Review: ZEN PENCILS: VOLUME TWO: DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

The second collection of “Zen Pencils” comics, ZEN PENCILS, VOLUME 2:  DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM continues the same format as the first volume. Cartoonist Gavin Aung Than takes quotes from all kinds of famous people and then uses those quotes as written word for a series of different inspiring comics.  Some of the people quoted in this volume include Isaac Asimov, Maya Angelou, Robert Kennedy, William Shakespeare, Amy Poehler, Jim Henson, and Kevin Smith. Some of the comics continue adventures and stories from the first volume: the young boy who instead of playing sports wants to be a great dancer, the young woman who wants to be a wrestler, the boy who becomes a courageous knight, and the ancient philosopher.  Some of the comics fit quite well with the quotes that inspired the illustrations and story. Meanwhile, others just don’t seem like a very good match. Overall, I enjoyed DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM. I look forward to other books of “Zen Pencils” in the future.

Short Review of ZEN PENCILS: INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FOR KIDS

Before reading ZEN PENCILS: INSPIRATION QUOTES FOR KIDS, I had never heard of "Zen Pencils" before. Apparently, it's an online comic of some form.  The book takes quotes (some long, some short) from a variety of different people and then illustrates a sequence of action to go along with the quote. The author uses a variety of different forms of illustrations in the book. Personally, I enjoyed some of the ongoing storylines that the author imagines; there are certain characters that reappear throughout the book, but in different adventures and different contexts. ZEN PENCILS: INSPIRATION QUOTES FOR KIDS isn't a typical graphic novel, but because of that it will appeal to an audience that probably doesn't read graphic novels very often.

The Audition

1. Life is unfair.

2. Theatre is less fair than life.

3. Acting is the least fair part of theatre.

4.  Humans submit themselves to nothing less fair than the audition.

A Quote About Christianity

"Christianity is a faith for all people, but it is not a faith for all notions and ideas." - @MattWalshBlog

The Trouble with Human Steel

The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life itself comes from. You can survive on your own. You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own. But you cannot become human on your own.

--Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey

 

"SMS (Shine)" - by David Crowder

Send me a sign
A hint, a whisper
Throw me a line
'Cause I am listening
Come break the quiet
Breathe your awakening
Bring me to life
'Cause I am fading

(surround me)
The rush of angels' wings

Shine your light so I can see you
Pull me up I need to be near you
Hold me I need to feel love
Can you overcome this heart that's overcome

You sent a sign
A hint, a whisper
Human divine
Heaven is listening
Death laid love quiet
Yet in the night a stirring

(all around )
The rush of angels

Shine your light so I can see you
Pull me up I need to be near you
Hold me I need to feel love
Can you overcome this heart that's overcome

Oh the wonder of
The greatest love
Come for us
Oh the wonder of
The greatest love
Has come

Shine your light so all can see it
Lift it up cause the whole world needs it
Love's come down what joy to hear it
He has overcome
He has overcome

Justin Timberlake

I'm not a fan of Justin Timberlake. He has a smidgen of talent and is completely overrated. However, I always assumed he was intelligent. That was until I read an interview with him in the Oct. 8, 2010 edition of Entertainment Weekly. His quotes say it all.

On whether or not he will be making another album: "All I'm saying is, in very simple terms, I'll know when I know. And until I know, I don't know."

On if there is anything he would like to do in movies that he hasn't: "You talk about film with me, I'm like an open flesh wound. But in good ways, too. Sensitive to everything, sensitive to what could be great, afraid of success and afraid of failure."

Books and Reading

"Every act of reading is resistance."--Daniel Pennac, p. 95, Better Than Life

"As a product of our hyperactive consumer society, books are treated about as well as a hormone-injected chicken, and are certainly respected less than a nuclear missile."
--Daniel Pennac, p. 168, Better Than Life

For No Reason At All

Sarah: I need you, Hoggle.
Hoggle: You do?
Sarah: [nods] I don't know why, but every now and again in my life - for no reason at all - I need you. All of you.
Hoggle: You do? Well... WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO?

--from the movie LABYRINTH

Friendship Quote

"No one can see the seeds of friendship but they grow into something beautiful."
--Winnie the Pooh

Eustace Clarence Scrubb

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it....Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card. He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools."
--C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Faith

"Faith is embracing the uncertainties of life."
--pp. 89, In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day, Mark Batterson

On the Unknown

"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." --Oswald Chambers

From Ray Bradbury

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
--Ray Bradbury

Spirituality

There is no such thing as "spirituality." Doesn’t exist, has no meaning. It’s just a name for “doing what I want to do and feeling that the universe somehow smiles on me for doing it.”
--Alan Jacobs

Thanks to Justin Taylor for providing this link.

A Scene from THE GREEN MILE

Paul Edgecomb: On the day of my judgment, when I stand before God, and He asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles, what am I gonna say? That is was my job? My job?
John Coffey: You tell God the Father it was a kindness you done. I know you hurtin' and worryin', I can feel it on you, but you oughta quit on it now. Because I want it over and done. I do. I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time. Can you understand?
Paul Edgecomb: Yes, John. I think I can.

I've never killed anyone, but I can relate to both John Coffey and Paul Edgecomb.