The Write Stuff
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic, and this is my weekly blog post. The large Sunday Bizarro comic above is mine, as are the comments below. The past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics that follow were written and drawn by my partner Wayno. For more fun, check out Wayno’s weekly blog post.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to my Sunday comic’s Secret Symbols.
Welcome, Jazz Pickles.
First: People are hungry, and Trump is withholding their food. Please consider donating to a food bank. Here’s a project I’m giving money to, but there are many.
Olive Oyl and I are visiting family this weekend, so I’ll need to keep today’s thoughts brief.
My Sunday cartoon above made me wonder what the thought process of dogs and cats must be like. For humans, thoughts are so thoroughly infused with language that it’s hard to think without attaching a silent, verbal narrative.
“Well, I guess I should get up. It’s getting late.”
“It’s supposed to be nice tomorrow. Maybe I’ll do some yard work.
“I’d better wipe my fingerprints off of everything and get out of here, the cops will be here soon.”
But dogs and other animals don’t have that. They may have semblances of language in their own tongue—certain birdsong likely means something to other members of their species, and certain types of barking from neighbor dogs alert ours to a pedestrian on the street—but they aren’t thinking in language the way we do.
A dog or cat lying on the floor doesn’t subvocalize, “After they go out to dinner tonight, I’m going to shred that sofa pillow.”
Buddhists talk about the concept of “no mind,” which I’m not qualified to explain, but I suspect it means to be fully in the present, and to perceive what is happening to you or around you simply, honestly, and without internal comment, the way humans likely did before we developed language. That’s hard to do.
A similar goal is sought during meditation, where you attempt to get in touch with that silent witness at your deepest levels that just “is” without being wrapped up in what’s going on around us—past, present, or future—and whether it’s good or bad.
I’ve meditated enough to know how difficult it is to shut off the mental radio for even a few seconds and just “be.” If you’ve tried meditation only a few times and have decided it’s not for you, you should be aware that it takes time and practice to shut off that running internal narrative. But it is possible to improve that skill, and there are definite long-term physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits to doing so. Science repeatedly verifies that, as meditators have reported anecdotally for centuries.
Okay, I’ve got to go now. If I’m going to spend the day with family, I need to get a little meditation in first.
With the holidays just ahead, it’s good to revisit the words of Ram Dass, “If you think you’re enlightened, go and spend a week with your family.”
This trip has taken me only three days to confirm how not enlightened I am.
Let’s see if any enlightening moments can be found in Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons for the week…
I got to visit The Who in the green room of a concert venue in Oklahoma City when I was a teenager in the early ‘70s. It was the greatest moment of my life, until my daughter was born a few years later, and society forced me to reconsider the top spot.
It’s only a matter of time before AI creates holograms like this that we can’t shut off.
After seeing that famous photo from the 1960s of Salvador Dalí and his pet giant anteater when I was a kid, I wanted one of those guys someday. Someday is here, and I’m just barely enlightened enough to no longer want to subject myself on one.
Calm down. It just says, “hot,” not “stinky.”
All cartoonists have heard these.
When Wayno has gone a full month without creating a clown gag, you’ll know he’s been replaced by an alien.
That concludes this week’s weirdness wonderland. If you’re enjoying that we offer this content for free, please consider helping us keep it that way via the links below. Neither of us is independently wealthy, and it gets harder every month to make a living as a cartoonist. Thanks, Jazz Pickles.
The Naked Cartoonist…My every-other-week subscription creative writing and comics service.
Bizarro TIP JAR …One-time or repeating. Your choice!
WAYNO’S TIP JAR …One-time or repeating. Your choice!
My (free) graphic novel in progress, PEYOTE COWBOY
Watch my pitch video and become a supporter of Peyote Cowboy here.
A bunch of fun Bizarro swag from ComicsKingdom. (If you’re outside the US, don’t even bother browsing. Because greedy capitalist assholes have taken over the world, international shipping costs are absurd.)
