Auchtoon!

Best wishes to you, dear reader, in this holiday season. May you enjoy the gifts you give and the gifts you receive today and throughout the new year (even the socks & underwear). Have a Merry Christmas!

You know what I was talking about, right? Don’t make me say it. Please. I don’t want to have to say it!

Okay, fine. The Electoral College results are in. The presidential election is over. It’s final. It’s final, final.

Okay, fine. It’s not final, final, final. There could be a coup. There could be an alien invasion. There could be a majority of lawmakers breaking all norms and sworn promises to uphold the Constitution and hijacking the process before Biden and Harris are sworn in.

There. I acknowledged the rationally impossible. Happy? Can we please stop doing this now? Also, can we please stop paying attention to the deluded sycophants who insist on continuing to play this game? I mean, law enforcement should definitely keep their eyes on the ones threatening violence and insurrection. But everybody else? No more attention oxygen for you. Let’s move on.

Hey, how about them Lions, huh? Making another go at getting better! Rebuilding, as it were. This time by hiring some former players (Chris Spielman, Barry Sanders) from back when they were kinda good. Might work, who knows? If you’re hellbent on wishing for the highly improbable, consider giving this a try.

This week’s cartoon presented a bit of a challenge. I intended to present two people having a conversation, but I wanted to model good behavior. The conversation itself suggests that the two people haven’t seen each other for a while, which implies they aren’t “bubbled.”

But I couldn’t put them indoors and mask them because I wanted to show their smiles fading with each panel. So I put them outside and at a reasonable distance, but still probably too close because I didn’t want to draw them any smaller and lose their expressions. 

I do not claim any of that to be a hardship, especially compared to the real hardships brought on by this raging pandemic. But I think it speaks to just how worn down we all are by the grind — the extra weight that has been added to everything we do and think this godforsaken year.

And as a result, ridiculously idiotic diversions like the Giuliani show — normally something best processed with mockery — is hardly worth acknowledging. At best, it’s a waste of time. At worst, it’s a catalyst for even more stupidity. And it just isn’t funny anymore.

I drew a variation of this cartoon four years ago. The first panel acknowledged why Christians celebrate Christmas — the birth of Jesus Christ. The second panel reminded readers that the birth was, of course, just the beginning — he eventually grew up and had a few things to say how to treat the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, and so on. So being Christian is much more than just saying “Merry Christmas.” (I know, not much of punchline.)

This cartoon is much more to the point. With so many examples lately of the disconnect between identifying as a Christian and actually being a disciple of Christ, I figured I could do it much simpler with no need for dialogue, labels, or multiple panels. 

Case in point: The story of a Christian school in West Michigan and their refusal to comply with mask mandates to slow the spread of COVID-19. Yes, they may not like the feeling of being told what to do. And they might not believe that masks help them. But still, making a small sacrifice for the welfare of others would seem to be the Christ-like thing to do, right?