I always feel sad right before Father’s Day approaches, because I think about how much I miss watching my dad open up his box of specialty cigars. I’d buy him a box every year, because he was the very best dad a kid could ask for, and I am extremely lucky to be his daughter.
He’d get an ear-to-ear grin on his face and rip the paper off of the shiny gold box, as if he were a little kid on Christmas Day. Then he would take his prize and run down to the basement (his favorite room in the house) and pour a glass of Jagermeister, light up a cigar, pull out the “funny pages” in the local newspaper, and BOOM, he’d be in his glory.
Right before midnight, on October 15, 2000, my father was crossing a street in Chicago, during his final business trip before retiring, and he was fatally hit by a car. This is why I feel sad right around Father’s Day. I miss seeing that ear-to-ear grin.
Today something gave me a happy reminder of my dad. I read an article, by James Warren, columnist for the Chicago News Cooperative, about how physicians are finding comics to be great tools for patients.
As a matter of fact, “Comics & Medicine: The Sequential Art of Illness,” was hosted last weekend, at Chicago’s Northwestern University. Humanities scholars, physician services providers, and artists, who attended the workshop, discussed how comics could be used in scholarship, medical education, and patient care.
Around 90 people attended the three-day event, which was sponsored by branches of Northwestern University and Penn State University. Charles M. Schulz’s widow, Jean Schulz, also attended to honor her husband, who was the creator of “Peanuts.”
“Fun and content need never apologize to each another,” comic artist Scott McCloud told the audience, sitting just a block from a major hospital. “Humor often comes from a place of pain and, as such, is a potent reminder of our humanity.”
After I got finished with the story, a thought came to me: when I am feeling sad, whether I’m thinking about and missing my dad, or just having a rotten day, maybe a good comic is just the thing to turn my mood and my thoughts around.