I have such a good time on facebook. I chat about music, humor, cartoons, animals, current events, The Constitution, my lovely wife @LeeHillerLondon and a variety of other topics. I also have a great time re-sharing Lee’s amazing photography and design work.
I love chatting with my old friends; many of them are back home in Hattiesburg, or are from Hattiesburg, grew up with me, and live in other parts of the country (or world). facebook is like a barometer. It tells me where I was three to five decades ago, and real life and even Twitter tells me to a certain degree “where I am now”.
By Londons Times Cartoons (Click To Enlarge)
I love hearing of my friends both old and new successes, overcoming obstacles and illnesses, falling in love, and sometimes even out of love because they may have found themselves with the wrong mate. It happens, and it is not a failure (to break up or divorce); in fact I imagine it is a failure not to, if one is in the wrong relationship and makes it the status quo and surrenders to unhappiness. That saddens me.
Divorce by Londons Times c2011 (Click To Enlarge)
But nothing saddens me more than running into old friends who I know to be very bright who have gotten stuck in some political dogma and it is basically all they can discuss. I know they don’t mean it. I know they do not even know they are more or less in a cult. It can be “on the far left” or “far right”. They are so predictable. It is like being in a physics 101 class. You can say one thing and they say the opposite. You can agree with them, and they’ll find a way to disagree and find a monster under the bed and describe it in rapid detail because it is only seconds away from taking over America. Usually it is somehow connected to The President, some senator or congressman, a tv network, or you name it. The conspiracy is as real to them as the glass of bourbon they have just downed to fuel it and keep it alive.
Osama Bin Banana In His Birthplace Of Lemon
I make light of it, but it is not funny at all. I have lived and worked all over this great country and I know the ending of people who are like old 45 records that get stuck because of a big scratch. They talk about it and as the years go by the conspiracies get more real (they find real researched blogs and books to back it up) and they describe it louder and louder. In Los Angeles, I was at the death bed of a man who I admired but he was like that. He told me at the end he knew he was wrong but it was “like a gang”. There was no way out. He would have become persona non gratis in his small town. He commuted to L.A. I told him he had enough open-minded friends in L.A. who didn’t care what he believed and he could be who he wanted. It was too late. He died while I was there.
by Londons Times Cartoons
It was a lesson for me; one of the most valuable lessons I would ever learn. Though I was then in my 30′s, it was time for me to get educated. I mean really educated. That meant re-evaluating everything I learned from my teachers, my parents, my Sunday school, my college, and my experiences. It did not mean they were all wrong. It meant it was important for me to write them down and study them closely. Many of the ideas of which I hung onto are ideas I formulated decades before. Did they still serve me? Some did but most didn’t. But that left “the great unknown”. If I let go of a lot of this political, religious and educational dogma that was no longer valid, but of which I identified myself and bonded me to my friends, and dropped it, what then.
I wasn’t getting any younger nor any happier. Nor were my friends. It was mandatory that I be honest with them. I was changing. They may or may not like the changes but that was their issue, not mine. It took some bravery on my part, bravery I didn’t think I had. But I had it, which led me to believe that most if not everyone has it if need be.
Nobody needs to die in their own toxic dogma. They can change midlife. The average college student is now in his/her 40′s and when I went back to college at 51, many of my colleagues were in their 60s-80s. As I got to know them, and my professors, I discovered they were going through healthy mid-life changes, as opposed to mid-life crises.
By Londons Times Cartoons
We never quit learning. If all we are doing is teaching, we might as well be dead. Socrates and Aristotle even knew that. Perhaps rethink your ideas. Many of them may work for you, but many may no longer serve you well. You can learn new things. My wife and I do almost every day.
God gave us this beautiful planet to enjoy. Yes, life can be a struggle but if all your doing is struggling, fighting, arguing, fighting, etc., I can almost guarantee you, its time to rethink your life.
Dance a bit, sing a song even if you’re alone. Do something nice for yourself and/or someone else. Smile. Be yourself. Experiment being your new self. That does not mean letting go of your moral or ethical principals. It is understanding and celebrating others opinions that might be different. It is re-learning tolerance. It is re-learning understanding. It is celebrating life. And do it often, even, no especially when you get the urge to flex your political muscles and “show them the light”. We’ll never get perfect at it. But we will make progress; and with that progress, love ourselves and others a lot more for it. It’s scary at first..no absolutely frightening….then so sacred and positive, there’s really no going back.
Shirley Temple Of Doom by Londons Times Cartoons c2011 www.LondonsTimes.us
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I am a mountain man from rural Arkansas. I founded Londons Times Cartoons in 1997 and it has been Google and MSN’s #1 Offbeat Cartoon since 2005. I founded numerous stores that sell over 1/4 million funny greeting cards, tees, mugs etc. I design unique shoes and clothes at shops like Shoes That Amuse that sell the world’s only famous love quotes shoes & Shoeshies.com which sell Sushi Shoes, Clothes & gifts.
Which brings me to Rick London Wisdom Shop. It does not take quotes and reword them. I do not make products from my own quotes though I’ve written several hundred. I create gifts, tees, mugs etc with graphics of the real masters with their real quotes and there are few items in the shop over $20 and many much less. Now there’s a way to remind oneself of wisdom without having to mortgage the house.
While that was occurring the 12-step programs decided on a new self-help group based on the victimization of having grown up in an alcoholic home called ACOA or Adult Children Of Alcoholics. It taught us the fine art of whining about our tragic lives due to the effects of one or more parent that drank alcohol and found it more appealing than they found us. Don’t get me wrong. There were some terrible dysfunctions that, if not for interventions, could have turned into even more tragedy. But this group never seemed to want to get to the core issue so it became a whining contest and a “My Mommy Or Daddy Was a Worse Alcoholic Than Your Mommy Or Daddy”. I lasted there about 3 months. I can’t say that I didn’t learn the fine art of whine. I learned blame. I learned guilt. I learned all the emotions I had stifled for many years. But I was not seeking these skills. I was seeking ways to bring serenity and a bit of happiness into my life. This group was definitely not the answer. I left the group and that was a positive thing to do. That was 17 years ago and I bet the same players are whining the same whines about their parents in the same chairs in the same rooms. It was cathartic a few times, then rather silly, mainly because it was clear that it not only wasn’t effective, it was counter-productive; substituting whining for action to change one’s life. I decided changing mine was a better idea than chronic lifetime whining. 
Fast-forward about a decade sitting in a coffee shop in Lumberton, Ms on Main Ave. I was sitting with my best friend an Episcopal Priest (Ed) discussing life; as we did about three to four times a week. We could talk for hours about politics, religion, war, peace, movies, books, and (you name the topic). He was an intellectual giant so I felt humbled that he would choose to spend that much time with me and apparently enjoyed our conversations. We both had come from childhoods that were far from exemplary. But we both still had our senses of humor intact, and neither of us were chronic complainers or whiners. Yes, like any human we had our bouts, but it was not traits by which people identified us. We were more known as creative productive thinking people. Not necessarily great, in fact probably not. But good guys. In other words we’d moved past our childhood. Faith and humor were two important factors for both of us in that “moving on” process. 
I became a writer, cartoonist designer and musician. Ed earned two PhD’s and became (in addition to a priest in a wonderful church) and was also a professor at the local university. He also often went on road trips on his “Harley-looking” BMW vintage motorcycle in mint condition. He had two beautiful children in college.
He added, “It was probably a combination of things Rick. Your parents were in a war zone. They had issues between them that were not working out. Couplease counseling was not really an option in their generation. They were most likely very good people and cared about you the best they could with the tools they had, but when a couple is married and at war full time, their tools are not very functional. Plus, if your Dad was drining 2-3 large martinis a night (and he was) alcohol played a major part in your Dad’s life. You rebelled, as any bright child would, and consequently acted out (the only way a child or teen really knows how to make changes). The changes didn’t work, but you did try. You had to be sacrificed and/or scapegoated. It is sadly psychology 101. It happens more often than you’d wish to know. You were more or less “orphaned” emotionally by the time you’d reached about 18. How did he know? I never told him I worked for my dad’s real estate firm for nearly 4 years and was only paid sales commission on real estate sales in a department he was about to close. He paid not a penny beyond earned sales which, during the Jimmy Carter years with interest rates at their highest, was slave wages.
Now I also design shoes, clothes and gifts. My shoes have been featured positively in USA Today. Last month I opened ShoeShies (Sushi Shoes & Gifts). Yes, I am grateful and full of good cheer for the negative way I was treated. I am lucky to have been demonized. I don’t whine. I wouldn’t have it any other way. To live the life of one’s dreams does not often come easy. It didn’t for me. And I finally know the meaning of happiness. It’s an inside job…and outside…in nature . Ironically, sometimes others hate, fear or mistrust of you, is your ticket to paradise. And by the way, that kind of “treatment” does not happen in our little village. Everyone knows everyone. We know each other’s neighbor’s character as well. Am sure there are the gossips and troublemakers but that kind of behavior does not stand, not for long, in a town like this, that believes in equality, liberty and justice for all.
