End of an Era (Part Two)

One of my longtime illustrator friends was somewhat taken aback upon receiving one of my End of an Era-themed dragon cards. Seems I’d forgotten to mention that the end of one era could herald the start of a new one … sort of like that overused metaphor about a half empty/half full glass of liquid.

            I’m not really depressed about my book design career crash diving into oblivion … if anything I’m more relieved that I no longer have to feel like I’m wasting away on behalf of the thoughtless, giddy creatures who seem to have hijacked the publishing industry with little concept at how to operate such an animal. Better to just let them stew in their own juices as e-books sound their own death knells.

            Now I have more time to devote to things that really matter. Things like what three generations of us did on Christmas Eve when we attended the annual “live nativity” at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church on St. Clair Avenue West. The shepherds arrived with live sheep. There was a live goat in the stable that Mary and Joseph arrived at with a real donkey. But the piece de résistance were two cameo appearances by a full grown camel. Plus there must have been around 100 humans (including a live Christ child!). There was an amazing phalanx of angels (one of the angels in the foreground was haranguing her neighbouring seraphim about the states of their halos, wings or other angelic gear … fortunately the microphones did not pick up this chatter. King Herod put in a stellar turn with an amped up acoustic guitar and a talking blues about the threat to his monarchy of the baby Jesus. The culmination (after a quintet of angels sang from a cloud high up above the marvelling congregation) were three fellows (with silent assistants) creditably sang Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. Then we all sang Joy to the World and were dismissed but we weren’t fast enough to catch the grazing camel like we did last year. Guess we stayed too long with the goat and sheep.

            This is likely to become an annual tradition now that we no longer inevitably spend Christmas in Montreal.

            My friend seemed most disturbed by my NOW WHAT? gauntlet which was more me thinking out loud about what tack to take when I’ve finally exhausted the dragon theme. Still working on that.