Thursday, April 25, 2013

My Aunt's an Old Lady


   My Auntie Doreen turned 50 today. that means she's very old now. so old infact that I feel it necessary to point it out publicly in a blogg post equivalent to a restaurant style birthday song. This is mostly cause I love her, but partly cause I'm just a dick nephew.

now watch as I go off on a seemingly incoherent tangent, only to show up (in a round about way) at the point!




 I don't like the word talent, or talented, or even the verb talent as in "Jane you've got a project coming up tomorrow, are you gonna talent the shit out of that?". I don't like the word cause I feel it doesn't give credit where credit is due. its the modern day equivalent to the ancient rome usage of the word genius:



  By its definition it ignores the hard work and hours of practice that go into reaching that certain level of quality. More importantly however I feel it completely takes the credit away from those truly responsible for your "natural ability": the ones that raised you. Nobody can practice something day in and day out with out having passion for it, and that passion comes from those that nurture it within you. These people are the gardeners of "talent". They tend to the flowers in their backyard, and help them grow. 

  My Aunt was one of my first gardeners, She was 22 when i was born, and unburdened by the cynicism old age tends to bring with it. she taught me allot by just being herself;  prank phone calls to china, making rubber eggs to throw on the kitchen floor, singing and dancing for me when ever I wanted, and laughing at all my jokes no matter how bad they were. She even let me call her "Woo Woo" in public for a large portion of my life based off a song she used to sing to me when I was a baby. I was too young to remember the name of the song but I'm pretty sure it was the woo woo song by Jeffery Osbourne:

  She built up my confidence, made boring things fun, taught me not to take things too seriously, and to not be afraid to act like an ass if it can bring a smile to someones face. I also learned to draw from her. She's an artist and mostly does interior design now, but back when I was a kid she'd help me draw my favorite characters with colored pencils and watercolors for hours and hours while we ate donuts and watched Garfield and Friends. These little things may seem like nothing to the gardener, but they mean the world to the flower. because without them they could never thrive in the garden.

  So I thought I'd repay her as best as I could, by showing her how thankful that little flower is for the constant watch the gardener had over him. for all the weed pulling and watering, and all the garfield stickers on all the garfield cards, that contributed to the animator I am today. Thank you auntie, I hope you look back on those fifty years today as being well spent, or at least the last twenty eight of them.