank drawings and a few colored pencils. That way you too can say in all honesty, no matter what your financial circumstances, "I'm making piles of money!"

And if all this sounds just too wacky for you, and you can't imagine how a born-and-raised- Yankee-WASP-former Episcopal priest got to this point and you'd like to know, ask! And I'll try to remember.