In my apparent quest to remain a starving artist, I offered to paint a therapeutic helmet for a four month-old for free. The little guy has to wear a helmet for years, and what-I’m going to charge them to make it look cool? No way! It’s a privilege.
Mom wanted to do something in return, and I understand that; she also wanted to do something nice for someone. So I sent her a couple of my children’s books as pdfs and asked her to do a review of them.
Today she stopped by with sample pictures for the helmet and as I often do, I ended up in an intense, funny conversation with her four year-old daughter, Josie. While scrolling through pictures on my computer, Josie suddenly said, “STOP! Go back.” She pointed at an illustration from Softy and the Tiny Princesses. “I know that book! That’s a good book,” she said. Then she proceeded to tell me about the story.
“Bingo,” I thought. “That’s why I spend 300 hours making one little story.” Just think, this little girl I did not know before today was carrying around the images and the story of Softy and the Tiny Princesses in her tender, agile mind.
It’s a story about the loss of loved one, something that even little kids sometimes go through. It amazes me that though little kids get that, they also get the hope contained in the story. All of that they get after just a few years on this planet.
Oh, we human beings are amazing.
I suppose it would be nice if I sold a lot of books. I understand that one can make money this way and there’s nothing wrong with making money. But there’s something really magical about sending ideas and images to another human being and their getting it, don’t you think?
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