Be Grateful

“How did you fare (with the hurricane)?”

I get that question at least once day for the last week or so. The thing is, while no one wants you to respond with bad news, they kind of expect it.

I’ve been disappointing quite a lot of people.

I’ve had it pretty good for the last couple of weeks. While other people were struggling with the stress of evacuation or riding out the hurricane, I was in Kentucky doing cool shoots with models and learning from the great Jason Lanier. When it was clear that I couldn’t go home, I rented a car and went to my best friends’ house. We hung out. I spent a ton of time with my niece and nephew.

(This is my niece on the right, btw.)

Our power came back on at our house after a week. And when I got home, the internet was running.

It really wasn’t that bad.

Look, I’m not saying things are perfect. Our house had some damage. I’m out a fair bit of money and I wasn’t able to work for about 7 days, deepening the hole.

I could complain, sure.

But why? Everyone I care about is alive. We’re relatively okay and relatively blessed with how things turned out. Hurricane Katrina was a far bleaker time.

So I’m grateful.

That is something that is insanely absent from our society. Yes, there are problems. But we live in the most privileged, affluent society in human history, often to our own detriment. Unfortunately we live in such an insular society that we are unable to recognize that others have it so much worse.

I’m not happy that a hurricane hit my house and forced my family to scatter. But I have gratitude for the fortune we had during these trying times.

…

So, off topic… I asked artist Travis Hymel to design an avatar that I would use here and on my instagram. After a couple of tries, he came up with a winning image. I wanted to share the thumbnail here. I’m very excited.

Travis has been working in the comics industry for several years now and he’s amazing. His most recent work was on the Trailer Park Boys comic book from Devil’s Due Publishing. Check out his work.

Anyway, without further ado…

Not the final image.