My five-year-old daughter, Anna, and her toddler friend, Olivia, recently had the opportunity to be flower girls in a wedding. However, when it came down to the tender task of actually spreading flower petals down the aisle, the toddler trailed a few rows behind my busy daughter and said, "Anna, you dropped something."
Ink marker on 8.5" x 11 paper by Joe Chiappetta 2011
"Take a picture of me too in my wedding dress!" said my five-year-old daughter at the marriage reception.
While she was a flower girl at our friend's wedding, I didn't have the heart to explain to my daughter that she wasn't wearing an actual wedding dress.
Indeed, I didn't think such a statement would come from my daughter for at least another few decades.
Webcomic is a digital drawing by Joe Chiappetta on iPAQ Pocket PC, edited in Adobe Illustrator, 2011.
While a husband was on a Chicago rooftop doing some sort of activity with his arms stretched out, his wife asked him, "Is the wide span of your arms a way of showing me how much you love me?"
The husband replied, "Uh, yes but just now I was actually practicing my hip-hop dance moves."
While this event never actually happend, and I really don't understand the first thing about hip-hop, nevertheless, I do feel that way about my wife.
Comic drawn in ink pens on 11" x 8.5" paper by Joe Chiappetta 2011.
I often bounce story ideas off my wife, Denise. In addition to being a talented writer, she also has a sharp, analytical mind that has been a great advisor to me in my creative endeavors over the years.
With that in mind, and in complete seriousness, I told my wife, "My next book will be a true story about how I got cured of chronic back pain. I might title it 'Captain Disability and His Super Impaired Friends.'"
Making the most distorted face she could manage, my wife cried, "Oh, that's terrible! It's stupid and offensive."
Without missing a beat, I replied, "How about 'Captain Disability and His Lovely Wife?'"
Sighing to withdraw from the conversation, Denise replied, "Just stop it, please."
Later, we came to an agreement on a more appropriate title for this book. It is called, "The Back Pain Avenger," and it is now available as an eBook. I've been working on this non-fiction book off and on for just under a year. It's an amazing, funny, and even helpful true story.
Ink pens and markers on 4 pieces of 4.5" x 3.5" paper by Joe Chiappetta 2011, drawn at a Civil War Reenactment
Once upon a time, in a world gone mad, there was a secret war. Only a few people fought in this conflict. The rest stayed home, got into terrible debt and watched a lot of TV.
After many battles had ebbed and flowed, the fighters on the good side of the war were finally transferred to a wonderful kingdom beyond description. And those few merry soldiers lived happily ever after.
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This simplistic parable is only designed to alert you to the secret war. To actually understand it and choose the winning side, you must study the scriptures and live out Jesus' teachings. To read more on this topic, see my book Debt-Busters.
